It has been 25 years since the death of jazz revolutionary John Coltrane, and at least one major artist is taking pains to remind the world of Coltrane`s legacy.
That the musician in question is drummer Elvin Jones will come as no surprise to Coltrane devotees, for Jones was virtually the other half of Coltrane`s heartbeat, musically speaking. The years of Coltrane`s greatest artistic strides, the early to mid-`60s, were fueled, in part, by the combustive rhythms of Jones` percussion work.
Now, roughly a quarter-century after the saxophonist`s death on July 17, 1967, Jones has taken to the road with an evening of Coltrane`s music, which he regards as musically imposing but still widely underappreciated.
”I didn`t put this concert together as a sentimental gesture or a nostalgic gesture or anything like that,” says Jones, who will play Coltrane at the UIC Jazz Festival Saturday.
”I did it because he was a brilliant composer, and people should be more aware of him, more people should be emphasizing his music.
”Now I do think that people do appreciate his music more than during the `60s, because people really didn`t understand it at all back then, although it wasn`t that easy to understand.”
Specifically, the harmonic audacity, rhythmic volatility and emotional intensity of Coltrane`s music often seemed a bit much even for listeners accustomed to the hard-hitting, hard-bop idiom of the late `50s. And while prominent jazz artists such as Miles Davis were heading in the opposite direction, with the less turbulent sounds of `50s ”cool,” Coltrane consistently was turning up the heat right until the end, offering solos of unprecedented length and ferocity.
In a way, it has taken the ensuing quarter-century for the music world to begin to catch up with Coltrane, though his influence is increasingly felt.
”Before John had any prominence, there were very few reed players who even bothered to approach the soprano saxophone-hardly anybody even thought about it,” says Jones.
”But take a look now. Every sax player in the world who has any ambition at all has a soprano sax. You can thank John Coltrane.”
So, too, Coltrane`s interest in Eastern music and philosophies, which clearly foreshadowed the ”world music” trends of today.
”As for his harmonic inventions,” says Jones, ”that hasn`t even been touched.
”I do know of people who can explain Coltrane in technical terms, but as to implementing these things-well, it would take a career.”
More than that, it would require an individual who approached music with Coltrane`s fervor. So obsessed was Coltrane with his search for new sounds and transcendental techniques of producing them that the man literally practiced until his mouth bled.
Surely it must have been emotionally draining to perform, rehearse and travel with a musician of that intensity.
”Actually, it gave us all courage,” says Jones.
”I had never seen anyone in my life that could articulate on an instrument as well and as effortlessly as John did. And the way he
accomplished that effortlessness was his almost religious practice habits.”
The result was a musical language exhilarating in its adventurousness, yet sometimes frustrating in its severity.
For Jones, the years with Coltrane represented ”the kind of opportunity that doesn`t come around too often.
”Musically, we were extremely compatible. With John I could do things that I had only vaguely dreamed of before. He got me as a drummer to really think musically.”
Specifically, Coltrane`s settings allowed Jones to free himself from the beat, from even implying it. Instead, he offered explosions of color and disruptions of meter; in so doing, Jones elevated the role of drummer from timekeeper to a contributor equal to other band members.
Of course, Jones came to Coltrane with a few ideas of his own, thanks to his `50s work with be-bop masters Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins and J.J. Johnson.
”I simply never really bought the old concepts of what a drummer should be,” says Jones, whose nine siblings include pianist Hank Jones and the late, master arranger Thad Jones.
”I just didn`t think like that. I`d think as if I were a conductor or a pianist, or at least an extension from the percussion instrument.”
For that alone, Jones holds a secure place in the history of jazz, but he may be carving another one, as well.
Considering that he now travels the world with players a generation younger than he-his band now includes the brilliant young New Orleans trumpeter Nicholas Payton and young saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, John`s son-he seems to be picking up where drummer Art Blakey left off. Like Blakey, Jones apparently is intent on nurturing the future.
”Who else can do it but us older guys?” says Jones.
”I`m trying to give them the kind of information that is helpful to them, and not the wrong information.
”Of course, with someone like Nicholas (Payton), it`s a fantastic experience.
I hired him on Wynton Marsalis` recommendation, and I don`t regret a moment of that.
”He studies almost as hard as Coltrane did.”
”So it`s my responsibility to teach guys like him. That`s where jazz is at.”
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The 12th annual UIC Jazz Festival is Friday and Saturday, at 8 each night, in the Illinois Room of the Chicago Circle Center, 750 S. Halsted St.
