Leider.....

>>>
Jazz Drummer Elvin Ray Jones Dies at 76

May 19, 12:07 AM (ET)

NEW YORK (AP) - Elvin Ray Jones, a renowned jazz drummer and member of
John Coltrane's quartet who also played alongside Duke Ellington,
Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, died Tuesday. He was 76. Jones died of
heart failure in an Englewood, N.J., hospital, said his wife of 38
years, Keiko Jones.

"He's happy. No more suffering," said Keiko Jones. "He's been fighting
for so long."

Jones, called by Life magazine "the world's greatest rhythmic drummer,"
was born in Pontiac, Mich., one of ten children. He had two musician
brothers: Hank, a jazz pianist, and Thad, 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 came to New York in 1955 for an unsuccessful audition for the
Benny Goodman band but stayed in the city, joining Charlie Mingus' band
and making a record called "J is Jazz." In 1960, he became a member of
John Coltrane's quartet.

Jones, with his rhythmic, innovative style, became one of jazz's most
famous drummers under Coltrane. He can be heard on Coltrane's "A love
Supreme" and "Coltrane Live at the Village Vanguard."

After leaving the Coltrane quartet, Jones briefly played with Duke
Ellington and formed the Elvin Jones' Jazz Machine. He put out several
solo albums and continued to tour, including last month in Oakland,
Calif., Keiko Jones said.

Besides his wife, Jones is survived by a son and a daughter.
<<<