Artist: Elvin Jones

Elvin Jones was an American jazz drummer of the  post-bop era. Most famously a member of John Coltrane's quartet, with whom he recorded from late 1960 to late 1965, Jones appeared on such widely celebrated albums as My Favorite Things, A Love Supreme, Ascension and Live at Birdland.

After 1966, Jones led his own trio, and later larger groups under the name The Elvin Jones Jazz Machine. Elvin was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1995. In his The History of Jazz, jazz historian, and critic Ted Gioia calls Jones "one of the most influential drummers in the history of jazz." 

His elder brothers were pianist Hank Jones and trumpeter Thad Jones.  

Jones began his professional career in 1949 with a short-lived gig in a club on Detroit's Grand River Street. Eventually, he went on to play with artists including Billy Mitchell  and Wardell Gray. In 1955, after a failed audition for the Benny Goodman band, he found work in New York City, joining Miles Davis  and Charles Mingus for their Blue Moods album on Mingus's co-owned Debut label. During the late 1950s, Jones was a member of the Sonny Rollins  trio that recorded most of the album A Night at the Village Vanguard, an album cited as a high point for both Rollins and 1950s jazz in general. 

In 1960, he began playing with John Coltrane. By 1962, he had become an integral member of the classic John Coltrane Quartet along with bassist  Jimmy Garrison and pianist McCoy Tyner. Jones and Coltrane would often play extended duet passages. This band is widely considered to have redefined "swing" (the rhythmic feel of jazz), in much the same way that Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, and others had done during earlier stages of jazz development.