Elvin Jones/Art Blakey

Drumsolo Jones Elvin/Art Blakey 1968 <br />Elvin Jones and Art Blakey, two of the most prominent drummers in the bebop idiom are doing a drum solo during a performance as part of the Newport Jazz Festival's touring group in Rotterdam in 1968 <br />Elvin Ray Jones (1927 -- 2004) was a jazz drummer. Two of Jones' brothers were also jazz musicians: Hank (piano), and Thad (trumpet/flugelhorn). <br />Elvin began playing professionally in the 1940s, and eventually he went on to play with artists such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Wardell Gray. In 1955 he found work in New York, joining Charles Mingus's band, <br />In 1960, he joined with the classic John Coltrane Quartet, which also included bassist Jimmy Garrison and pianist McCoy Tyner. <br />Jones and Coltrane often played extended duet passages, both giving and taking energy through their instruments. This band is widely considered to have redefined "swing" (the rhythmic feel of jazz) in much the same way that Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker et al did during earlier stages of jazz's development. <br />After leaving the Coltrane group in 1966, Jones played with Duke Ellington, and eventually formed his own touring group. Jazz Machine, normally a quintet, continued in the same musical direction. His sense of timing, polyrhythms, dynamics, timbre, and legato phrasing - as well as the sheer mass of sound he produced - brought the drumset to the fore. Jones was touted by Life Magazine as "the world's greatest rhythmic drummer", and his free-flowing style was a major influence on many leading rock drummers, including Mitch Mitchell (whom Jimi Hendrix called "my Elvin Jones") and Ginger Baker.