Jazz Articles about Ellery Eskelin

Ellery Eskelin: Twenty Years in New York City - A Short Reflection

by AAJ Staff
April 5, 2003

This article was submitted on behalf of Ellery Eskelin. The year was 1979 and I was nineteen. It had been my intention to become a jazz musician ever since I was ten. So with New York being the jazz capital of the world and all, I decided it was time to see it for myself. With no plans other than getting on the train in my hometown of Baltimore and heading north, I soon found myself on ...

Ellery Eskelin: Vanishing Point

by Glenn Astarita
November 1, 2001

Tenor saxophonist, Ellery Eskelin is without a doubt one of the most important figures in modern jazz improvisation. Based on several acclaimed recordings with drummer, Jim Black and accordionist/sampler expert, Andrea Parkers amid a few choice session dates, Eskelin's ultramodern visions and marvelous technique, looms rather large these days. However, with this release, featuring notables from what some refer to as being either “New Jazz Music" or in a more granular sense, the “New York City Downtown Scene," Eskelin and ...

Ellery Eskelin, Andrea Parkins, Jim Black: The Secret Museum

by Glenn Astarita
January 1, 2001

According to saxophonist/composer Ellery Eskelin, The Secret Museum “refers to both the individual and collective experiences that all of us carry around in our daily lives”. And while Eskelin’s liners provide credence to the words behind The Secret Museum, the saxophonist along with sampler/accordion performer Andrea Parkins and drummer/percussionist Jim Black continue to amaze via their exquisite melding of sizzling unison choruses and fascinating improv with rock solid undercurrents.

Recorded in Switzerland, the musicians continue to instill a festive sense ...

Ellery Eskelin: Ramifications

by Glenn Astarita
August 1, 2000

Saxophonist/composer Ellery Eskelin continues his unique and rather intriguing plight on modern jazz with this latest offering titled, Ramifications. Here, the saxophonist performs with his long time musical associates, drummer Jim Black and accordionist, sampler expert Andrea Parkins; however, the addition of cellist Erik Friedlander and tuba maestro Joe Daley presents yet another dimension to the group's sound and style.

On “Penalty Phase," Eskelin creates an ominous tone that lurks atop the bouncy rhythms and heavy bottom as accordionist Andrea ...

Ellery Eskelin: Five Other Pieces (+2)

by Robert Spencer
December 1, 1999

Tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin just keeps getting better. On this disc he explores some of the music that has mattered to him over the years, and it's a wide range: from Mahavishnu John McLaughlin's “The Dance of Maya" through Coltrane's “India," Lennie Tristano's “April," and even George Gershwin's “Prelude II." In the liner notes Eskelin says, “I've never been one for genre hopping or jump cutting for its own sake, however. I'm more interested in the effect that various textures ...

Ellery Eskelin & Han Bennink: Dissonant Characters

by Robert Spencer
August 1, 1999

“And Han, to his audible pleasure, discovers a rare, fully equipped improviser he can't scare off, wear out, bury or give the slip."

So says Kevin Whitehead in the liner notes to this little gem, which consists of ten tracks - ranging in time from twenty-four seconds to almost ten minutes - and all featuring an incredibly agile Ellery Eskelin, plus Han Bennink, as puckish and brilliant a drummer as ever.

Take the first track, with Bennink's dramatically spare and ...

Ellery Eskelin with Andrea Parkins & Jim Black: Kulak, 29 & 30

by Robert Spencer
December 1, 1998

Kulak, 29 & 30 was recorded live at Kulak, Berikon, Switzerland, on October 29 and 30, 1997, by the innovative trio of Ellery Eskelin (tenor saxophone), Andrea Parkins (accordion and sampler), and Jim Black (percussion). In the liner notes Ellery Eskelin explains that “I'm constantly looking for structural methods to change existing and assumed paradigms in improvised music, sometimes blurring the line between written and improvised material but more often creating a highly defined distinction."

That's exactly what's happening on ...