Oregon/Elvin Jones :: Together

The eclectic instrumental quartet Oregon didn’t have a drummer, and didn’t need one, letting Collin Walcott’s hand percussion punctuate their inventive collective approach to rhythm and timekeeping. But in 1976, they teamed up with one of the most titanic drummers in jazz, Elvin Jones, for an album that could have marked a major departure for each party. Instead, the pairing allowed both to branch out and sample new realms while doing what they did best. Together, recorded in one day, may not be a flat-out masterpiece, but it does capture the unlikely convergence of two disparate scenes that turned out to have a surprising amount of common ground. Get it Together!