How To Play Like Elvin Jones #jazzdrummingtips

In this video I share how to play like Elvin Jones. Learn a simple thing you can do make your Jazz Swing feel deeper and more powerful like Elvin Jones' drumming. I call it "Elvinizing Your Swing."

MY DRUM SETUP
Cymbals: 20” Zildjian K Kerope Ride, 20” Zildjian K Constantinople Flat Ride, Mixed 14” hi-hats, Top: K Constantinople, Bottom: K Custom Dry (both top cymbals)

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CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
2:20 My Elvinesque playing
4:50 Elvin Jones drumming
06:00 How to Elvinize your swing
09:53 How I play it on the gig
10:46 Drumming tips/Conclusion

KEEP SWINGING MY FRIEND!

[MonacoRocha]

Hi Von.. I'm 67 I've been playing since 1964 ... started playing Full time on my 14th birthday.. Anyways I spent 7 days in Montreal With Elvin Jones & My Teacher Ronny Page who was Elvins Best Buddy.. Many Many Stories.. Oh Yeh I was 11 when that happened.. Elvin was going through a Hard Time So he came to stay with Ronny here in Montreal...

[pandeiropandeiro]

I got to see him and meet him backstage once after a gig at Jazz Alley, Seattle, in 2000. Such an amazing person, so primal and yet so cultured and intellectual. I asked him who he listens to, thinking wow whoever Elvin likes on the drums, must really be the shit. He responded, smiling, with that gravelly voice, 'Um, well... Bach... Brahms, you know...' I just stood there dumbfounded lol. Love him. Will always be my favorite ever.

[chiggyogara]

Besides the great Larry Bunker, Elvin Jones is one of those drummers who you can identify immediately. Especially when he does his snare to floor Tom lick. Thanks for this video🙏🏿

[PaulBanacos]

Really love your YouTube lessons. Really enjoyed seeing Elvin Jones years ago. Never missed him he came to Boston at the Jazz Workshop. One of my best memories is when my brother, Charlie Banacos, got to sit in with him at the Workshop.

[danbruka]

Great video, and I met Elvin too, at Ronnie Scott's in London, I went to the front of the queue with my Brazilian wife of the time and we were escorted to the back stage where elvin gave me a big bear hug, I gave him some photos my brother had taken of him and sat down at the bar with a whiskey as i was drinking back then and a fat cigar, when we could smoke in pubs and clubs. Elvin at a drum clinic in Birmingham the week before where Mr.Jones had shown a group of college kids how he would practice, the 5 stroke roll into the 7 into the 9, a master at work. Now thinking back I would have had a bash on his kit had I known now what I do about the legend that is Mr.Elvin Jones, should be made a sir and given a knighthood in my opinion.
Thank you for sharing. ❤

[larrypanellajazzsaxophone]

When I was a student at North Texas - then called NTSU, he came as part of the Jazz Artist Lecture Series. The morning of, I was asked to play with him. I had spent the last couple of years prior working on my sight reading with a method using my left and right feet on beats 1 and 3 so I had the recovery to be back in on the next measure if I missed something. Stopping was not an option with that approach. I had to employ that with Elvin! I was practically marching. It was like being a novice surfer caught out with the biggest wave in history and it was incredible. We played Softly as in a Morning Sunrise and it was exhilarating! We played a few more tunes and he talked. I was so amazed at having lived through the moment playing with him that sadly, I cannot remember what he said. Mostly people were asking about playing with Coltrane as you might expect, and he was not really much of a lecturer. Mostly he played, but what an experience.

[sthulander]

Gruff voice . . . Yes. I too got to meet Elvin. He was playing at Showcase in Chicago. Was Frank Foster with Elvin? Can't recall. Elvin is thunder and triplet time . . . Awesome experience ! During first set break, I meekly walked up to him. He was still sitting behind his drums. What to say? What can you say . . . just a quick and oh-so-humble, ''Love your playing, Elvin.'' . . . Deep within his throat and chest, that growl. Can't remember his actual words, but, close to your own experience, ''Thanks, man.'' His vibe was gracious. Honestly, I think it was Jazz Showcase, but, the place had to move two/three times. This was the mid 70's after I'd quit music school, the year after Chaffee left Western Illinois U. for Berklee. Western was Gary's first teaching gig, and I was dumb lucky to have studied with him for just 9 months. Wertico was there, too, for one semester - young, Paul was. But, supremely talented and with a massive collection of albums. Paul sat in with Cannonball's group for one or two tunes during a clinic concert. Afterward, the story I heard from other students was that Paul said to Roy, ''Man, I'm hurtin' . . . Cats are stuck in the mud.'' McCurdy urged him to head back to Chicago and just play gigs. Metheny came calling some time later. Paul and 7 Grammies later.
Wertico played on WIU's Jazz Band album. Many years later I approached Paul in Rockford, Illinois - my hometown. Paul was setting up his own drums . . . I approached the stage, held up that album and called Paul's name. He took one look at that album and immediately came over to sign the back of the sleeve. I'm wandering off track of topic. Sorry. There had been an interview in the Chicago Trib before his appearance in Rockford. I asked Paul about, ''I'm hurtin' man . . . Cats are stuck in the mud.'' Paul looked a bit embarrassed, quickly changed the subject, but, signed the album. Paul's name had been mispelled and Paul wrote a referece to that typo, ''Must have been another Paul Wertico.'' Quite a show that day - a massive, yearly outdoor festival called, ''On The Waterfront''. Larry Coryell was his guitarist . . . or the other way around . . . Paul was Coryell's drummer.
Back to Elvin - Did Elvin (consistently) play on the back edge of 'time' in your opinion?
So, you were at Berklee . . . Chaffee had left there after 5 years, then toured the world with, I think - Mick Goodrick and guys like that. He played at Royal Albert Hall on one tour, and also conducted clinics in Europe. In my months at Western, Gary taught ''Down Up technique'', as well as playing vertically. He didn't really talk a lot of linear playing, at that time, but, did teach sticking variations and ''playing with infinite flexibility''.
Chaffee : Vinnie, Steve Smith, and for that one semester at Western, Wertico. So many other great drummers.

[thibodaux]

Ah man! Elvin! I must have listened to The Real McCoy a thousand times when I first got into jazz drumming years ago. I didn't do many exercises like this... just listening. It gets in you after a while but it takes time. You gotta get his vibe and feel and his attitude!

[themole]

My man you were jazzing out! Swinging for the fences. Nice lesson, thanks so much.

[danbruka]

Great drum heads by the way, I used to used those same kind and I recently tried to buy one for my ludwig limited edition snare drum as I think the remo fiberskyn would fit it nicely giving a fat yet distinctive high end rustic sound that only comes with that skin, I can't find it to buy in Brazil where I'm currently living. It's a shame #remo @remo fiberskyn ❤

[Mobby]

Oh, Von, that is it, thanks a lot. An excellent insight to Elvin's drumming. The vibe is certainly there in that sample of yours. I have a few questions. You say it's okay it's start off with the juicy stuff, meaning things like Elvin Jones style and approach. But is there a relationship between more foundational knowledge of jazz drumming, like the accent on 2 and 4, steady ride pattern perfected, without much variations (I love variations, the skipping off-beat notes), feathering the bass drum (did Elvin feather the bass drum? Seemed to me I never saw that). And then the more usual comping (whatever it is). And then when we master the foundations, can we move to more advanced style, like Elvin's? Is it best to have both styles in your pocket and go between then as needed and wanted. I watch a lot of Willie Jones III, an amazing drummer, but he seems to me more like a representative of straight ahead approach to jazz drums. Secondly, the exercise you show us here is what is called a rolling triplet, with the second and third note of the triplet played on the snare drum, and accented last note beats 2 and 4 on both ride and snare? Is my reading correct?

[lagartogrande]

My friend. actually Elvins voice was rather soft. He spoke quietly and with deep humility.

[pocoli]

Elvin's "Avalanche Roll with free-fall acceleration" distorts time and space.

[danielpincus]

It looks like you have natural skin heads. Correct?

I heard Elvin twice: once in around 1972 at Slugs with McCoy Tyners band, and the second at the Village Gate in the late 90s. Always incredible. Somewhere, there’s an article about his visit to the Zildjian cymbal factory. I can’t find it.

[afonsohenrique]

great video, what is your drum pedal?

[danielpincus]

It looks like you have natural skin heads. Correct?

[kevinturner]

Fabulous .. what heads r u usin there fella !? They sound as does your playin 🙂🙃