For drummer Tony Moreno, the story of his musical life begins with an extraordinary act of generosity from one of jazz’s greatest innovators. In 1967, an 11-year-old Moreno was determined to see legendary drummer Elvin Jones perform live for the first time. Finding himself out past his bedtime, the young aspiring musician eventually fell asleep on a table inside the jazz club. When Jones discovered the boy, he sat down with him, learned that Moreno did not yet own a drum set and invited him to his apartment. There, Jones assembled and gifted him a set of drums—an instrument Moreno still owns today, and one Jones had played with John Coltrane’s legendary quartet.
That encounter sparked a friendship and mentorship that would shape Moreno’s life for decades. Now, with A Celebration of Elvin Jones, arriving November 6, 2026, via Mayimba Music, Moreno pays tribute to the man who helped set his musical journey in motion. Featuring ten spirited interpretations of compositions associated with Jones’ recordings as a leader, the album captures the celebrated drummer’s power, complexity and humanity through the perspective of a musician who knew him not only as an icon, but as a friend and father figure.
The album announcement arrives alongside the release of “E.J.’s Blues,” a fiery blues performance that brings Moreno back to his musical roots and offers a compelling introduction to the project. The track reflects the spirit of the tribute as a whole: energetic, deeply felt and grounded in the rhythmic language that made Jones one of the most influential drummers in jazz history.
“This album is a tribute to a man I consider to be my father figure,” Moreno says. “Elvin gave me a purpose, to live and grow and to be a musician, so this is my way of giving thanks.”
Jones, who lived from 1927 to 2004, transformed the role of the jazz drummer through his revolutionary approach to rhythm, dynamics and improvisation. As the polyrhythmic engine of Coltrane’s celebrated quartet, he helped redefine the possibilities of the instrument on landmark recordings including A Love Supreme, My Favorite Things and Crescent. Rather than simply marking time, Jones treated the drums as a fluid, multilayered voice, creating waves of rhythmic energy that could challenge, support and propel the ensemble simultaneously.
His influence extended well beyond his years with Coltrane. As a bandleader, Jones cultivated a distinctive musical environment in which intensity and freedom coexisted with a deep respect for melody and composition. His recordings became essential listening for generations of jazz musicians, and his rhythmic vocabulary continues to shape how drummers approach improvisation today.
For Moreno, revisiting Jones’ music is a deeply personal undertaking. Over a career spanning more than half a century, he has performed around the world with artists including Dave Liebman, Barry Harris, Mal Waldron and Frank Kimbrough. Emerging from New York’s influential loft-jazz scene and the Jazz Composers Orchestra Association milieu, Moreno developed a reputation as a distinctive drummer with a broad musical perspective. Yet the lessons he learned from Jones remain central to his identity.
“Playing Elvin’s music is like going home,” Moreno says. “My formative years were based on the things that I learned from him, but every musician gets to a point where they realize that your own identity is paramount. It may be difficult to shed some of the history that you’ve lived in your music, but you realize at a certain point that you have to make personal statements, which took me in different directions. So this feels like returning home, and it’s been an emotional journey.”
That tension between honoring the past and asserting an individual voice gives A Celebration of Elvin Jones its artistic purpose. Moreno is not attempting to recreate Jones’ performances note for note. Instead, he approaches the music with the understanding of someone who absorbed its lessons firsthand and has spent decades developing his own musical language.
The project began taking shape in 2024, marking the 20th anniversary of Jones’ passing. Moreno felt the time was right to bring together a group of accomplished musicians and revisit the repertoire that had helped define his earliest musical ambitions. To realize the project, he collaborated with arranger Rich Shemaria, whose credits include work with Stevie Wonder, Michael Brecker and Lady Gaga.
Shemaria’s arrangements give the album an orchestral dimension, expanding the musical framework while retaining the intensity and rhythmic freedom associated with Jones. The approach also brings greater attention to aspects of the drummer’s artistry that can sometimes be overshadowed by his formidable power: sensitivity, melodic awareness, dynamic control and an extraordinary attention to detail.
The ensemble assembled for the recording reflects that balance of virtuosity and musical understanding. Moreno is joined by tenor saxophonist Tony Roberts, a three-time GRAMMY nominee; pianist Manuel Valera, a GRAMMY nominee; GRAMMY-winning percussionist Mauricio Herrera; alto saxophonist Patrick Cornelius; and bassist Gene Perla, who spent the first half of the 1970s performing in Jones’ band.
Perla’s presence is especially meaningful. Having played directly alongside Jones during a formative period in the drummer’s career, he brings a firsthand connection to the music and its original performance tradition. Combined with the individual strengths of the other musicians, his experience helps create a setting in which the compositions can be approached with both historical awareness and fresh interpretive energy.
The album’s ten tracks explore different facets of Jones’ repertoire and musical personality. “E.J.’s Blues” opens the collection with a direct, hard-driving statement, establishing the blues foundation beneath the music’s adventurous rhythmic language. “For All the Other Times” and “Day and Night” continue the journey, while “Eclipse” and “Brite Piece” offer opportunities to explore the repertoire’s more intricate compositional and rhythmic dimensions.
“Raunchy Rita” and “New Breed” further showcase the ensemble’s ability to balance muscular interplay with expressive nuance. The inclusion of “Everything Happens to Me” brings a familiar standard into the program, broadening the emotional palette, while “Three Card Molly” adds another distinctive voice to the sequence. The album closes with “What’s Up? That’s It!,” rounding out a program designed to reflect the range of Jones’ musical vision rather than reduce his legacy to a single signature sound.
Throughout the collection, Moreno’s perspective is that of a musician returning to the source while carrying the experience of a lifetime. The performances acknowledge Jones’ influence without diminishing the individuality of the players involved. The orchestral arrangements create new possibilities for the material, while the ensemble’s rhythmic fluency keeps the music connected to the spontaneous energy that defined Jones’ work.
That balance is central to understanding Jones’ lasting impact. His contribution to jazz was not simply a matter of technical innovation or sheer physical intensity. He expanded the drummer’s expressive role, showing how rhythm could function as melody, counterpoint and dramatic structure all at once. His playing could be explosive, but it was also responsive and deeply connected to the musicians around him.
Moreno’s tribute recognizes those qualities through a personal lens. The story of the gifted drum set is more than a remarkable anecdote; it represents the beginning of a relationship that helped shape an artist’s sense of purpose. By returning to Jones’ music, Moreno reconnects with the experiences that first drew him to jazz while demonstrating how those early lessons continue to inform his own work.
A Celebration of Elvin Jones is therefore both a musical statement and an expression of gratitude. Its performances honor a giant of modern jazz while revealing the enduring influence of a mentor whose generosity extended beyond the bandstand. For Moreno, the journey comes full circle—not by abandoning the musical identity he has built over five decades, but by bringing that experience back to the music that first inspired him.
A Celebration of Elvin Jones arrives November 6, 2026, via Mayimba Music. The first single, “E.J.’s Blues,” is available now, and the album is available to pre-save online.
Full tracklist — A Celebration of Elvin Jones
“E.J.’s Blues”
“For All the Other Times”
“Day and Night”
“Eclipse”
“Brite Piece”
“Raunchy Rita”
“New Breed”
“Everything Happens to Me”
“Three Card Molly”
“What’s Up? That’s It!”
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