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In Reply to: Listening to him on Kenny Burrell's "On VIew at the 5 Spot" right now. posted by Allan Songer on November 14, 2002 at 14:34:04:
--Just went to see/hear Elvin Jones last Saturday night. He looked so damn frail--until he started swinging those sticks, that is.If you'd done as much dope as he has, you could open a pharmacy[in your own head].
Follow Ups:
Your comments are especially interesting in light of the article about him in the most recent issue of "JazzTimes", which, although it did not specificly address the subject of drugs, would at least seem to contradict your comment indirectly. In any event I've been following jazz pretty closely for the better part of the past 50 years and really don't recall seeing a whole lot about Jones and drugs, certainly not compared with the well publicized problems of tragic figures like Art Pepper and Chet Baker.I might suggest by the way that for a man of 75 to look frail is not all that surprising.
Thanks for the info. I must admit that there was a gap in my immersion in jazz for a while in the '60's (Had a wife then who hated it; she hasn't been around for quite a while!) and the various comments about Jones in that period are enlightening. It does appear that he has been clean for a while and that may explain why the article in "JazzTimes" didn't touch on it (although that mag does tend to gloss over such things at times). It's remarkable, I suppose, that he's as healthy as he apparently is and has, of course, outlived a tragically too large number of jazz musicians who never were able to tame the demons. On the other hand there are some who did and who lived long and prospered (at least in jazz terms), e.g., Jimmy Heath, Jackie McLean, Sonny Rollins, Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz.
....in a revisionist sort of way.
Elvin Jones was notoriously unreliable while in Coltrane's band and as a sideman with others, in large part or as a whole due to his drug habit. In fact he spent several months in the infamous Lexington prison in 1963 when he was busted with heroin, not for the first time. That gave opportunities for other drummers to play with Coltrane, and as Duane pointed out Roy Haynes was the number one replacement, but as you know there were others.That being said, Jones is one of my favorite drummers of all time, and perhaps the most distinguishable one.
Supposedly one of the reasons that Coltrane went with Rasheed Ali at the end was due to the unreliablily of Jones due to his tremendous herion habit in those years. I think he's been clean since the late 60's.
I believe this was also the reason for the occasional use of Roy Haynes during the "Jones years" by Coltrane. I'm not going to go down the dark road of drug stories in jazz to prove anything, but I would never dream of suggesting that Elvin has never been a heavy drug user. That goes for an awful lot of others too.
dh
And doing two sets a night and still giving EVERYTHING he has.
Drugs or no, that has to be quite an ordeal for someone his age . . .
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