LEGENDS OF JAZZ DRUMMING - ELVIN!

What is there to say about Elvin, except that he was a giant beast on the drums. Well, there are many other great things to say about his drumming as well: like, he was able to keep up with John Coltrane on many recordings...that's no easy feat! He also had his own very unique style that set the tone for many drummers to come, and opened the lesson book for many drummers after to try and learn his style.

Like Coltrane on the sax, Elvin had a very free-flowing style, and he played in a very polyrhythmic way. In other words, he was capable of having many different rates of rhythms happening simultaneously. Not an easy task! He also played in a legato sort of way...everything was connected and smooth, but highly complex.

He was a true artist, who really like to push the boundaries. I have been told that there is a video of him somewhere talking about how certain sounds in music represent colors, and he liked to think that way. That is thinking outside the box! Here's a video of some great drumming by a true master of the instrument. This is not smooth jazz, this is rough jazz...remember, there is sometimes just as much fire in jazz as in rock or any other genre:

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

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