From the record East Broadway Run Down, by the late Sonny Rollins. The record is an old favorite of mine, but not one of his most famous. Recorded in 1966, the recorded quartet includes Elvin […]
Category: Elvin Jones
Who and why: the magnificent seven
New series, some thumbnail sketches of drummers who matter to me— to us, I’ll be that bold— and why. The title of this list is of Lenny White’s coinage, as far as I know— the […]
Down Beat Drum Talk 1964: the bass drum
Continuing the talk about the use of the bass drum in jazz, particularly with regard to keeping time, aka “feathering”, here is an extended exchange from Down Beat Magazine’s March 1964 issue, between Elvin Jones, […]
Daily best music in the world: Elvin recorded wrong
A little listening experiment. My brother played this record for me, I forget how he set it up— clearly there was something wrong with it, he wanted my reaction. I said, this is somebody I […]
One measure 5/4 triplet fills with Reed!
Another one of my hack and slash jobs. This is something I improvised in a lesson— a student is working on some of the Pages o’ Coordination in 5/4, based on an Elvin Jones groove, […]
Groove o’ the day: two by Elvin Jones
I have a couple of larger transcriptions going right now, from a couple of Elvin Jones live albums, but don’t have time to complete them, so here are the major grooves from them. The first […]
Elvinized Mozambique
An item I was working out with a student— making an Elvin Jones-like Latin groove/texture out of a Mozambique rhythm, for medium tempos, with swing 8th notes. It’s an entry, just the first, most obvious […]
Elvin isolated
Obviously I’m posting really lightly lately, getting ready to head to Germany next week, so: here are some recordings Elvin Jones plays on, with his drums isolated. Enjoy! Here’s Passion Dance, from McCoy Tyner’s album […]
Transcription: Elvin Jones – Foolin’ Myself – 04
UPDATE: Boy I suck. This is of course the third solo chorus, and the fourth total entry in this series. I’ll fix that… sometime. Continuing that Elvin Jones transcription from late last year— Elvin Jones playing […]
Transcription: Elvin Jones – Foolin’ Myself – 03
We’ll keep going with this. Part 3 of Elvin Jones playing on Foolin’ Myself, from Lee Konitz’s record Motion. This is the second chorus of Konitz’s solo, starting at 1:57 in the track. The previous […]
Elvin’s Biddy Oats
No, this is an ALL Elvin Jones site. I think we have to earn it if we’re going to talk about him, put in some work, have some humility, don’t be a leech. I imagine […]
Transcription: more medium tempo Elvin
Here’s some more of Elvin Jones playing that same tune from yesterday, Foolin’ Myself, from Lee Konitz’s record Motion. This is the first chorus of Konitz’s solo, starting at 0:58: It’s pretty straightforward if you […]