Remembrance

Born in Pontiac, Michigan in 1927, Elvin Jones playing lifted the drum set out of the rhythm section and into the frontline. He could control the pulse of a band while at the same time pepper the music with melodic accents, creating solos that were both strong and sensitive. For his February, 1978 MPS recording Remembrance, he brought along his Elvin Jones Jazz Machine a quintet with the somewhat unusual lineup of two saxophones, guitar, bass, and drums. The band continued to be one of the most popular in jazz into and through the 1990s. After Elvins five-year stint as drummer for the seminal John Coltrane Quartet, he worked with a number of jazz greats before forming his own Jazz Machine.