Guest
SATURDAY 10 JULY 1999 • JAN STEEN ZAAL • Congress Centre, The Hague, The Netherlands Elvin Ray Jones (Pontiac (Michigan), September 9, 1927 – Englewood (New Jersey), May 18, 2004) was a jazz drummer. He was born as the youngest son in a family of ten. Two of his brothers also became jazz musicians: Hank played the piano and Thad the trumpet. His career began in the 1940s. He worked in the context of the military-initiated program Operation Happiness and worked briefly in Detroit. In 1955 he tried to join Benny Goodman’s ensemble, but an audition was unsuccessful. Jones left for New York and got a spot in Charles Mingus’ band. With Jones, this band released the album J is for Jazz. In 1960 Jones joined the legendary John Coltrane Quartet, which gave jazz a completely new impetus. They renewed jazz to the same extent as Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker had done. Nevertheless, they came to a break in 1966. Jones could no longer agree with the direction Coltrane wanted to go and he differed f
