Jazz Articles about Don Ellis

Don Ellis: How Time Passes to Essence Revisited

by Angelo Leonardi
March 24, 2025

Nelle storie del jazz Don Ellis è ricordato principalmente per l'innovativa big band che guidò per un decennio, dalla metà degli anni sessanta. Questa preziosa riedizione ci rammenta i suoi inizi di carriera, quando esplorava nuove soluzioni a partire dalla tromba: accoppia il suo debutto in quartetto (...How Time Passes...) dell'ottobre 1960 con alcuni brani di Essence, risalente al 1962. Il trombettista losangelino aveva appena compiuto 26 anni e registrava il primo album accompagnato dal pianista Jaki Byard, ...

George Russell: Ezz​-​thetics & The Stratus Seekers revisited

by Maurizio Comandini
June 27, 2022

George Russell è uno dei pilastri sui quali si è costruito il jazz moderno degli ultimi 70 anni. Forse non è uno dei primi nomi che ci vengono in mente, ma di sicuro il suo contributo come compositore, come band leader, come musicologo, è fondamentale. Nei primi anni sessanta i suoi album fornirono una interessante variante al free jazz 'classico' che abitualmente associamo ad Ornette Coleman, ad Albert Ayler, a Cecil Taylor e a tanti altri. Russell preferiva ...

Don Ellis: Haiku

by AAJ Italy Staff
June 9, 2010

Personaggio tra i più originali e atipici del jazz degli anni Sessanta e Settanta, il trombettista e bandleader Don Ellis ha attraversato con la sua musica differenti zone stilistiche, sperimentando metriche complesse e energie jazz-rock in contesti orchestrali e portando le intuizioni della cosiddetta third stream a esiti personalissimi quanto talvolta irrisolti. La Promising Music ristampa ora un suo lavoro uscito per la mitica MPS del critico Joachim Berendt nel 1974, intitolato Haiku e ispirato a questa concisa forma lirica ...

Don Ellis: Haiku

by John Kelman
March 30, 2010

One of the more tragic casualties of the 1970s was Don Ellis. Emerging from the big bands of Maynard Ferguson, Charlie Barnet, and Ray McKinley, the trumpeter began releasing albums under his own name in the early 1960s, distanced from his mentors' more mainstream big band sound. Beginning in small ensembles with free-thinking players such as pianist Paul Bley and bassist Gary Peacock, Ellis proved himself a more experimental instrumentalist, a quality he carried over to a return to larger ...

Pieces Of Eight & The New Don Ellis Band Goes Underground

by Jim Santella
May 21, 2006

Known for his use of unusual meters and remarkable innovations, trumpeter Don Ellis gave the world plenty to think about. If it could be done in the manner that he prescribed, then there was no limit to what other bands could do either. We listened, we accepted, and we learned that we, too, could invent.

Ellis gave us the inspiration that we needed at a time when jazz was undergoing radical changes. These two albums represent both the ...

Don Ellis: Essence

by C. Andrew Hovan
November 11, 2005

A very interesting character, trumpeter and bandleader Don Ellis is probably best known for the big bands he led in the late '60s, which served as a vehicle for his experiments with electronics and unusual time signatures. Albums such as Electric Bath and Live in 3 2/3/4 Time are brimming with the excitement of an era that was filled with rebellion and a quest for individuality. In his own way then, Ellis brought a new outlook to the big band ...

Don Ellis: Essence

by Jim Santella
September 27, 2005

Originally released in 1962 on Pacific Jazz as P-55, this reissue has been a long time coming. It reveals the kernel of Don Ellis that later blossomed into a broad-based big bandleader who straddled the fence between mainstream jazz and free jazz. His intellectually complex compositions have always knocked the socks off listeners and performers alike.

Ellis wrote “Ostinato" in 1957 for the Seventh Army Jazz II orchestra in Germany. Its opening 7/8 meter, followed by simultaneous 5/8 ...