Elvin Jones Jazz Machine - At Onkel PO's Carnegie Hall Hamburg 1981

180-gram double LP

Recorded September 22nd, 1981 at Onkel Pö's Carnegie Hall, Hamburg, Germany. Personnel: Elvin Jones — drums; Carter Jefferson — saxophone; Dwayne Armstrong — saxophone; Fumio Karashima — piano; Marvin Horne — guitar; Andy McCloud — bass.

Elvin Ray Jones was born in Pontiac in 1927 as the youngest of ten children and brother of pianist Hank and trumpeter Thad Jones. In 1981 his formative years were long gone — about one and a half decades earlier the percussionist had left the quartet of charismatic saxophonist John Coltrane, after having been part of it for five years; Elvin Jones was involved in milestone-productions such as A Love Supreme (1965). Already during and especially after his time with Coltrane, the percussionist enriched various modern jazz ensembles; for instance, he attended the German jazz festival at Frankfurt in 1978 as a member of the European-American formation Concert Jazz Band of the Swiss pianist, arranger and composer George Gruntz.

Elvin Jones called his own ensemble Jazz Machine; the name was not due to a somewhat mechanical and cold sound of the drums — on the contrary. The orchestration of this 'machine' was rather unconventional — Jones had invited two tenor-saxophonists, Carter Jefferson (who passed away already in the mid-90s) and Dwayne Armstrong; also in this way he cemented the staggering sound of the group. Opposite of the bugles performed, surprisingly enough, the guitarist Marvin Horne; and with the Japanese pianist Fumio Karashima the Jones-"Machine" had at its command a particularly non-mechanical melodist, especially when it concerned the ballads; in this case "In A Sentimental Mood" and "My One And Only Love." Karashima also added a noteworthy dosage of far-east melodics and harmony to the concert.

Together with Karashima and the well-tried bassist Andy McCloud, Elvin Jones had recorded a trio-LP just previously to the European tour documented here. The material for the recording from Onkel Pö feeds on concise themes and motives from all established sources of the hard bop era; often and readily the blues elements prevail. Right in the middle of it all Elvin Jones proves his mastery again and again — even after more than three decades (and long after Elvin Jones passing away in 2004) his performance remains an object-lesson, or better: an audio-lesson for everybody, who is looking for orientation and guidance through the history of the emancipation of the drums in jazz; until today.