Jazz Articles

Ellen Weller: Spirits, Little Dreams and Improvisations

By REX BUTTERS

San Diego's Ellen Weller took time out from the remarkable Trummerflora Collective to create and record Spirits, Little Dreams and Improvisations, a compelling suite based on medieval Jewish possession myths extrapolated to consider the channeling of musical flow by improvising musicians. Her research team includes Vinny Golia and George Lewis, plus Trummerflora's Marcos Fernandes, Nathan Hubbard, and Lisle Ellis. The seventeen tracks feature different configurations ranging from duos to septets.

The first of six trios featuring Fernandes, Hubbard, and Weller ...

Ellen Weller: Spirits, Little Dreams and Improvisations

By BUDD KOPMAN

With Spirits, Little Dreams and Improvisations, Ellen Weller has created an album that attempts to unite the mystical with the musical. The liner art has many hieroglyphic-type symbols, as well as spirals and other shapes that feel like they are trying to “cross over to the other side."? Jewish mysticism is clearly referenced as “dybbuk" is defined as “(Jewish mythology) a wandering soul that becomes attached to a living person to accomplish some task that it was unable to complete ...