Don Ellis
Encyclopedia
Don Ellis was an American jazz trumpeter, drummer, composer and bandleader. He is best known for his extensive musical experimentation, particularly in the area of unusual time signature
s. Later in his life he worked as a film composer, among other works contributing a score to 1971's The French Connection
and 1973's The Seven-Ups
.
Big Band concert that he first became interested in jazz. Other early inspirations were Louis Armstrong
and Dizzy Gillespie
. He graduated from Boston University
in 1956 with a composition degree.
band, directed by Ray McKinley
. He stayed with the band until September, 1956, when he joined the Seventh Army Symphony and Soldiers' Show Company. He was sent to Frankfurt
, Germany
. In the Army band, Ellis met pianist Cedar Walton
, and saxophonists Eddie Harris
and Don Menza
. It was also in this band that Ellis got his first opportunity to write for a big band.
After two years, he left the Army band and moved to Greenwich Village in New York City. He was able to get some work, but mainly with dance bands and other local work. He toured briefly with bandleader Charlie Barnet
but held no notable positions until he joined the Maynard Ferguson
band in spring of 1959. He remained with Ferguson for nine months.
Shortly thereafter, Ellis became involved in the New York City avant-garde jazz scene. He appeared on albums by Charles Mingus
, Eric Dolphy
, and George Russell, belonging to the latter's sextet for two years. Under his own name, he led several sessions with small groups between 1960 and 1962, which featured, among others, Jaki Byard
, Paul Bley
, Gary Peacock
, Ron Carter
, Charlie Persip
, and Steve Swallow
. The albums are as notable for their explorations of tempo, form, and tonality as they are for their excellent musicianship. The last one, Essence, was recorded in mid-July 1962, after which Ellis would not release another record in America for several years. But he was far from inactive during this period.
; his quartet performance was partially documented on a Polish-only 10-inch EP. Ellis chronicled his experience in an article called Warsaw Diary, which was printed in the January 3rd, 1963 issue of Down Beat
magazine. In December, Ellis participated in the NDR's Jazz Workshop in Hamburg
, Germany
, and in early 1963, traveled to Stockholm
, Sweden
. While there, he became somewhat well-known for his experimentation with happenings, similar to those used by members of the Fluxus
art movement.
Back in New York, Ellis formed the Improvisational Workshop Orchestra, which gave its debut performance on February 10, 1963 at the Five Spot
. (Another tape of the same group is listed in the Don Ellis Collection as being recorded on Feb. 9th, but it may be a rehearsal tape.) The performance had a quality very similar to those Ellis gave in Sweden: performers used cards to determine event orders, musicians used their instruments to interpret a painter's work, etc. In addition, some uncommon musical elements were employed, such as the use of Arabian rhythms and scales, and foot shuffling.
at UCLA where he studied with Indian musician Harihar Rao
. Greatly inspired by Rao, Ellis sought to implement odd meters in a Western improvised context. Along with Rao, he co-authored an article in 1965 called "An Introduction to Indian Music for the Jazz Musician". He briefly formed the first version of his big band at this time, but this was disbanded when Ellis received a Rockefeller Grant to work at SUNY Buffalo
for a year.
While in New York, Ellis was involved with several Third Stream
projects. A live performance from February 8, 1964 at the Lincoln Center was filmed for Leonard Bernstein
's Young People's Concerts series. He performed with other jazz musicians alongside the New York Philharmonic
on Larry Austin
's "Improvisations for Orchestra and Jazz Soloists" (1961) and Gunther Schuller
's "Journey Into Jazz" (1962). A later recording of Austin's piece, featuring Ellis, bassist Barre Phillips
, drummer Joe Cocuzzo, and the New York Philharmonic
(directed by Bernstein) was released on an album entitled Leonard Bernstein Conducts Music Of Our Time (1965).
In November 1967, Ellis's first symphony, "Contrasts for Two Orchestras and Trumpet" was debuted by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta
.
, who played sitar
and tabla
, but also featured vibraphonist
Emil Richards
, drummer Steve Bohannon, bassists Chuck Domanico
and Ray Neapolitan, and pianist Dave Mackay. At least one performance also featured saxophonist
Gabe Baltazar
. The band performed mainly original compositions which had titles like "Sweet Nineteen", "Turks Works", and "Bombay Bossa Nova".
The Sextet became somewhat well-known around Los Angeles, despite having no recordings commercially available. Perhaps the greatest exposure the group had was "Synthesis", a composition by Ellis in which the Sextet performed alongside Stan Kenton
's Neophonic Orchestra. The concert took place in February 1966 at the Los Angeles Music Center.
On July 14 of that year, the Sextet performed at Bill Graham
's Fillmore West
auditorium, opening for the Grateful Dead
and Big Brother and the Holding Company
. This is the last known activity of the Sextet, until 1971, when the group (with Milcho Leviev
, Ralph Humphrey and Dennis Parker forming the rhythm section) played several gigs at Donte's in North Hollywood. But Ellis's side project, a workshop Orchestra, had been brewing something different for the last couple years.
. The campaign eventually succeeded, and the band was scheduled to perform that September.
The Don Ellis Orchestra was different from most other big bands in several ways; most obviously in its instrumentation (discussed below), but also in Ellis's incorporation of Indian musical elements into modern big-band writing. Drawing from his compositional and arranging experience, as well as from his studies of Indian music, Ellis began to write jazz-based music with the time signatures he had studied with Rao. These included not only 5/4, 7/8, and 9/4, but also more complex rhythmic cycles like 19/8 and 27/16. In the future, Ellis would use many more complex meters, as well as complex subdivisions of more standard meters. Many of these more complex cycles were inspired by Ellis's later interest in Eastern European folk music, such as that of Greece
and Bulgaria
.
Ellis also had a customized trumpet made for him by the Holton
company, which he received in September 1965. This trumpet had an additional valve which enabled his trumpet to produce quarter tones. Some claim that the inspiration for this may have been due to his studies of Indian music, which includes bent pitches that some ethnomusicologists refer to as "microtones". However, it was probably more the result of Ellis's previous involvement with avant-garde classical music
, in which many composers were experimenting with Western tonality and intervals, especially Harry Partch
, with whom Ellis is known to have met and discussed ideas.
All of these unusual elements combined to create a musical experience unlike anything the Monterey audience had ever seen. The Orchestra received thunderous applause and a standing ovation at the conclusion of their first tune, titled "33 222 1 222" in accordance with its subdivision of 19. The band went on to play tunes in 7, 9, and 27, as well as a couple in more standard meters. Portions of the concert were released on Pacific Jazz the following year. The 1998 CD reissue includes several other tunes from the concert; the CD's notes also reveal that one number, "Concerto for Trumpet," was actually recorded a month later at a "Pacific Jazz Festival" in Costa Mesa. (The Monterey performance of that tune was apparently not up to the standards of Ellis and the album's producer, Richard Bock.)
Following this successful breakthrough performance, the band performed at the Pacific Jazz Festival in October 1966, and at Shelly's Manne Hole
in March 1967, releasing segments of each on 1967's Live in 3 2/3 4 Time (Pacific Jazz).
producer and A&R
man John Hammond
sought to recruit the band for the label. The band was signed, and was in the studio in September 1967 to record Electric Bath, which was released the following year to wide acclaim. The album was nominated for a Grammy award, won the 1968 Down Beat "Album of the Year" award, and reached #8 on the Billboard jazz charts. The song "Indian Lady" became one of the band's most popular tunes. "Open Beauty" featured Don in an echoplex
trumpet solo, an innovative combination of acoustic instruments and electronic technology. Ellis would continue to develop the "electrophonic trumpet" over the next five years. (see below)
In February 1968, the Orchestra was back in the studio to record a second album, which would become Shock Treatment. However, miscommunications arose and the album was released with poor edits and inferior alternate takes that Ellis did not approve of. In Ellis's own words:
Throughout late 1968, the Orchestra returned to the studio several times to record songs for what would become "Autumn". The album contained the 20-minute opus "Variations for Trumpet" that showcased Ellis's virtuosic trumpet playing. Also on the record was "Pussy Wiggle Stomp", the song that would succeed "Indian Lady" as the Orchestra's signature tune. Side two of the record contained two lengthy tunes from a concert at Palo Alto's Stanford University
from August 1968. The tracks are notable for their revelations of the Ellis band's contemporary live sound, which was far more raucous than either of their previous live recordings.
In early 1969, the Orchestra was back in Columbia Studios to record "The Don Ellis Band Goes Underground", a collection of several pop songs (arranged by Ellis) and some Ellis originals. The album inexplicably features a vocalist named Patti Allen on songs by Laura Nyro
, The Isley Brothers
, and Sly Stone
. The album also features "Bulgarian Bulge", a composition based on a Bulgarian folk tune in 33/16 time.
The band's energetic live performances such as the one at Stanford caused its popularity among college crowds to increase. In June 1970, the Orchestra performed for three nights at Bill Graham
's Fillmore West
auditorium, opening for the Quicksilver Messenger Service
and Leon Russell
. The resulting recording was made into a double LP and released by Columbia in late 1970. "Live at Fillmore" was a happy return to original material, and even included one Beatles cover, a highly experimental rendition of "Hey Jude
", as well as another version of "Pussy Wiggle Stomp".
Around this time, Ellis's popularity among educators was also climbing; copies of his band's charts were being published and played by many high school and college big bands. Accordingly, Ellis taught many clinics and played with many school bands.
In May 1971, Ellis added a string quartet to the Orchestra. He also hired Bulgarian piano virtuoso Milcho Leviev
who was able to improvise fluently in time signatures that would initially be intimidating to most American improvisers. He was an important asset to Ellis's band, and stayed with Ellis for five years. The Orchestra was recorded in late May at Basin Street West in San Francisco. The resulting album, "Tears of Joy", was another live double-LP and was released in late 1971. The album featured a composition called "Strawberry Soup" that has been the subject of several doctoral dissertations due to its metric intricacy, its simple theme and complex variations, and the sheer timbral spectrum that it covers.
to compose the music to his film The French Connection
. Ellis accepted the project and wrote the music to be performed by his own Orchestra. Ellis later won a Grammy for this project ("Best Instrumental Arrangement"), and was asked to write the music to the film's sequel, French Connection II
in 1975.
Ellis's final album for Columbia, Connection, was recorded in August 1972. The album featured "The Theme from 'The French Connection'", an abbreviated version of Ellis's movie score, and "Chain Reaction", a tour de force by longtime contributor Hank Levy
. Alongside these highlights are arrangements of several pop songs by artists like Carole King
, Yes
, Andrew Lloyd Webber
and The Carpenters
. The arrangements were generally very tongue-in-cheek; often Ellis arranged them in different meters than the original, or arranged for the melody to be played in a humorous way. There is no singer on this album.
Regardless of what inspired Ellis's liberal interpretations of the popular material, Connection was the Orchestra's last album for Columbia.
, which would also release Ellis's next album, Haiku. The record, featuring Milcho Leviev
, bassist Ray Brown
, drummer John Guerin
, and a large string orchestra, is made up of ten songs, each based on a Japanese haiku poem. The album is very relaxed and introspective. Haiku was presumably recorded in late 1973 and released in 1974.
, even studying Portuguese
so as to better communicate with indigenous musicians. He led a live band around this time called the "Organic Band", which was a stripped-down version of the Orchestra that had no electronic instrumentation or modification (save for amplification). The band also featured a vocal quartet.
These pursuits were postponed when Ellis started having health problems, feeling "out of breath after [walking] up a single flight of stairs". He checked himself into a hospital in New York City where a doctor diagnosed him with Mitral stenosis
, a condition which caused his heart to beat in odd rhythms. He was prescribed medication and went home to Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter, he started feeling strange again, and went to a local hospital where he was re-diagnosed with an atrial septal defect
. More tests were run and finally a third diagnosis was made: cardiomyopathy
. Ellis was prescribed more drugs, but his condition worsened and he went into ventricular fibrillation
early one morning in May 1975. Ellis later described being on the verge of death, as doctors struggled to save his life: "It sounds weird, I know, but it was a remarkably beautiful experience, maybe the ultimate high."
television special entitled "Where Do We Go From Here?" The Orchestra played Ellis's arrangement of "Sweet Georgia Brown
" retitled "Sweet Shirley MacLaine". The arrangement featured a solo by Art Pepper
, a chorus of tap dancers, and the return of the electrophonic trumpet.
In 1977, Ellis was signed to Atlantic Records
, which promised to fund the Orchestra's upcoming trip for the band's performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival
in Montreux
, Switzerland
in exchange for a live recording of said performance. However, the record company asked Don first to record arrangements of two songs from Star Wars
. The songs, "Star Wars (Main Title)" and "Princess Leia's Theme", were to be released as a 45 rpm
single. In June, the record company scrambled and asked Don to record an entire album of material, for the purpose of having an album to sell in case the single became a hit. Don had to do this before his band left to perform in Montreux in about a week. In addition, the songs that were to be on this album could not be duplicates of what would later appear on the live album.
Ellis got some help from fellow composers/arrangers Tommy Vig
and Curt Berg but largely wrote everything on his own. The album was thrown together and released as Music from Other Galaxies and Planets; all the songs were retitled with novelty space-related names like "Orion's Sword" and "Crypton".
The band's performance at Montreux was very well-received and the subsequent album reached #48 on Billboard
s jazz charts. This was to be Ellis's last album as a leader, although he would appear on albums by Nick Gilder
(You Know Who You Are
) and Tommy Vig
(1978).
Ellis's last known public performance took place on April 21, 1978, at the Westside Room in Century City. After this, his doctor ordered him to refrain from touring and playing trumpet because it was too stressful on his heart. On December 17, 1978, after seeing a Jon Hendricks
concert, Ellis suffered a fatal heart attack at the home of his mother and father. His heart condition is believed to have been cardiac arrhythmia. He was 44. Ellis was buried in the Sheltering Hills section, of Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Hollywood Hills, CA.
, John Klemmer
, Glenn Ferris
, Milcho Leviev
and a few others have gone on to prolific solo careers. Others like Ralph Humphrey and Fred Selden have had successful careers as sidemen, session musicians or educators.
Most of Ellis' albums have been reissued on CD. Columbia Records, responsible for originally releasing seven of Ellis's albums, only reissued Electric Bath (Ellis's biggest seller) in 1997; the rest have been leased to other companies for reissue. Today, thanks to labels like Koch Jazz, Wounded Bird and Mighty Quinn Productions, almost all of his albums have been reissued on CD and are readily available.
Ellis also wrote numerous articles and several books. The new rhythm book (1972) presents methods of practice and performance in unusual meters and features a companion play-along LP/cassette entitled New Rhythms. His second book, Quarter Tones, published in 1975, is a theoretical guide to using quarter tones. Both books are very thorough, providing a great deal of historical and cultural background to their subjects. Quarter Tones also provides readers with etudes and exercises. Both books are very hard to find, as they have presumably not been printed since their first editions.
The Don Ellis Library and Collection resides in the Ethnomusicology Archives at UCLA. Prior to that, (from 1981–2000) it was housed at Eastfield College
, part of Dallas County Community College District
, DCCCD in Mesquite
, Texas
. Along with writings, instruments and other items, is his Grammy for best score for the movie The French Connection
in 1971.
and French horn to augment the brass section, and sometimes had the saxophonists double on instruments like flute
, oboe
, clarinet
and saxello.
In 1967, Ellis began experimentation with electronics. His pianist started using the Fender-Rhodes electric piano
, clavinet
, and electric harpsichord. Ellis himself started using what he called the "electrophonic trumpet"; that is, a trumpet whose sound was amplified and often routed through various effects processors. The first appearance of this innovation is on "Open Beauty" from 1967's Electric Bath, in which Ellis takes an extended solo with his trumpet being processed through an echoplex
. Ellis also used the ring modulator on several occasions, which was built for him by Tom Oberheim.
In 1968, Ellis replaced the double-bassists with a single electric bassist, at first Joe Julian, then Dennis Parker, and finally Dave McDaniels. He also hired guitarist Jay Graydon
who remained with the band for several years.
In 1971, for the Tears of Joy tour, Ellis added a string quartet to his band. The instruments were amplified using newly-developed pick-ups made by Barcus-Berry so that they could be heard over the brass and saxophones. These new timbres offered Ellis a wellspring of creative possibilities. As he explained, "People spend whole evenings listening to a brass quintet, a woodwind or string quartet, so I reasoned that having ALL of these in the context of a big band should give us a fantastic variety of colors from which to draw."
Sometime in 1973 or 1974, Haiku was released, which was recorded using a jazz quartet with full string orchestra backing. Due to the size of the group, this was probably never intended to be a replacement for the Don Ellis Orchestra as a touring group.
Ellis's "Organic Band", which toured throughout spring and summer 1974, reduced the band's numbers from 21 or 22 to 15. The horn section was more than halved, the string quartet was removed, a vocal quartet was added, and no electronics (save for amplification) were used to alter the band's sound.
After his heart attack, Ellis returned briefly to the electrophonic trumpet, and continued using synthesizers and electronic keyboards. The string quartet, a mainstay since 1971, remained alongside the brass. He also began playing two new instruments, the superbone
and the firebird
, which were a combination valve-slide trombone and trumpet, respectively. Both were also played by Maynard Ferguson
.
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
s. Later in his life he worked as a film composer, among other works contributing a score to 1971's The French Connection
The French Connection (film)
This article is about the 1971 film. For the British fashion label, see French Connection .The French Connection is a 1971 American crime film directed by William Friedkin. The film was adapted and fictionalized by Ernest Tidyman from the non-fiction book by Robin Moore...
and 1973's The Seven-Ups
The Seven-Ups
The Seven-Ups is a 1973 American film released by 20th Century Fox. It stars Roy Scheider as a renegade policeman who is the leader of The Seven-Ups, a police team who uses dirty, unorthodox tactics to snare their quarry on charges leading to prison sentences of seven years or more upon...
.
Early life
Ellis was born in Los Angeles, CA on July 25, 1934. His father was a Methodist minister and his mother a church organist. He attended West High School in Minneapolis, MN. It was after seeing a Tommy DorseyTommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...
Big Band concert that he first became interested in jazz. Other early inspirations were Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
and Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
. He graduated from Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
in 1956 with a composition degree.
Early career
Ellis' first job was with the Glenn MillerGlenn Miller
Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...
band, directed by Ray McKinley
Ray McKinley
Ray McKinley was an American jazz drummer, singer, and bandleader.McKinley got his start working with local bands in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, before joining Smith Ballew in 1929, when he met Glenn Miller. The two formed a friendship which lasted from 1929 until Miller's death in 1944....
. He stayed with the band until September, 1956, when he joined the Seventh Army Symphony and Soldiers' Show Company. He was sent to Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. In the Army band, Ellis met pianist Cedar Walton
Cedar Walton
Cedar Anthony Walton, Junior is an American hard bop jazz pianist.-Biography:Walton grew up in Dallas, Texas. His mother was an aspiring concert pianist, and was Walton's initial teacher. She also took him to jazz performances around Dallas...
, and saxophonists Eddie Harris
Eddie Harris
Eddie Harris was an American jazz musician, best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone. He was also fluent on the electric piano and organ...
and Don Menza
Don Menza
Don Menza is an American saxophonist, arranger, composer, session musician, and jazz educator noted for his many contributions to American jazz and big band music. -Early years:...
. It was also in this band that Ellis got his first opportunity to write for a big band.
After two years, he left the Army band and moved to Greenwich Village in New York City. He was able to get some work, but mainly with dance bands and other local work. He toured briefly with bandleader Charlie Barnet
Charlie Barnet
Charles Daly Barnet was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.His major recordings were "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", "In a Mizz", and "Southland Shuffle".-Early life:...
but held no notable positions until he joined the Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...
band in spring of 1959. He remained with Ferguson for nine months.
Shortly thereafter, Ellis became involved in the New York City avant-garde jazz scene. He appeared on albums by Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
, Eric Dolphy
Eric Dolphy
Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flutist, and bass clarinetist. On a few occasions he also played the clarinet and baritone saxophone. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence in the 1960s...
, and George Russell, belonging to the latter's sextet for two years. Under his own name, he led several sessions with small groups between 1960 and 1962, which featured, among others, Jaki Byard
Jaki Byard
Jaki Byard was an American jazz pianist and composer who also played trumpet and saxophone, among several other instruments. He was noteworthy for his eclectic style, incorporating everything from ragtime and stride to free jazz...
, Paul Bley
Paul Bley
Paul Bley, CM is a pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing.-Biography:...
, Gary Peacock
Gary Peacock
Gary Peacock is an American jazz double-bassist.-Biography:After military service in Germany, in the early sixties he worked on the west coast with Barney Kessel, Bud Shank, Paul Bley and Art Pepper, then moved to New York. He worked there with Bley, the Bill Evans trio , and Albert Ayler's trio...
, Ron Carter
Ron Carter
Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...
, Charlie Persip
Charlie Persip
Charli Persip , is an American jazz drummer. Born in Morristown, New Jersey as Charles Lawrence Persip, he changed his name to Charli Persip in the early 1980s.-Biography:...
, and Steve Swallow
Steve Swallow
Steve Swallow is a jazz double bass and bass guitarist and composer born in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.One of the leading bassists in jazz, Swallow is noted for collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton and Carla Bley...
. The albums are as notable for their explorations of tempo, form, and tonality as they are for their excellent musicianship. The last one, Essence, was recorded in mid-July 1962, after which Ellis would not release another record in America for several years. But he was far from inactive during this period.
Happenings in Europe and America
In October 1962, Ellis traveled to Poland to take part in the 1962 Jazz Jamboree in WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
; his quartet performance was partially documented on a Polish-only 10-inch EP. Ellis chronicled his experience in an article called Warsaw Diary, which was printed in the January 3rd, 1963 issue of Down Beat
Down Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
magazine. In December, Ellis participated in the NDR's Jazz Workshop in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and in early 1963, traveled to Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. While there, he became somewhat well-known for his experimentation with happenings, similar to those used by members of the Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
art movement.
Back in New York, Ellis formed the Improvisational Workshop Orchestra, which gave its debut performance on February 10, 1963 at the Five Spot
Five Spot
The Five Spot Café was a jazz club located at 5 Cooper Square in the Bowery neighbourhood of New York City.-History:In 1937, Salvatore Termini purchased what was then known as the Bowery Café, a working-class bar located under the Third Avenue El. In 1946, two of Termini's sons, Joe and Ignatze ...
. (Another tape of the same group is listed in the Don Ellis Collection as being recorded on Feb. 9th, but it may be a rehearsal tape.) The performance had a quality very similar to those Ellis gave in Sweden: performers used cards to determine event orders, musicians used their instruments to interpret a painter's work, etc. In addition, some uncommon musical elements were employed, such as the use of Arabian rhythms and scales, and foot shuffling.
New Rhythms & the Third Stream
In 1964, Ellis began graduate studies in ethnomusicologyEthnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
at UCLA where he studied with Indian musician Harihar Rao
Harihar Rao
Harihar Rao is a sitar player who worked in the ethnomusicology department at UCLA. In 1967, Rao published the book Introduction to Sitar, which sold more than 500 copies in its first two weeks of publication...
. Greatly inspired by Rao, Ellis sought to implement odd meters in a Western improvised context. Along with Rao, he co-authored an article in 1965 called "An Introduction to Indian Music for the Jazz Musician". He briefly formed the first version of his big band at this time, but this was disbanded when Ellis received a Rockefeller Grant to work at SUNY Buffalo
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, also commonly known as the University at Buffalo or UB, is a public research university and a "University Center" in the State University of New York system. The university was founded by Millard Fillmore in 1846. UB has multiple campuses...
for a year.
While in New York, Ellis was involved with several Third Stream
Third stream
Third Stream is a term coined in 1957 by composer Gunther Schuller, within a lecture at Brandeis University, to describe a musical genre which is a synthesis of classical music and jazz...
projects. A live performance from February 8, 1964 at the Lincoln Center was filmed for Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
's Young People's Concerts series. He performed with other jazz musicians alongside the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
on Larry Austin
Larry Austin
Larry Austin is a United States composer noted for his electronic and computer music works. He was a co-founder and editor of the avant-garde music periodical Source: Music of the Avant Garde...
's "Improvisations for Orchestra and Jazz Soloists" (1961) and Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller is an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, and jazz musician.- Biography and works :...
's "Journey Into Jazz" (1962). A later recording of Austin's piece, featuring Ellis, bassist Barre Phillips
Barre Phillips
Barre Phillips is a jazz and free improvisation bassist. A professional musician since 1960, he migrated to New York City in 1962, then to Europe in 1967. Since 1972 he has been based in southern France....
, drummer Joe Cocuzzo, and the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
(directed by Bernstein) was released on an album entitled Leonard Bernstein Conducts Music Of Our Time (1965).
In November 1967, Ellis's first symphony, "Contrasts for Two Orchestras and Trumpet" was debuted by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of western classical music. He is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.-Biography:...
.
The Hindustani Jazz Sextet
Returning to the West Coast, Ellis formed The Hindustani Jazz Sextet, which explored some of the concepts he had learned at UCLA. The Sextet is generally considered to be the first band of its kind in America. The Sextet centered around Ellis and his mentor Harihar RaoHarihar Rao
Harihar Rao is a sitar player who worked in the ethnomusicology department at UCLA. In 1967, Rao published the book Introduction to Sitar, which sold more than 500 copies in its first two weeks of publication...
, who played sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
and tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
, but also featured vibraphonist
Vibraphone
The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
Emil Richards
Emil Richards
Emil Richards, born Emilio Joseph Radocchia on September 2, 1932 in Hartford, Connecticut, is a percussionist who plays a variety of different percussion instruments.-Biography:...
, drummer Steve Bohannon, bassists Chuck Domanico
Chuck Domanico
Charles Louis Domanico , better known as Chuck Domanico, was an American jazz bassist, playing both acoustic and electric bass on the West Coast jazz scene.Domanico was born in Chicago...
and Ray Neapolitan, and pianist Dave Mackay. At least one performance also featured saxophonist
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
Gabe Baltazar
Gabe Baltazar
Gabe Baltazar is a Filipino-American jazz alto saxophonist.Considered as one of the last great alumni from the Stan Kenton Orchestra, Baltazar moved to the U.S. mainland from Hawaii in the mid-1950s, to record music with Paul Togawa in 1957, and spent a brief unrecorded period in 1960 with the...
. The band performed mainly original compositions which had titles like "Sweet Nineteen", "Turks Works", and "Bombay Bossa Nova".
The Sextet became somewhat well-known around Los Angeles, despite having no recordings commercially available. Perhaps the greatest exposure the group had was "Synthesis", a composition by Ellis in which the Sextet performed alongside Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
's Neophonic Orchestra. The concert took place in February 1966 at the Los Angeles Music Center.
On July 14 of that year, the Sextet performed at Bill Graham
Bill Graham
William Carvel "Bill" Graham, PC QC is a former Canadian politician, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of National Defence, and Leader of the Opposition and interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.-Personal life:...
's Fillmore West
Fillmore West
The Fillmore West was an historic music venue in San Francisco, California made famous by concert promoter Bill Graham. Named after Graham's original "Fillmore" location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, it stood at Market Street and South Van Ness Avenue and was formerly...
auditorium, opening for the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
and Big Brother and the Holding Company
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane. They are best known as the band that featured Janis Joplin as their...
. This is the last known activity of the Sextet, until 1971, when the group (with Milcho Leviev
Milcho Leviev
Milcho Leviev is a Bulgarian composer, arranger, jazz performer and pianist.Milcho Leviev graduated from the State Academy of Music in 1960 majoring in Composition under Professor Pancho Vladigerov and in Piano under Professor Andrei Stoyanov...
, Ralph Humphrey and Dennis Parker forming the rhythm section) played several gigs at Donte's in North Hollywood. But Ellis's side project, a workshop Orchestra, had been brewing something different for the last couple years.
'Live' at Monterey!
In addition to working with the Hindustani Jazz Sextet, Ellis continued writing arrangements for and rehearsing what would grow into the Don Ellis Orchestra. This rehearsal/workshop band played every Monday night for almost a year, first at a venue called Club Havana and later relocating to a club called Bonesville in Hollywood, where they began to gain a significant following. The group started making money by charging a small admission fee to the rehearsals, and began a letter-writing campaign to get the band a spot at the 1966 Monterey Jazz FestivalMonterey Jazz Festival
The Monterey Jazz Festival is one of the longest consecutively running jazz festivals. It debuted on October 3, 1958 and was founded by San Francisco jazz radio broadcaster Jimmy Lyons.-History:...
. The campaign eventually succeeded, and the band was scheduled to perform that September.
The Don Ellis Orchestra was different from most other big bands in several ways; most obviously in its instrumentation (discussed below), but also in Ellis's incorporation of Indian musical elements into modern big-band writing. Drawing from his compositional and arranging experience, as well as from his studies of Indian music, Ellis began to write jazz-based music with the time signatures he had studied with Rao. These included not only 5/4, 7/8, and 9/4, but also more complex rhythmic cycles like 19/8 and 27/16. In the future, Ellis would use many more complex meters, as well as complex subdivisions of more standard meters. Many of these more complex cycles were inspired by Ellis's later interest in Eastern European folk music, such as that of Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
.
Ellis also had a customized trumpet made for him by the Holton
Holton (Leblanc)
Holton is a musical instrument manufacturer owned by Leblanc, a subsidiary of Steinway Musical Instruments' Conn-Selmer division. Founded by trombone player Frank Holton in 1898 in Chicago, the firm built wind instruments in Elkhorn, Wisconsin from 1918 until 2011.-Frank Holton:Frank E. Holton was...
company, which he received in September 1965. This trumpet had an additional valve which enabled his trumpet to produce quarter tones. Some claim that the inspiration for this may have been due to his studies of Indian music, which includes bent pitches that some ethnomusicologists refer to as "microtones". However, it was probably more the result of Ellis's previous involvement with avant-garde classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, in which many composers were experimenting with Western tonality and intervals, especially Harry Partch
Harry Partch
Harry Partch was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments that he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation.-Early...
, with whom Ellis is known to have met and discussed ideas.
All of these unusual elements combined to create a musical experience unlike anything the Monterey audience had ever seen. The Orchestra received thunderous applause and a standing ovation at the conclusion of their first tune, titled "33 222 1 222" in accordance with its subdivision of 19. The band went on to play tunes in 7, 9, and 27, as well as a couple in more standard meters. Portions of the concert were released on Pacific Jazz the following year. The 1998 CD reissue includes several other tunes from the concert; the CD's notes also reveal that one number, "Concerto for Trumpet," was actually recorded a month later at a "Pacific Jazz Festival" in Costa Mesa. (The Monterey performance of that tune was apparently not up to the standards of Ellis and the album's producer, Richard Bock.)
Following this successful breakthrough performance, the band performed at the Pacific Jazz Festival in October 1966, and at Shelly's Manne Hole
Shelly Manne
Shelly Manne , born Sheldon Manne in New York City, was an American jazz drummer. Most frequently associated with West Coast jazz, he was known for his versatility and also played in a number of other styles, including Dixieland, swing, bebop, avant-garde jazz and fusion, as well as contributing...
in March 1967, releasing segments of each on 1967's Live in 3 2/3 4 Time (Pacific Jazz).
Columbia Records
Around this time, Columbia RecordsColumbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
producer and A&R
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
man John Hammond
John H. Hammond
John Henry Hammond II was an American record producer, musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s...
sought to recruit the band for the label. The band was signed, and was in the studio in September 1967 to record Electric Bath, which was released the following year to wide acclaim. The album was nominated for a Grammy award, won the 1968 Down Beat "Album of the Year" award, and reached #8 on the Billboard jazz charts. The song "Indian Lady" became one of the band's most popular tunes. "Open Beauty" featured Don in an echoplex
Echoplex
The Echoplex is a tape delay effect, first made in 1959. Designed by Mike Battle, the Echoplex set a standard for the effect in the 1960s and was used by some of the most notable guitar players of the era; original Echoplexes are highly sought after....
trumpet solo, an innovative combination of acoustic instruments and electronic technology. Ellis would continue to develop the "electrophonic trumpet" over the next five years. (see below)
In February 1968, the Orchestra was back in the studio to record a second album, which would become Shock Treatment. However, miscommunications arose and the album was released with poor edits and inferior alternate takes that Ellis did not approve of. In Ellis's own words:
"Upon completion of the album, I did the mixing and editing here in California and then sent the finished product to New York. It wasn't until the album was already released that I heard a pressing. Much to my horror, I found that, without consulting me, the whole album had been changed around--rejected masters and unapproved takes were used (not the ones which I had selected and edited), the wrong tunes were on the album, unauthorized splices were made which disturbed the musical flow of some of the compositions (beats were even missing from bars), whole sections were cut out, some of these being the high points of the album. Therefore the liner notes, which were done to the original album, do not agree with what is actually on the album, calling attention to solos and high spots which are not there. [...] Also, the wrong personnel is listed on the jacket.
When I discovered what had happened, I was, naturally, disturbed and asked Columbia to redo the album. They graciously consented and I was able to change the album back to its original form except that I left Mercy Maybe Mercy, which my producer particularly liked, in place of Zim, which I hope will appear in a future album."
Throughout late 1968, the Orchestra returned to the studio several times to record songs for what would become "Autumn". The album contained the 20-minute opus "Variations for Trumpet" that showcased Ellis's virtuosic trumpet playing. Also on the record was "Pussy Wiggle Stomp", the song that would succeed "Indian Lady" as the Orchestra's signature tune. Side two of the record contained two lengthy tunes from a concert at Palo Alto's Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
from August 1968. The tracks are notable for their revelations of the Ellis band's contemporary live sound, which was far more raucous than either of their previous live recordings.
In early 1969, the Orchestra was back in Columbia Studios to record "The Don Ellis Band Goes Underground", a collection of several pop songs (arranged by Ellis) and some Ellis originals. The album inexplicably features a vocalist named Patti Allen on songs by Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved considerable critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry, and had commercial success with artists such as Barbra Streisand and The 5th...
, The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers are a highly influential, successful and long-running American music group consisting of different line-ups of six brothers, and a brother-in-law, Chris Jasper...
, and Sly Stone
Sly Stone
Sly Stone is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, most famous for his role as frontman for Sly & the Family Stone, a band which played a critical role in the development of soul, funk and psychedelia in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of...
. The album also features "Bulgarian Bulge", a composition based on a Bulgarian folk tune in 33/16 time.
The band's energetic live performances such as the one at Stanford caused its popularity among college crowds to increase. In June 1970, the Orchestra performed for three nights at Bill Graham
Bill Graham
William Carvel "Bill" Graham, PC QC is a former Canadian politician, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of National Defence, and Leader of the Opposition and interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.-Personal life:...
's Fillmore West
Fillmore West
The Fillmore West was an historic music venue in San Francisco, California made famous by concert promoter Bill Graham. Named after Graham's original "Fillmore" location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, it stood at Market Street and South Van Ness Avenue and was formerly...
auditorium, opening for the Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band, formed in 1965 in San Francisco.-Introduction:Quicksilver Messenger Service gained wide popularity in the Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe and several of their albums ranked...
and Leon Russell
Leon Russell
Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....
. The resulting recording was made into a double LP and released by Columbia in late 1970. "Live at Fillmore" was a happy return to original material, and even included one Beatles cover, a highly experimental rendition of "Hey Jude
Hey Jude
"Hey Jude" is a song by the English rock band The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The ballad evolved from "Hey Jules", a song widely accepted as being written to comfort John Lennon's son, Julian, during his parents' divorce—although this explanation is not...
", as well as another version of "Pussy Wiggle Stomp".
Around this time, Ellis's popularity among educators was also climbing; copies of his band's charts were being published and played by many high school and college big bands. Accordingly, Ellis taught many clinics and played with many school bands.
In May 1971, Ellis added a string quartet to the Orchestra. He also hired Bulgarian piano virtuoso Milcho Leviev
Milcho Leviev
Milcho Leviev is a Bulgarian composer, arranger, jazz performer and pianist.Milcho Leviev graduated from the State Academy of Music in 1960 majoring in Composition under Professor Pancho Vladigerov and in Piano under Professor Andrei Stoyanov...
who was able to improvise fluently in time signatures that would initially be intimidating to most American improvisers. He was an important asset to Ellis's band, and stayed with Ellis for five years. The Orchestra was recorded in late May at Basin Street West in San Francisco. The resulting album, "Tears of Joy", was another live double-LP and was released in late 1971. The album featured a composition called "Strawberry Soup" that has been the subject of several doctoral dissertations due to its metric intricacy, its simple theme and complex variations, and the sheer timbral spectrum that it covers.
The French Connection
Around this time, Ellis was approached by film director William FriedkinWilliam Friedkin
William Friedkin is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing The French Connection in 1971 and The Exorcist in 1973; for the former, he won the Academy Award for Best Director...
to compose the music to his film The French Connection
The French Connection (film)
This article is about the 1971 film. For the British fashion label, see French Connection .The French Connection is a 1971 American crime film directed by William Friedkin. The film was adapted and fictionalized by Ernest Tidyman from the non-fiction book by Robin Moore...
. Ellis accepted the project and wrote the music to be performed by his own Orchestra. Ellis later won a Grammy for this project ("Best Instrumental Arrangement"), and was asked to write the music to the film's sequel, French Connection II
French Connection II
French Connection II is a 1975 crime drama film starring Gene Hackman and directed by John Frankenheimer. It is a fictional sequel to the initially true story of the 1971 Academy Award winning picture The French Connection...
in 1975.
Ellis's final album for Columbia, Connection, was recorded in August 1972. The album featured "The Theme from 'The French Connection'", an abbreviated version of Ellis's movie score, and "Chain Reaction", a tour de force by longtime contributor Hank Levy
Hank Levy
Hank Levy was an American jazz composer and saxophonist whose works often employed unusual time signatures...
. Alongside these highlights are arrangements of several pop songs by artists like Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
, Yes
Yes (band)
Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...
, Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
and The Carpenters
The Carpenters
Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of sister Karen and brother Richard Carpenter. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and...
. The arrangements were generally very tongue-in-cheek; often Ellis arranged them in different meters than the original, or arranged for the melody to be played in a humorous way. There is no singer on this album.
Regardless of what inspired Ellis's liberal interpretations of the popular material, Connection was the Orchestra's last album for Columbia.
MPS Records
In 1973, the Orchestra recorded Soaring, a collection of originals. Milcho Leviev contributed "Sladka Pitka", based on a Bulgarian folk song. The record was released by MPS RecordsMPS Records
MPS Records was a German jazz record label founded in 1968. MPS stands for "Musik Produktion Schwarzwald" .-History:...
, which would also release Ellis's next album, Haiku. The record, featuring Milcho Leviev
Milcho Leviev
Milcho Leviev is a Bulgarian composer, arranger, jazz performer and pianist.Milcho Leviev graduated from the State Academy of Music in 1960 majoring in Composition under Professor Pancho Vladigerov and in Piano under Professor Andrei Stoyanov...
, bassist Ray Brown
Ray Brown (musician)
Raymond Matthews Brown was an American jazz double bassist.-Biography:Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one...
, drummer John Guerin
John Guerin
John Payne Guerin worked as a drummer, percussionist, and recording artist worldwide.Guerin was born in Hawaii and raised in San Diego. As a young drummer he began performing with Buddy DeFranco in 1960...
, and a large string orchestra, is made up of ten songs, each based on a Japanese haiku poem. The album is very relaxed and introspective. Haiku was presumably recorded in late 1973 and released in 1974.
Mid '70s: The Organic Band & Heart Problems
In 1974, Ellis became very interested in the music of BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, even studying Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
so as to better communicate with indigenous musicians. He led a live band around this time called the "Organic Band", which was a stripped-down version of the Orchestra that had no electronic instrumentation or modification (save for amplification). The band also featured a vocal quartet.
These pursuits were postponed when Ellis started having health problems, feeling "out of breath after [walking] up a single flight of stairs". He checked himself into a hospital in New York City where a doctor diagnosed him with Mitral stenosis
Mitral stenosis
Mitral stenosis is a valvular heart disease characterized by the narrowing of the orifice of the mitral valve of the heart.-Signs and symptoms:Symptoms of mitral stenosis include:...
, a condition which caused his heart to beat in odd rhythms. He was prescribed medication and went home to Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter, he started feeling strange again, and went to a local hospital where he was re-diagnosed with an atrial septal defect
Atrial septal defect
Atrial septal defect is a form of congenital heart defect that enables blood flow between the left and right atria via the interatrial septum. The interatrial septum is the tissue that divides the right and left atria...
. More tests were run and finally a third diagnosis was made: cardiomyopathy
Cardiomyopathy
Cardiomyopathy, which literally means "heart muscle disease," is the deterioration of the function of the myocardium for any reason. People with cardiomyopathy are often at risk of arrhythmia or sudden cardiac death or both. Cardiomyopathy can often go undetected, making it especially dangerous to...
. Ellis was prescribed more drugs, but his condition worsened and he went into ventricular fibrillation
Ventricular fibrillation
Ventricular fibrillation is a condition in which there is uncoordinated contraction of the cardiac muscle of the ventricles in the heart, making them quiver rather than contract properly. Ventricular fibrillation is a medical emergency and most commonly identified arrythmia in cardiac arrest...
early one morning in May 1975. Ellis later described being on the verge of death, as doctors struggled to save his life: "It sounds weird, I know, but it was a remarkably beautiful experience, maybe the ultimate high."
Late career
By 1976, Ellis was back in action, although these activities are little documented. On December 3, 1976, the Don Ellis Orchestra performed on a Shirley MacLaineShirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
television special entitled "Where Do We Go From Here?" The Orchestra played Ellis's arrangement of "Sweet Georgia Brown
Sweet Georgia Brown
"Sweet Georgia Brown" is a jazz standard and pop tune written in 1925 by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard and Kenneth Casey .The tune was first recorded on March 19, 1925 by bandleader Ben Bernie, resulting in a five-week No. 1 for Ben Bernie and his Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra...
" retitled "Sweet Shirley MacLaine". The arrangement featured a solo by Art Pepper
Art Pepper
Art Pepper , born Arthur Edward Pepper, Jr., was an American alto saxophonist and clarinetist.About Pepper, Scott Yanow of All Music stated, "In the 1950s he was one of the few altoists that was able to develop his own sound despite the dominant influence of Charlie Parker" and: "When Art Pepper...
, a chorus of tap dancers, and the return of the electrophonic trumpet.
In 1977, Ellis was signed to Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, which promised to fund the Orchestra's upcoming trip for the band's performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...
in Montreux
Montreux
Montreux is a municipality in the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.It is located on Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps and has a population, , of and nearly 90,000 in the agglomeration.- History :...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
in exchange for a live recording of said performance. However, the record company asked Don first to record arrangements of two songs from Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
. The songs, "Star Wars (Main Title)" and "Princess Leia's Theme", were to be released as a 45 rpm
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
single. In June, the record company scrambled and asked Don to record an entire album of material, for the purpose of having an album to sell in case the single became a hit. Don had to do this before his band left to perform in Montreux in about a week. In addition, the songs that were to be on this album could not be duplicates of what would later appear on the live album.
Ellis got some help from fellow composers/arrangers Tommy Vig
Tommy Vig
Tommy Vig is an award-winning jazz vibraharpist, drummer, percussionist, arranger, big band leader, film, television, and classical concert composer, inventor, author, and educator.- Life and Work :...
and Curt Berg but largely wrote everything on his own. The album was thrown together and released as Music from Other Galaxies and Planets; all the songs were retitled with novelty space-related names like "Orion's Sword" and "Crypton".
The band's performance at Montreux was very well-received and the subsequent album reached #48 on Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
s jazz charts. This was to be Ellis's last album as a leader, although he would appear on albums by Nick Gilder
Nick Gilder
Nicholas George "Nick" Gilder , is an English-Canadian musician who first came to prominence as the frontman for the glam rock band Sweeney Todd. He later had a successful solo career as a singer as well as a songwriter.-Biography:...
(You Know Who You Are
You Know Who You Are
You Know Who You Are is the first solo album by Nick Gilder, released in 1977 on Chrysalis Records.-Side A:# "All Across the Nation " – 4:08# "Backstreet Noise" – 3:03# "Rated X" – 3:06# "Poor Boy" – 3:00# "Genevieve" – 3:23...
) and Tommy Vig
Tommy Vig
Tommy Vig is an award-winning jazz vibraharpist, drummer, percussionist, arranger, big band leader, film, television, and classical concert composer, inventor, author, and educator.- Life and Work :...
(1978).
Ellis's last known public performance took place on April 21, 1978, at the Westside Room in Century City. After this, his doctor ordered him to refrain from touring and playing trumpet because it was too stressful on his heart. On December 17, 1978, after seeing a Jon Hendricks
Jon Hendricks
Jon Hendricks is an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is considered one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and replaces many instruments with vocalists...
concert, Ellis suffered a fatal heart attack at the home of his mother and father. His heart condition is believed to have been cardiac arrhythmia. He was 44. Ellis was buried in the Sheltering Hills section, of Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Hollywood Hills, CA.
Legacy
While Ellis's explorations with elements of form and content in jazz were undeniably innovative, he remains an obscure figure in jazz history. But he had a strong influence on those with whom he worked. Former sideman Stu Blumberg credited Ellis for preparing him for the idiosyncrasies of unconventional music in film soundtracks. Tenor saxophonist Jim Snodgrass remarked, "I think in many ways Don was a teacher. One thing his music taught me was that I could play anything I absolutely had to." Sidemen like Tom ScottTom Scott (musician)
Tom Scott is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, conductor and bandleader of the west coast jazz/jazz fusion ensemble The L.A. Express.-Biography:Scott was born in Los Angeles, California...
, John Klemmer
John Klemmer
John Klemmer is an American saxophonist, composer, song writer and arranger.He was born in Chicago, Illinois and began playing guitar at age 5 and alto saxophone at age 11. His other early interests included graphics and visual art, writing, dance, puppetry, painting, sculpting and poetry...
, Glenn Ferris
Glenn Ferris
Glenn Ferris is a jazz trombonist who has also worked in other fields. Outside of jazz he has played for Frank Zappa, Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Duran Duran, and others....
, Milcho Leviev
Milcho Leviev
Milcho Leviev is a Bulgarian composer, arranger, jazz performer and pianist.Milcho Leviev graduated from the State Academy of Music in 1960 majoring in Composition under Professor Pancho Vladigerov and in Piano under Professor Andrei Stoyanov...
and a few others have gone on to prolific solo careers. Others like Ralph Humphrey and Fred Selden have had successful careers as sidemen, session musicians or educators.
Most of Ellis' albums have been reissued on CD. Columbia Records, responsible for originally releasing seven of Ellis's albums, only reissued Electric Bath (Ellis's biggest seller) in 1997; the rest have been leased to other companies for reissue. Today, thanks to labels like Koch Jazz, Wounded Bird and Mighty Quinn Productions, almost all of his albums have been reissued on CD and are readily available.
Ellis also wrote numerous articles and several books. The new rhythm book (1972) presents methods of practice and performance in unusual meters and features a companion play-along LP/cassette entitled New Rhythms. His second book, Quarter Tones, published in 1975, is a theoretical guide to using quarter tones. Both books are very thorough, providing a great deal of historical and cultural background to their subjects. Quarter Tones also provides readers with etudes and exercises. Both books are very hard to find, as they have presumably not been printed since their first editions.
The Don Ellis Library and Collection resides in the Ethnomusicology Archives at UCLA. Prior to that, (from 1981–2000) it was housed at Eastfield College
Eastfield College
Eastfield College is a community college of the Dallas County Community College District , located in Mesquite, Texas . The school was founded in 1970 and features an enrollment of over 10,000 students....
, part of Dallas County Community College District
Dallas County Community College District
The Dallas County Community College District is a network of seven community colleges in Dallas County, Texas . It is headquartered at 1601 South Lamar in Dallas....
, DCCCD in Mesquite
Mesquite
Mesquite is a leguminous plant of the Prosopis genus found in northern Mexico through the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Deserts, and up into the Southwestern United States as far north as southern Kansas, west to the Colorado Desert in California,and east to the eastern fifth of Texas, where...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. Along with writings, instruments and other items, is his Grammy for best score for the movie The French Connection
The French Connection (film)
This article is about the 1971 film. For the British fashion label, see French Connection .The French Connection is a 1971 American crime film directed by William Friedkin. The film was adapted and fictionalized by Ernest Tidyman from the non-fiction book by Robin Moore...
in 1971.
Orchestra instrumentation
Ellis's interest in expanding the possibilities within big band instrumentation is obvious on even his first Orchestra release, 1966's Live at Monterey. Inspired by his experiences with Latin bands, Ellis expanded his rhythm section to two drum sets, three double-basses, at least two auxiliary percussionists, piano, and organ. On the song "In a Turkish Bath" from Electric Bath (1967), bassist Ray Neapolitan doubles on sitar. His horn sections were often fairly typical, although he later added a tubaTuba
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
and French horn to augment the brass section, and sometimes had the saxophonists double on instruments like flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
, clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
and saxello.
In 1967, Ellis began experimentation with electronics. His pianist started using the Fender-Rhodes electric piano
Electric piano
An electric piano is an electric musical instrument.Electric pianos produce sounds mechanically and the sounds are turned into electrical signals by pickups. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument, but electro-mechanical. The earliest electric pianos were invented...
, clavinet
Clavinet
A Clavinet is an electrically amplified keyboard instrument manufactured by the Hohner company. It is essentially an electronically amplified clavichord, analogous to an electric guitar. Its distinctive bright staccato sound has appeared particularly in funk, disco, rock, and reggae songs.Various...
, and electric harpsichord. Ellis himself started using what he called the "electrophonic trumpet"; that is, a trumpet whose sound was amplified and often routed through various effects processors. The first appearance of this innovation is on "Open Beauty" from 1967's Electric Bath, in which Ellis takes an extended solo with his trumpet being processed through an echoplex
Echoplex
The Echoplex is a tape delay effect, first made in 1959. Designed by Mike Battle, the Echoplex set a standard for the effect in the 1960s and was used by some of the most notable guitar players of the era; original Echoplexes are highly sought after....
. Ellis also used the ring modulator on several occasions, which was built for him by Tom Oberheim.
In 1968, Ellis replaced the double-bassists with a single electric bassist, at first Joe Julian, then Dennis Parker, and finally Dave McDaniels. He also hired guitarist Jay Graydon
Jay Graydon
Jay Graydon is a Los Angeles songwriter, recording artist, guitarist, singer, producer, arranger, and recording engineer. He is the winner of two Grammy Awards with twelve Grammy nominations, among them the title "Producer of the Year" and "Best Engineered Recording". Jay Graydon has mastered many...
who remained with the band for several years.
In 1971, for the Tears of Joy tour, Ellis added a string quartet to his band. The instruments were amplified using newly-developed pick-ups made by Barcus-Berry so that they could be heard over the brass and saxophones. These new timbres offered Ellis a wellspring of creative possibilities. As he explained, "People spend whole evenings listening to a brass quintet, a woodwind or string quartet, so I reasoned that having ALL of these in the context of a big band should give us a fantastic variety of colors from which to draw."
Sometime in 1973 or 1974, Haiku was released, which was recorded using a jazz quartet with full string orchestra backing. Due to the size of the group, this was probably never intended to be a replacement for the Don Ellis Orchestra as a touring group.
Ellis's "Organic Band", which toured throughout spring and summer 1974, reduced the band's numbers from 21 or 22 to 15. The horn section was more than halved, the string quartet was removed, a vocal quartet was added, and no electronics (save for amplification) were used to alter the band's sound.
After his heart attack, Ellis returned briefly to the electrophonic trumpet, and continued using synthesizers and electronic keyboards. The string quartet, a mainstay since 1971, remained alongside the brass. He also began playing two new instruments, the superbone
Superbone
The Superbone is a hybrid trombone. It has the slide mechanism of a standard trombone and the valve mechanism of a valve trombone.It was created by Maynard Ferguson in the 1970s, although similar instruments combining valves and a slide were mass produced in the early 20th century, some by C.G. Conn...
and the firebird
Firebird (trumpet)
The Firebird is a type of trumpet with the standard three valves and the addition of a trombone-style slide. It was invented by Maynard Ferguson and Larry Ramirez and remains an exceptionally rare, specialist instrument. They are occasionally produced by Holton.-History:Instruments equipped with...
, which were a combination valve-slide trombone and trumpet, respectively. Both were also played by Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...
.
Discography
- New Sounds for the '60s [unreleased] (Enrica, 1960)
- ...How Time Passes... (Candid, 1960)
- Out of Nowhere (Candid, rec. 1961, released in 1988)
- New Ideas (Prestige, 1961)
- Essence (Pacific Jazz, 1962)
- Jazz Jamboree 1962 (Muza, 1962)
- Don Ellis Orchestra Live at Monterey (Pacific Jazz, 1966)
- Live in 3 2/3 4 Time (Pacific Jazz, 1966)
- Electric Bath (Columbia, 1967)
- Shock Treatment (Columbia, 1968)
- Autumn (Columbia, 1969)
- The New Don Ellis Band Goes Underground (Columbia, 1969)
- Don Ellis at FillmoreDon Ellis at FillmoreDon Ellis at Fillmore is a live double-LP by big band leader Don Ellis which was released in 1970.-Side A:# "Final Analysis" – 13:59# "Excursion II" – 5:44# "The Magic Bus Ate My Doughnut" – 2:29-Side B:...
(Columbia, 1970) Recorded "Live" at The Fillmore West; San Francisco, CA - Tears of Joy (Columbia, 1971) Recorded "Live" at Basin Street West; San Francisco, CA
- Connection (Columbia, 1972)
- Soaring (MPS RecordsMPS RecordsMPS Records was a German jazz record label founded in 1968. MPS stands for "Musik Produktion Schwarzwald" .-History:...
, 1973) - Haiku (MPS RecordsMPS RecordsMPS Records was a German jazz record label founded in 1968. MPS stands for "Musik Produktion Schwarzwald" .-History:...
, 1973) - Music from Other Galaxies and Planets (Atlantic, 1977)
- Live at Montreux (Atlantic, 1977)
- Pieces of 8 (Wounded Bird, rec. 1967, released 2005)
- Live in India (Sleepynightrecords, 2010) The Lost Tapes of a Musical Legend, Vol. 1
- ELECTRIC HEART Special Edition DVD (Sights & Sounds Films / Sleepynightrecords, 2009)
External links
- Information site by Todd Fronauer
- Information site by Sean Fenlon
- Electric Heart the Don Ellis Story Synopsis and Credits by John Vizzusi
- Information site by Gord McGonigal
- The Don Ellis Web Archive
- the Don Ellis Collection at UCLA
- Don Ellis Documentary by John Vizzusi Official Movie Website
- Tribute site of Roy Stevens: Don Ellis' Trumpet Teacher by David Hay