BN-LA-015-G2

Elvin Jones - Live At The Lighthouse

Released - January 1973

Recording and Session Information

"The Lighthouse", Hermosa Beach, CA, 1st set, September 9, 1972
Steve Grossman, tenor, soprano sax; Dave Liebman, tenor, soprano sax, flute; Gene Perla, bass; Elvin Jones, drums.

Introduction: Bill Chappell / Announcer: Rick Holmes
New Breed
Sambra
My Ship
Happy Birthday Greeting

"The Lighthouse", Hermosa Beach, CA, 2nd set, September 9, 1972
Steve Grossman, tenor, soprano sax; Dave Liebman, tenor, soprano sax, flute; Gene Perla, bass; Elvin Jones, drums.

Fancy Free
Sweet Mama
The Children, Save The Children

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Introduction / Fancy Free	Donald Byrd	September 9 1972
Side Two
Sambra	Gene Perla	September 9 1972
The Children, Save The Children	D. Garcia	September 9 1972
Side Three
Happy Birthday/Sweet Mama	Gene Perla	September 9 1972
Side Four
New Breed	Dave Liebman	September 9 1972
My Ship	Gershwin-Weill	September 9 1972

Liner Notes

There's a place for words to accompany this most recent offering in the continuing contribution from the abundance of Elvin Jones. Seems I've stalled for days, scribbling out a sentence now and then, reading it back; discarding all those promising beginnings which would work well enough were I writing about almost any other musician. But now it's deadline time. And the fact is there is no beginning, just as there is not ending to the flow of my thoughts about this rarest of artists...Elvin Jones.

The sum of his qualities might be stated thus, that in his presence all good things are constantly renewed. That is, by definition, the gift of spontaneity. The natural flowering of wholesome energy serving the needs of a perceptive and receptive creative mind. This further means that there is always more be learnt from, and with, Elvin Jones, whose growth in his art can be documented through the long series of recordings with John Coltrane in the 1960's, and the more recent LP's which are a sequence of substantive plateaus in his career as a solo artist. As he grows, so does the art of jazz grow; and as he grows, we grow with him.

This suggests to me several reasons to view this as his most important album to date. First; he has arrived at a position to consolidate and simplify the role of his instrument, or rather instruments, in harmonic as well as percussive relationships to other instrumental voices within the ensemble. Equally significant, he has room enough here to stretch as a virtuoso because this is a two-record album. (It is characteristic of Elvin Jones that his generosity to his peers has not always allowed him equal time in the past on his own albums,) Moreover, this is a live album which serves that precious quality of spontaneity, and which has the further distinction of marking a real event in Jones' life, his 45th birthday.

In its emerging duality, the jazz drum kit makes unique demands upon a performer. The drums must be driven with an unfaltering sense of responsibility for the continuity of the music. Within the shifting complexities of modern tempi, this requires an awesome attention span. To program the rhythmic ritual which is the essence of jazz into harmonic participations with other instruments calls for an extension of awareness, a sweeping breadth of side vision. This is the best I can do to describe what Elvin Jones achieves — this hyperperception of his musical environment in parallel to the workings of powerful concentration. The secret of how he does it is part of the enigma of genius.

I'll give it to you another way. I asked him if it was hard to verbalize his concept of jazz drumming. His answer: "Not really. It's interreacting rhythmic phrasing within the harmonic development, if that makes any sense at all." Sense? More like sweet reason! In specific terms, there is an illustration here in that malleable old standard "My Ship," a delightful dialogue between Jones' drums and cymbals and David Liebman's fluting, which identifies a novel kinship between these two ancients of the instrumental family. Come to think of it, these two, flute and drum, conversed together like charming old gossips in antique music, so perhaps a large part of what is new is merely that which has been forgotten. But remembered by the Jungian mind of master musicians...

As a solo instruments, drums have a treacherous vulnerability. And I think that a good many of us are wary of the star drummer, having experienced an excess of flash performances without substance. Elvin Jones never indulges in skill without artistry, in flurries of virtuosity for its own sake. He shows more of himself here than he has been able to do hitherto, and I recommend his long solo on the familiar "Samba" as a brilliant enunciation of criteria for drums alone. He is a grand stylist, which is to say that he embraces and integrates a stylistic range beyond the means of most of his contemporaries. I say this, knowing that liner notes are always suspect — are they not supposed to promote interest in the contents of a sealed package? - but I honestly cannot think of Elvin jones in comparative terms. He is just that much more complete.

Earlier in these remarks I sketched in a comment about the meaning of this as a "live" album. It was recorded at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, and, yes, there is applause. Even a stunningly off-key chorus of "Happy Birthday" from the audience, plus a double introduction from Bill Chappell, Blue Note executive, and KBCA's Rick Holmes. There is an insight to be gained from all of this extraneous material. Elvin Jones is very much loved. A friend in the business told me recently, "I've never heard anyone badmouth Elvin. Everyone seems to like him." Another unusual quality. And I can assure you that he is straight and candid, and as clear-sighted as a child in his relating to people. You may conclude therefore that this is no image I am presenting to you but my feelings, about a real person. A person, incidentally, who gets honest and simple benefits from a live performance. He expressed that in these words, "It's what I feel for me and those I love, ad for those who love me. That's what gives me my strength." In professional terms, he has been quoted as saying , "You can only go so far in the studio. Yow get too technical a response from recording, you can't get the dimension of emotion and feeing and energy."

Not long ago I asked him if there was anyone who picked up where John Coltrane left off. First he spoke of "Trane." "About six years we were together, good friends. I thought he was a saint, an angel. He was the kindest person, one of the most gentle you'd ever want to meet." Then he thought for a moment, and on, ' 'Yes, I think I've got two tenor players right now who start where John left off. David Liebman and Steve Grossman. These two young men can play."

There isn't much I can add to that, except perhaps to call your attention to side three of this album, the side beginning with the birthday song. After an utterly astonishing bass solo by Gene Perla, Liebman and Grossman undertake a cross-referencing of improvisation which says emphatically, this is what jazz is all about.

Then indulge me a little while I, too, wish Elvin Jones many more happy birthdays — and lots of good licks to grow on.

- LEONARD BROWN