THE DRUMMER'S DRUMMER (SLIGHT RETURN)

That's my friend Paul in the photo above. When the photo was taken he had been surfing for over forty years and playing drums for close to fifty years. I've known him for at least thirty years and he's been like a big brother. At one time he was my brothers roommate and the only non-family member to have a key to my Mom's house. A real bro, and not in the casual frat boy use. A good man. He died this past Tuesday from brain cancer. He was in his late sixties. That photo above was  taken in the last year. Late sixties, with brain cancer, with only months to live and he had that casual "I know what I'm doing" longboard stance. That's old school style.

Paul was the one who turned me onto Elvin Jones.  I mentioned it in a post a few years back and because I've been listening to Jones for the past several days it seemed like a good thing to post. Here's the original post.:

A few years ago I ran into a friend of mind, a drummer who has played for, I don't know, something like four decades. I brought up Ginger Baker's latest LP (at the time), Why? (a phenomenal LP by the way). My friend started bringing up drummers that he really dug, among them Elvin Jones, who he went off about in particular. He told me how an early drum teacher he had told him to get Jones's LP The Ultimate Elvin Jones. At the time I knew the name, but had never really isolated his playing when I listened to records he was on. Once I did though, shit howdy, it was another name added to the list. Here's a couple that he plays on and the LP my friend recommended. Man, that one is a total gas.

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Listen:
John Coltrane - The Drum Thing mp3 at Drummer World Elvin Jones on drums
Joe Lovano and Dave Holland - Cymbalism mp3 at Drummer World Elvin Jones on drums
Elvin Jones - The Ultimate Elvin Jones (full LP, streaming) at YouTube