Elvin Jones

Puttin' It Together was Elvin Jones' first album as a leader for Blue Note. It opened a new chapter after six years in the John Coltrane Quartet and Coltrane's death in July 1967. Recorded in April 1968 and released that September, it is a piano-less trio, spare and outspoken, with the drummer at the centre of a three-way conversation.

Producer Duke Pearson brought the group to the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs on April 8, 1968, with Rudy Van Gelder recording. The bassist is Jimmy Garrison, Jones' partner in the Coltrane rhythm section. This was the first studio album by either man since Coltrane's death. The third voice is Joe Farrell, heard on tenor and soprano saxophones, flute and piccolo. The liner notes are by Billy Taylor, then programme director at WLIB-FM in New York.

Without a piano Farrell has the harmonic space to himself. He uses it in long solo flights of hard, pure tone, while Garrison lays down anchors and chord roots. The programme mixes originals and borrowed tunes. It opens with Reza, an enticing Brazilian theme by Edu Lobo and Ruy Guerra. Garrison's playful Sweet Little Maia follows, then Jones' rollicking Keiko's Birthday March, dedicated to his wife. Jimmy Heath's Ginger Bread Boy closes the album.

Ira Gitler gave it five stars in DownBeat in 1969. Scott Yanow later wrote at AllMusic that Farrell "did some of his finest playing" with this trio, with Jones pushing him and Garrison sounding quite advanced. Reviewing this reissue for Tracking Angle (2026), Fred Kaplan called the album "lively and brash" and noted how little known it remains. It opened a run of ten wide-ranging Blue Note albums under Jones' name.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl edition is stereo and all-analogue, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.