Jazz Drummer Elvin Jones: His Musical Heritage

Abstract Name: Peter Primus Frosch Main Subject: Jazz Drums Research supervisor: Patrick Schenkius Title of Research: Jazz Drummer Elvin Jones – His Musical Heritage Research Question: What are the methods of Elvin Jones' playing and how did famous jazz drummers deal with his heritage? Summary of Results: The American jazz drummer Elvin Jones is one of the most famous musicians in jazz history. Nevertheless due to the writers' lack of ability to play the drums the existing research is very unsatisfying from a jazz drummer's perspective. Based on a wide array of transcriptions I put together several methods and concepts for accompaniment as well as drum solos developed by Elvin Jones. I also identified two predecessors to specfic stylistic approaches. The second chapter is about Jack Dejohnette, Jeff 'Tain' Watts and Brian Blade and how they dealt with his heritage. My main conclusion is that aspects of Elvin's style especially the method of 'play the drum set as one instrument' completely changed the approach of playing the drums in Jazz. Specific characteristics can be found in the better part of contemporary jazz drummers and therefore it is essential to deal with his concepts and ideas. This research helped me to increase my awareness of various stylistics of modern jazz drum set playing and at the same time I got an idea on how to apply those methods. CV: Peter Primus Frosch (drums) born on the 11.12.1990 He started playing drums at age 5. After school in 2010 he enrolled at the Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität studying with the likes of Mario Gonzi and Walter Grassmann. Since fall 2014 he is now continuing his master studies at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where he is under the guidance of the great dutch jazz drummer Eric Ineke. Awards: Fidelio competition finalist in 2012 and 2013, winner of the audience award in 2012; Most promising award“ by Marianne Mendt Jazznachwuchsförderung; winner of „New faces of Slovak Jazz“ 2014 best drummer at Generations International Jazzfestival Frauenfeld (Switzerland) - Jury: Lewis Nash, Seamus Blake, Don Friedman 2015: Winner of the Herbert Schedlmayer Jazz Stipendium workshops with Louis Hayes, Jimmy Cobb, Lewis Nash, David Hazeltine, Don Friedman, Seamus Blake among others; played with: Roman Schwaller, Clemens Salesny, Stephan Plecher, Jure Pukl, Daniel Nösig, Oliver Kent, Franz Hautzinger, Adrian Mears, Peter Herbert, Reinhard Micko, Klaus Gesing etc.