Music
Elvin Jones
1927–2004 · jazz drummer, bandleader
Pontiac-born drummer of John Coltrane's classic quartet, who learned his craft in Detroit's bebop clubs, above all the Blue Bird Inn.
- Born
Pontiac, Michigan- Died
Englewood, New Jersey
aged 76- Birth name
- Elvin Ray Jones
- Detroit years
- 1927–1955
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Elvin Jones was born in Pontiac, the industrial city north of Detroit, to parents who had moved to Michigan from Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was the youngest of three celebrated jazz brothers: pianist Hank Jones and trumpeter Thad Jones also came out of the same household. After Army service he started playing professionally in 1949 with a short-lived job at a club on Detroit's Grand River Avenue. In the early 1950s he joined saxophonist Billy Mitchell's quintet, the house band at the Blue Bird Inn on Tireman Avenue, where local players backed touring stars and where Detroit bebop matured. He left for New York in 1955, and from 1960 to 1965 his rolling, polyrhythmic drumming drove John Coltrane's quartet on My Favorite Things and A Love Supreme. He later led his own Elvin Jones Jazz Machine for decades.
Highlights
- Drummer in John Coltrane's classic quartet, 1960–1965
- Played on A Love Supreme and My Favorite Things
- House-band drummer at Detroit's Blue Bird Inn in the early 1950s
- Brother of pianist Hank Jones and trumpeter Thad Jones
- Modern Drummer Hall of Fame, 1995
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · early 1950s
Blue Bird Inn
Closed
West-side jazz bar, a bebop stage from 1948, where he drummed in Billy Mitchell's house band. Closed in the early 2000s; the Detroit Sound Conservancy bought it in 2018 and is restoring it as a venue and heritage center.