BST 84331

Elvin Jones - Poly-Currents

Released - June 1970

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, September 26, 1969
Fred Tompkins, flute #2; George Coleman, tenor sax #1,3-5; Joe Farrell, tenor sax, flute, English horn, bass flute; Pepper Adams, baritone sax #1,3,5; Wilbur Little, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; Candido, congas #1,3,5.

5210 tk.1 Mr. Jones
5211 tk.3 Yes
5212 tk.9 Agappe Love
5214 tk.12 Whew
5213 tk.14 Agenda

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Agenda	Elvin Jones	September 26 1969
Agappe Love	Joe Farrell	September 26 1969
Side Two
Mr. Jones	Keiko Jones	September 26 1969
Yes	Fred Tompkins	September 26 1969
Whew	Wilbur Little	September 26 1969

Liner Notes

Elvin Ray Jones is still puttin' it together. These last three words constituted the title of his first album for Blue Note (4252) as leader of his own trio. What he had put together at that time was a combo with a compact and unusual instrumentation — just a bass player and one horn, but the dedication and variety of ideas discernible in the group made it evident that he had a future as a leader.

Elvin continued to put it together with The Ultimate (4305,) played by the same group. The question now became, where could you go beyond the ultimate?

The answer can be found pulsating powerfully in these new grooves. Elvin and producer Frank Wolff decided the time had arrived to come up with something a little different. The result was an enlarged instrumentation and an expansion of compositional concepts, with Mr. Jones still in magnificent command from the driver's seat.

Two other saxophonists were added for this after-the-ultimate convocation. George Coleman, born in Memphis in 1935, has strong roots in the blues, having toured the south with various r & b groups and accompanied B.B. King. In other words, he learned to walk with the pace-setters before he ran with the avant garde. In the interim he was a member ofs combo led by Kenny Burrell, Max Roach. Slide Hampton, Wild Bill Davis, Miles Davis (1963-4), and later toured with the Lionel Hampton band. Though best known as a tenor soloist, he played alto in the sound track of the Dick Gregory film Sweet Love, Bitter, a picture inspired by the life of Charlie Parker.

Pepper Adams (Highland Park, Ill., 1930) by now is a familiar enough figure in Blue Note circles to eliminate the necessity for formalities, Suffice it to say that he is to the contemporary generation what Harry Carney was back when the baritone sax was a rarely-used solo vehicle.

Since the name of Fred Tompkins was unfamiliar to me, I checked it out with Elvin. “Fred is a composer from St. Louis, came the answer, “and a talent I truly believe in. He’s in his mid-20s, and presently hes with the Second Armored Division Headquarters Band at Fort Hood. Texas. I met him at Pookie's before he went into the service and a friendship developed. He's equally gifted as a jazz and classical writer, and as a reed and Woodwind player."

Bassist Wilbur Little, born in North Carolina, grew up in Washington. D.C. Elvin recalls: "After Kai Winding and J.J. Johnson broke up their group and J.J. formed his own combo in 1956, Wilbur and I were both members, along with Tommy Flanagan. He's worked off and on with me; in fact, he was the first bass player in my trio before Jimmy Garrison joined me, and it’s a groove to have him back.’

Candido Camero, generally known by by his first name, was born in 1921 in Regal, Havana. From the early 1950s he toured the U.S. with Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Kenton. In addition to free-lancing in New York with a seemingly limitless variety of groups, who found his facility with the conga just about matchless.

Speaking of the album’s title, Elvin says: "Frank and I dreamed this up together, using the Greek prefix poly, meaning many or diverse, to indicate the various rhythmic currents that can be felt in these performances as well as the cross-section of melodic ideas.

Agenda is characterized by Elvin as "A salute to the agenda of the nations in the process of being formed on the continent of Africa.” He adds: This was something I heard in my mind as an almost symphonic rendition, with a contrapuntal feeling of rhythm against melody, the 12/8 meter, and using Joe on the English horn.”

Jones' story-telling here (and nobody can speak more eloquently on the drum than Elvin) reminds me of an observation I made in the Encyclopedia of Jazz in the 60s, that his main achievement was the creation of a "circle of sound, a continuum in which no beat of the bar was necessarily indicated by any specific accent, yet the overall feeling became a tremendously important and rhythmically dynamic part of the whole sound of the group.” This is true again of his exchanges with Candido on the unpredicable and stunningly evocative Agenda.

After a series of stops And starts and a very brief pause. you realize that we have segued directly from this number to Agappe Love, with Farrell on flute. "This is pretty much a joint trio creation, which Joe wrote down for us," says Elvin. "It's typical of the sort of thing we like to do at concerts, where Joe comes in with a cadenza-type melody and we gradually break into a set tempo."

Farrell and Coleman interweave intriguingly. with Joe showing the process of maturation that marked his flute work in the past year or two. Billy Taylor called him "a lyrical melodist" on flute: this he is but other virtues are apparent here: his subtle sense of timing, his ability to set and sustain a mood.

Mr. Jones (nothing cryptic about this dedication) was composed by Elvin’s own Keiko Jones, an Oriental charmer from Fukouka, Japan, whom he met during one of his tours of the Far East "She's a fine classical pianist, and a crazy cook." Elvin says. “She's been doing quite a bit of writing, but this is the first tune of hers that we've recorded.’ Its a simple and catchy minor theme played by the horns in unison, with Farrell on tenor.

Yes was contributed by Fred Tompkins, of whom Elvin observes: "I'd like to think Fred wrote that white doing maneuvers in a tank...Fortunately he had a leave and was able to visit New York. That was when he gave me this number and sat in on flute for our recording of it."

Notable on this track, in addition to the composer’s smooth and beguiling instrumental contribution, are Joe Farrell's bass flute underpinning, and the relatively orthodox rhythm work by Elvin and Wilbur.

Whew sounds to me as if it may well have derived its title from an exclamation of astonishment expressed by one of the musicians after they first ran it down. Living up to the album's name, it is, as Elvin puts it, "loaded with poly-currents. It has all kinds of interesting variations like Trane used when I was with him.”

Wilbur Little, composer of Whew, never ceases to amaze with his double and triple stops on bass. "It’s almost unbelievable what he can do when he's given a chance," Elvin asserts enthusiastically. "I don’t believe he’s ever worked with anyone who gave him an adequate opportunity to express himself as a soloist. He’s one of the most improved musicians I know, and I was happy to give him this chance to show himself off.”

Summing up his feelings about the expansion of his entourage and the direction taken on these sides, Elvin observes, "This is not by any means a gimmick. What we have here, I hope and believe, is music to think about, to react to emotionally and discuss. Intellectually, I'm concerned with the cultural aspects of our art form; I want to provide it with whatever lasting value I can through my contribution, and I hope people will listen to it with that thought in mind. Time will tell.”

Time has already told us enough to make the point, all it takes is the time expended in listening, carefully and repeatedly, to the music of Poly-Currents and the marvel of Elvin Jones.

—LEONARD FEATHER