Steve Griggs - Reviews

Jones for Elvin - Volume 2

CD review by Robert Spencer from Cadence (October 2000)

Steve Griggs says that working with Elvin Jones game him "a brief glimpse of the support, freedom, and passion that John Coltrane must have experienced every night for years in the notorious 1960's quartet." It's clear from the first moments of "Reunion Dues" that that kind of recreation is what Griggs has in mind, for despite the differences in instrumentation this first track is very much a homage to the modal excursions of that great quartet. Griggs himself plays in what must certainly be conscious homage to Trane and Pharoah, and Jay Thomas and Milo Peterson make it easy to imagine what it might have been like if Trane had been able to bring Lee Morgan and Wes Montgomery along on those modal flights of fancy. But his show mainly features Elvin Jones, so that what emerges is part homage and part re-creation: "Wow! Those guys sound like the old Coltrane group! And that drummer! He sounds just like--himself!"

Fortunately, the rest of the program is not so heavily indebted to the past. "The More I See You" is a bright jaunty thing on which Elvin plays a little Latin and marvelously punctuates Griggs' solo. The ballad "Kavanah" features the marvelous Thomas (who sticks to trumpet on this disc--although a two-sax workout might have called up some old ghosts for Elvin and had some interesting results). "Oscar's" has a complex head recalling Morgan and McLEan (as does "Keiko's Kimochi") and featuring some of Elvin's most intriguing multirhythmic adventures. "Zones for Elvin" is an eerie, hypnotic track that sets up Elvin well. "Chromatic Carioca" is another nice ensemble tune that brings it all to a bustling end.

Elvin Jones is one of the greatest drummers ever, and this is a good setting in which to hear what he can do."