Elvin Jones
drums
Drummer from the Detroit area, the youngest of the Jones brothers with Hank and Thad; a friend and bandmate of Barry’s in Detroit, where they had a trio after Elvin’s Army service, and later the drummer on Barry’s trio record Preminado.
- mentions
- 9
- recordings
- 7
- Barry speaking
- 2
What Barry says
Asked which Detroit drummers played the best shuffle, Barry says Elvin could play a good one.
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle21:01
When Elvin came out of the Army, he and Barry had a trio together in Detroit. Asked who played bass, Barry could not be sure: not Ali Jackson, he decides, but perhaps one of the other Jacksons or Will Austin.
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle21:0121:34Victor L. Schermer (interviewer); Barry Harris, Barry Harris: Iconic Jazz Pianist and Keeper of the Flame ¶19
Asked whether he and Elvin played rhythm and blues, Barry says no: they had the jazz gigs, and he played rhythm and blues with other musicians because he had to make money. He adds that those players were good and had the shuffle down.
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle22:07
Trying to recall the rhythm section he had at the Bluebird, Barry thinks Elvin may have been the drummer some of the time, and remembers that he, Elvin and Yusef Lateef played there together.
After his Jazz Workshop trio record, Barry made a trio record with Joe Benjamin on bass and Elvin, which Ted Panken names as Preminado.
Barry calls Elvin special, but by 1999 it had been years since they played together. Once the Detroit musicians reached New York they ended up on different tracks, and he finds it strange how the closeness they had at home fell away.
In his own words
Elvin could play a good shuffle. When he got out of the army, we had a trio together first thing.
We had the jazz gigs. I played R&B with some other cats because you had to make some money.
Oh, he was special, too. It’s years since I played with Elvin. People come to New York and we’d end up on different tracks.
it might have been Elvin Jones. Well, Elvin Jones, Yusef and I, we played there, too.
Elvin and I had a trio together after he came out of the Army.
Every mention
9 moments in the recordings, 2 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle
- 21:01
Elvin could play a good shuffle; they had a trio together after Elvin left the Army.
- 22:07
Interviewer
Asks if he and Elvin played R&B; Barry says they had jazz gigs, R&B came with others.
- 7:25
Interviewer
Names Elvin among legendary drummers when asking whom Barry got to play with (the old automatic captions name Elvin; the newer transcript skips that phrase).
Interview: Detroit and after
- 1:45
Names the Jones brothers among the many Detroit musicians who all made it in New York.
The Spirit of Bebop
- 18:29
Someone else
A commentator lists the Jones brothers, Hank, Thad and Elvin, among Michigan players of Barry’s time.
Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Introduction by Gary Giddins
- 1:58
Someone else
Gary Giddins names the Jones brothers, Thad, Elvin and Hank, in Barry’s postwar Detroit generation.
JAZZ NOTES 026 | Jazz Biography | Jazz From Detroit Pt 2 | Jazz Radio
- 22:27
Someone else
A radio host calls Elvin Jones and Louis Hayes Detroit rhythm-section kings.
Detroit Jazz: Ancient to the Future
- 2:46
Someone else
The narrator of a 1981 Detroit TV special lists ‘our own Elvin Jones’ among great drummers.
In the interviews and notes
Panken counts a long stand with Yusef Lateef and Elvin Jones among the high points of Barry’s years as house pianist at the Bluebird.
The profile says that Charles McPherson, aged 14 and too young to go in, used to wait outside the Bluebird to hear Barry playing with Pepper Adams, Thad Jones, Elvin Jones and others.
unknown (JazzTimes; the byline is missing on the current site), Barry Harris: Teacher Man ¶8
Among Barry’s trio records is Preminado, made for Riverside in 1961 with Joe Benjamin and Elvin Jones.
unknown (JazzTimes; the byline is missing on the current site), Barry Harris: Teacher Man ¶4
Panken counts the drummers Elvin Jones and Frank Gant among Barry’s Detroit contemporaries, a circle that produced many of the leading improvisers of the 1950s and 1960s.
Detroit’s school system, which Barry credits with nurturing him, produced many of his lifelong friends, Hank, Thad and Elvin Jones among them.
Recordings that name them
Barry’s performances and records in the archive that credit or name them.
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.