Elvin Jones was a driving force behind John Coltrane’s explorations in the 1960s and is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in jazz drumming. This lesson applies the principles of his style to rhythms found in the classic Ted Reed book Syncopation. Here we’ll interpret the first line of Exercise 1 (found on page 38) using Jones’ concepts, however, be sure to apply the ideas to other rhythms. Exercise 1 shows the pattern we’ll be using throughout this lesson.
