Adam Mansbach/J. Period Excerpt 4 - Elvin Jones
Adam Mansbach: He was a guy who was a joy to be around. I was in the band long enough to get to know him and get close to him, and even get to hear some of his stories about Coltrane, which he didn't tell very freely because that was probably one of the most incredible musical partnerships the world's ever seen. The connection between those two -- between the four of them in the band, him and Elvin and McCoy and Jimmy -- was a phenomenal thing. But at the real core of the core of the core was Elvin and John, in my opinion

John had been gone for thirty years when I met Elvin, but it was still a really painful thing. He had a couple of stock public answers he would give -- reporters would ask him, and he would say, "Well, John was an angel." And he'd kind of just leave it at that, because I think it was painful for him to go deeper. But he would incidentally tell stories about John, and that was when I always paid close attention

You know, we'd be talking about stories about people missing planes or various travel wackiness, and that's when a story about John would come to the forefront, and I'd be hearing some shit that was mind-blowing. Like the time there was a gig in D.C. and there was a blizzard, and McCoy and Jimmy were supposed to be on the second flight but they missed it, and so only Elvin and John get to the gig. And they start playing, and they're expecting the other guys to walk in at any moment, but they just keep not walking in

Next thing they know, they've played a ninety minute set. And they take a break, and they get back on the stage and they start playing again, and Jimmy and McCoy walk in an hour after that and they're still playing, and they try to come onstage and Elvin won't let them. He's like, we got this, get a drink. I mean, shit like that. As you can see, I can go on forever about this, so I'm gonna shut the fuck up