Elvin Jones: Dear John C. (180g) [IMPULSE!]

Why you'll love it

Matthew Lutthans mastered this from the original analog tapes, Quality Record Pressings cut it on 180g vinyl, and it comes in a tip-on gatefold. Coltrane's own drummer leads a quartet with Charlie Mariano, Roland Hanna and Richard Davis, and AllMusic said it "should never be" underrated.

This edition

• Mastered from the original analog tapes by Matthew Lutthans
• 180g vinyl pressed at Quality Record Pressings
• Tip-on gatefold jacket

About the album

In 1965 Elvin Jones was still the engine of John Coltrane's classic quartet, so a record called Dear John C. was a nod to the boss. But it's not a Coltrane tribute in sound: Jones picked alto saxophonist Charlie Mariano, pianist Roland Hanna and bassist Richard Davis and made a varied, swinging, surprisingly light-footed album, from Mingus's "Love Bird" and Parker's "Anthropology" to "Feeling Good" and "Everything Happens To Me".

AllMusic's Michael G. Nastos praised the teamwork and held-in-check dynamics, and that's the treat here: the most thunderous drummer in jazz playing with restraint and still sounding like nobody else. Mariano is lovely throughout. You'll come for the drums and stay for the tunes, which is the opposite of most drum records.

Tracklist

Listen

Out August 28, 2026 on Impulse! (cat# 5708533), a reissue of the 1965 album.