Elvin Jones

Elvin Jones was born September 9, 1927 in Pontiac, Michigan, USA. Died on May 18, 2004, Englewood, New Jersey, USA, from heart failure. Called by Life magazine "the world's greatest rhythmic drummer". He had two musician brothers: Hank Jones, a jazz pianist, and Thad Jones, a trumpet and flugelhorn player. Jones entered the Detroit jazz scene in the late 1940s after touring as a stagehand with the Army Special Services show Operation Happiness. After a brief gig at the Detroit club Grand River Street, he went to work at another club, backing up such jazz greats as Parker, Davis and Wardell Grey. Jones, with his rhythmic, innovative style, became one of jazz's most famous drummers under Coltrane.