Groove o' the day: Elvin Jones — The Trip

Here's Elvin Jones playing a groove that should be very familiar if you've been following our Page o' Coordination series: The Trip, by alto saxophonist Art Pepper, from his album of the same title. On the original tune from which I extracted this basic groove (Your Lady, by John Coltrane), Elvin was playing very intensely, with a lot of variety; here he plays repetitively throughout the tune, except on the bridge, on which he plays a more open waltz feel.

We're swinging the 8th notes here, obviously. At times I'm hearing pretty significant tension between the drums and bass— Elvin is laying back pretty hard, while the bassist playing pretty pointedly driving time— inflexibly so, to my ear; there are places where he could bend a little, for the common good, but he doesn't. For me the groove never quite settles, and pianist George Cables seems to be trying to thread the needle by spreading out his attacks. Maybe it's my imagination...