It's a little know fact that Elvin started out playing blues guitar. His favorite players were John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters, and the Mississippi Delta-like players, very earthy... just like his drumming. Check out his guitar on Heavy Sounds with Richard Davis. Earthy Delta blues comes from the deepest of bittersweet human emotion, and hard earned wisdom. There is a saying: "Above all else, get wisdom!"

That feeling that Flamenco calls "Cante Hondo," Deep Song, and wisdom permeated Elvin Jones' drumming. It's who he was. Elvin was a learner. He believed in never stopping learning. Elvin was an unassuming, humble guy. Maybe even a little shy (except on the drums.) That undogmatic openness is the only way one learns and inspires creativity. His innovative drumming changed the way we drum. Probably for you, too. Go back and listen harder to him.

Drumming is thousands of years old. It is an unbroken chain expressing the deepest truth about being human. It is a deeply spiritual thing that AI will never achieve. This is the taproot that Elvin revealed when he played the drums. It was a major blessing in my life for which I am very grateful and hold in deep esteem.

​The Evolution of My Drumming Over the Years... What's Yours?

• Age 3 Classical piano - with my aunt.

• Age 6 Began drum lessons with Master Sergeant William Hartman.

• 12 Years of school band - High School teaching assistant.

• 1960s Trinity University Classical Percussion with Harvey Biskin, Houston Symphony.

• Mid 1960s Moved to LA. Staff percussionist with CBS. Active in LA jazz scene.

• Met Elvin Jones at Pro Drum Shop. He borrowed my trio for his local gigs. I received intensive drum studies with him. Polyrhythmic drumming.

• Later, I met Max Roach at Pro Drums. Did drum clinics with him. I was the student. Great lessons, melodic drumming, tune-smithing.

• Worked off and on with legendary jazz pianist, Horace Tapscott.

• Late 1960s Moved to New York. Looked up Ornette Coleman, friend of friend. I spent time at his house, learning about his harm0lodic music theory and the use of two drummers: Billy Higgins and Ed Blackwell. Ed "Boogie" Blackwell was a genius drummer from New Orleans. I played duets with Billy Higgins. Active in NY jazz scene. Played with alumni of Miles Davis in the NYC Jazzmobile.

• 1970 Brief interlude - University of Ohio. Artist and Composer-in-Residence. Taught Jazz History. Same year as Kent State shootings - students killed protesting Viet Nam War. Played concerts all over Ohio and neighboring states, including with the eccentric Sun Ra. Look him up.

• Back to California, this time to San Francisco. Very active in Latin jazz scene - Santana heyday. Much studio work with alumni Santana, Sly Stone, Graham Central Station, Tower of Power. Led fusion-jazz trio -34 piece drum set with various players Bay area. Became interested in electronic music. Studied at San Francisco Conservatory with Serge Tcherepnin, including study of Russian music descended from Rimsky-Korsakov through the Tcherepnin family.

• Highlight from San Francisco: first use of a synthesizer in a major jazz festival: 2nd Annual Berkeley Jazz Festival.

• Performed multi-media performance art for Museum of Conceptual Art, NEA-sponsored concerts at annual Edinburgh Art Festival, and futher concerts in city of London at International Contemporary Art Gallery. Opportunities arose down South as San Francisco was waning.

• Back to LA. Hired off the bandstand in the middle of a concert to teach Jazz Studies at the University of Southern California. Jazz gigs with local artists, studio work, hired as staff producer for Hollywood Records (Disney). Found myself producing "Gangsta Rap". Turned out to be real gangsters. Quit Disney and resigned from USC.

• Moved to Orange County, California. Began graduate school in Judeo-Christian theology at Simon Greenleaf University and, on my own, studies in ancient modal church music, just like my favorite modal jazz.

• Produced acoustic jazz trio, Haverim (see video.)

• Co-composed and produced Judeo-Christian rock album, Shiloh's Cup "Wounded."(https://www.amazon.com/Wounded-Shilohs-Cup/dp/B002FG9INC/ref=sr_1_2?crid=9RQ002031WN1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.g-i3-OHTWLWiH_ksrPKSyQ.Ut5XokYiZbW-68f92c4yVq1nckk4n-lS2hztgkzsoBM&dib_tag=se&keywords=Shiloh%27s+cup+CD&qid=1765060695&sprefix=shiloh%27s+cup+c%2Caps%2C218&sr=8-2)

• Throughout my career, I have always maintained a teaching studio. I taught jazz drumming and percussion, wherever I was and with whomever was interested.

• I am an inventor - drum tuning system and medical devices. I am an investor and investment advisor. It's all math, just like music, except musical math are the tools of a spiritual art. I divide everything into two categories: jazz and not-jazz;

  jazz is a Ferrari, not-jazz is a Prius.

  Inspired = In-Spirited is authentic jazz; overproduced not-jazz is mechanistic

• There is a great diversity of inspired music around the world. As a musician, to ignore it is only to your detriment.

• "History is very important to a jazz musician" - Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong. He conquered the world with a jazz trumpet. BTW, the number one best selling book in the world, the Bible, is full of all kinds of trumpets.

• If I would advise you, I would only say - just be your only, unique self.

Elias "Eliyahu" The Drum Teacher.

When I met Max Roach my main interest was jazz drumming and what I could learn from him. We did clinics together in Hollywoood. He was the master and I was the (well-rehearsed) student. As I got to know him, beyond what I could learn about jazz drumming, I understood that Max was very intellectual, and a kind of Renaissance man.

He is mostly identified with the birth of hard Bop, but was very committed to advancing civil rights for blacks, and for all people. He put that concern into his art, and never missed a chance to do it. He was a composer, with broad tastes and diverse ideas about music and civil rights. "Freedom Suite" was a musical statement as bold as Dr. Martin Luther King's. He wrote scores for Alvin Ailey, gifted choreographer and civil rights activist. The great playwright of Americana, Sam Shepard, understood that Max could write the American music that fit his plays best. Max developed an all-percussion group, M'Boom, that was multi-ethnic. He also put together a group of all brass and drums, harkening back to the brass bands of New Orleans. Max played with and composed gospel choirs and jazz-influenced classical string quartets, with his daughter, Maxine.

Not limiting himself, Max played the most avant garde jazz with Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp, and the avant garde great - pianist Cecil Taylor. He also worked with video artists, rap and hiphop, and drumming-backed spoken word, such as Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream." Countless awards... he lost count. I saw him play and do a concert/clinic with nothing but a Hi-Hat to great response and encores, standing ovation. All of the over-produced digitized enhanced AI music is always behind, trying to emulate and catch up with a single master, like Max Roach, who is a fountainhead. I do many things, like Max: art, business, inventions, politics, and Christian evangelism through music education. I know Max saw himself first as a jazz drummer. If you scratch me, you will find the same. Rat-a-tat-tat.