Time Capsule - Elvin Jones

Digital Display

Time Capsule
Elvin Jones
Produced by Ed Bland
Recording Engineers: Jeff Azraca and Charlie Repka
Mixed by David Baker
Photo: Joel Brodsky
Vanguard Recording Society
1977

Personel:

Elvin Jones: Drums
Bunky Green: Alto Sax
Kenny Barron: Percussion
Ryo Kawasaki: Guitar (appearing through courtesy of RCA Records)
Frank West: Flute on Frost Bite and Digital Display
Milt Hinton: Bass on Frost Bite and Digital Display
Frank Foster: Soprano Sax on Digital Display
George Coleman: Tenor Sax, except for Digital Display
Junie Booth: Bass on Moon Dance, Time Capsule and Spacing

From the back cover: Elvin's supporting cast here is first-rate. It also spans the generations, making Time Capsule a kind of musical time machine. The peerless bassist Milt Hinton, who appears on Frost Bite and Digital Display, has been making music since considerably before his replacement on the other three tracks, Junie Booth, was born. Both Frank West, who takes a sprightly flute solo on Frost Bite and Frank Foster, who plays soprano on Digital Display, were mainstays of the Count Basie Band in the fifties. George Coleman's tenor sax was a crucial element in a Miles Davis early-sixties quintet. Here, they coexist peacefully and productively with the Latin percussionist Ryo Kawasaki – both men very much musicians of the seventies.

If Jones can be said to have a co-star on Time Capsule, it's Vernice Green, Jr., better know as Bunky, a man not heard from on the jazz scene in too many years. A decade ago Leonard Feather described Green as a player in the Charlie Parker mold who had also been influenced by newer sounds; he called him "one of the most consistently swinging performers in this class to have come to prominence in the sixties." Shortly after those words were written, Green stopped playing to concentrate on studying – he wasn't as good as he wanted to be. As you can hear on Time Capsule, he has returned in superb form. His playing is rhythmically intense and harmonically challenging. He is also a hell of a composer, whose three contributions here are an essential part of Time Capsule's distinctive, appealing character. – Peter Keepnews.

Frost Bite - Ryo Kawasaki
Digital Display - Ed Bland
Moon Dance - Bunky Green
Time Capsule - Bunky Green
Spacing - Bunky Green