Elvin Jones Quotes

It’s the honesty you apply to your playing that makes music enjoyable. The style of the music has little to do with it. It’s only honesty makes it beautiful.

That’s what the drummer is supposed to do. Keep the time. If you can do something else besides that, fine. But the time is essential and non-negotiable.

You should get the feeling you should move. That’s what is meant when people say the music moves me.

If there’s any such thing as a perfect man, I think John Coltrane was one. And I think that kind of perfection has to come from a greater force than there is here on earth.

Music is a way of life, it’s everything. I play drums and that’s what I believe I was born to do.

The greatest contribution jazz has made in music has been to replace the role of the conductor with a member of the ensemble who, instead of waving his arms to keep time and convey mood, is an active member of the musical statement. That person is the drummer.

I can see forms and shapes in my mind when I solo, just as a painter can see forms and shapes when he starts painting. And I can see different colors.