In 1960, Jones teamed up with saxophonist John Coltrane. Along with the other members of the Coltrane Quartet— McCoy Tyner on piano and Jimmy Garrison on bass—he now set about changing the concepts and musical vocabulary of jazz forever.
Jones's drum style was based on his polyrhythmic conception of time—the beat was stated, solid, and swinging, but with a highly elastic quality. He used cross-rhythms and multiple time signatures to great effect, within the solid framework of swinging,...