in 1968."He added another drummer, and I couldn't hear what I was doing any longer. There was too much going on, and it was getting ridiculous as far as I was concerned." Now, we view Jones as one of the greatest drummers in the history of jazz. But in '66, he was eagerly assessing his next steps, trying to build a solo career after years of being a sideman for stalwarts like Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter and Miles Davis.
Jones took up residency at Pookie's Pub — a small venue in Lower Manhattan about a block up from the Holland Tunnel — in June, just a month before Coltrane's death. He even showed up to a couple of gigs to check out Jones in his new leadership role. Perhaps on purpose then, the music felt resurgent, the sound of a nascent bandleader finding his voice at the helm.
Jones played at Pookie's Pub until the end of 1967, then left to start performing at the more-established Village Vanguard and another spot called the Dom. Few people knew — or, sadly, cared — that he was performing at Pookie's initially; but, by the time he left, the bar and the residency had secured media coverage, which led to bigger opportunities in the city and overseas. The songs"Raunchy Rita" and"M.E.
After his residency, Jones returned to sideman duties for Tyner, pianist Jaki Byard and saxophonist Lee Konitz before assembling a trio with Farrell and Garrison to release the albumson Blue Note Records. Then in the '70s, he formed the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine, an ever-changing collective of young and established players that performed various styles of jazz over the course of its existence.
We don't get all of this without his time at Pookie's Pub, an era unknown to many that's now getting its proper due. While it's perhaps too easy to shrug off the venue as inadequate for someone of Jones' stature, it should be celebrated for offering a lifeline when he needed it most. At a time when public interest in jazz waned as funk and psych-rock took off, the pub gave Jones space to experiment without pressure.
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