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Discography
Tenor
saxophonist Dave Ellis has long been a key figure in the fertile Northern
California jazz scene. His story is a tapestry woven from myriad musical
adventures. It begins with his days as a ten-year-old musical prodigy
and opens on a new chapter with State of Mind, his debut recording
for Milestone, featuring a sterling jazz veteran cast of pianist Mulgrew
Miller, bassists Peter Washington and Christian
McBride, drummers Carl Allen
and Lewis Nash, and alto saxophonist
Vincent Herring.
Along the way, Ellis was named Best New Talent (along with Diana Krall)
in the 1997 Jazziz magazine Readers Poll. He scooped up two 1999 California
Music Awards--for Outstanding Jazz Album and Outstanding Jazz Artist
in Northern California, and jazz critics hailed his mature saxophone
style for its "enveloping sound and emphatic attack" (Bob Blumenthal,
Atlantic Monthly) and its "alternately earthy, probing, and lyrical"
sound (Mike Joyce, Washington Post). As legendary record producer
Orrin Keepnews writes in his liner notes to the first new Ellis recording
in five years, "even on the shifting and difficult terrain of early
21st century jazz, a talent as formidable as his should and will be
recognized."
Keepnews, who has worked with many of the all-time tenor greats, including
Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, and John Coltrane,
served as both producer and mentor for Ellis on State of Mind. "What
he has done for me in this period of my life, the encouragement and
the affirmation he has given me, are the kinds of things I'll be talking
about when I'm old," Ellis says. "To have the experience of doing
a record with Orrin Keepnews--in New York City, with these heavyweight
hitters at the top of their craft--I just feel really fortunate."
For Ellis, the lucky streak began with growing up in the Bay Area's
multicultural environment, where he could listen to all kinds of music,
including funk, R&B, and rock, while learning to play jazz in the
renowned Berkeley schools music programs. He was already a precocious
player by the time he got to high school and came under the tutelage
of jazz ensemble director Phil Hardymon and his successor, Charles
Hamilton. Among the players to come out of that milieu have been saxophonists
Craig Handy and Peter Apfelbaum, trumpeter Steven Bernstein, and pianist
Benny Green. Graduating in 1985, one year ahead of future star Joshua
Redman, Ellis moved on to the Berklee College of Music, where he focused
on his composing and arranging skills on all sorts of instruments,
in all sorts of styles, and graduated with a degree in music production
and engineering. At school and in the rich performing scene around
the Boston/Cambridge area, his peers included such leading lights
of new-generation jazz as Roy Hargrove, Antonio Hart, Mark Turner,
Kenny Brooks, Donny Mcaslin, Seamus Blake, and Chris Cheek.
Upon returning to the Bay Area in 1992, Ellis became a pioneer in
the region's nascent "new jazz" movement, teaming up with eight-string
guitarist Charlie Hunter
and drummer Jay Lane to form the immensely popular Charlie Hunter
Trio. After recording for Les Claypool's Prawn Song label, the trio
signed to Blue Note, which brought national attention to the new sounds
taking shape in such neighborhood venues as the Elbo Room and the
Up & Down Club. Three albums with Hunter and two with Bay Area flugelhornist
Dmitri Matheny prepared
Ellis to record his first album as leader, 1996's Raven, for Monarch
Records, and its 1998 follow-up, In the Long Run. The latter was produced
by Keepnews, with whom Ellis had connected during the sessions for
Matheny's Penumbra: The Moon Sessions.
While establishing his solo recording career, Ellis was playing live
for tens of thousands of Deadheads in arenas and stadiums around the
country. He could write a book about his road travels with Bob Weir's
Ratdog, Phil Lesh and Friends, and the Other Ones--sharing the stage
with Bonnie Raitt and Rickie Lee Jones, sitting in with the Black
Crowes, performing at Bill Clinton's 1996 inaugural ball--but what
Ellis valued most from the experience was playing alongside smart
and inspirational musicians like pianist/singer Bruce Hornsby, and
continuing to cultivate what he calls an aesthetic of "democracy with
leadership." That notion was crucial to the musical coherence of the
Charlie Hunter Trio, he says, and it continues to shape his approach
to music today.
On State of Mind, Ellis had the chance to explore the alchemy of group
dynamics in two different alignments. Miller lent his powerful piano
style to both sessions, but Keepnews recruited two different bass-and-drums
pairings: Washington and Allen played on the five tracks recorded
in New York City, with altoist Herring sitting in on three; McBride
and Nash took over for the Fantasy Studios date in Berkeley. Ellis
and Keepnews put their heads together to select the material, which
ranges from two Ellis compositions and a Miller original to Charlie
Parker's "Barbados," the Ellington-Strayhorn gem "Something to Live
For," Horace Silver's "Peace," Clint Houston's "Sunshowers" (which
the saxophonist learned from Woody
Shaw's 1978 LP, Rosewood), John Coltrane's "Grand Central," and
a novel arrangement of "Summertime," which Ellis's former teacher,
saxophonist Noel Jewkes, devised and recorded as "Winterlude" in 1978.
"I wanted to do things that were challenging and hadn't been heard
all that much," Ellis says. "I like songs--tunes that can be played
on a kazoo or by an orchestra and remain intact. And in approaching
an album, I like to think I'm good at constructing an entity, something
you want to listen to from start to finish. I'm very proud of this
record in that regard."
Indeed, Ellis's talent for musical architecture informs every aspect
of his playing. Los Angeles Times jazz critic Don Heckman, reviewing
a live Ellis performance, praised the saxophonist's "ability to build
solos out of attractive melody fragments," as well as the way "he
carved out phrases that were as melodically compelling as they were
rhythmically propulsive."
"I have a voice on the saxophone and I think it's distinctive," Ellis
grants, while acknowledging the influence of Rollins, Coltrane, Henderson,
Dexter Gordon, Bob Mintzer, and Michael Brecker. "But I have not honed
it nearly to the extent I'd like to. Until I made this album, I think
my voice probably came through at its truest on those Charlie Hunter
Trio records, which represented the best of what a group effort can
be. I think I'm just now discovering what my musical voice really
is." In both its magical ensemble chemistry and the riveting saxophone
solos of its leader, State of Mind showcases a musician who has taken
his artistry to a new level, a lofty plateau from which Dave Ellis
can look forward to unexplored frontiers of extraordinary promise.
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Album
Title: State
Of Mind
Artist: Dave
Ellis
Original Release Date: 2003
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Album
Title: In
The Long Run
Artist: Dave
Ellis
Original Release Date: 1998 |
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Album
Title: Raven
Artist: Dave
Ellis
Original Release Date: 1996 |
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Album Title: Just Swing Baby
Artist: Bill Bell
Original Release Date: 2002 |
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Album
Title: Up
& Down Club Sessions Vol. 1
Artist: Various
Original Release Date: 1995 |
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Album
Title: bing,
bing, bing!
Artist: Charlie
Hunter Trio
Original Release Date: 1995 |
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Album
Title: Charlie
Hunter Trio
Artist: Charlie
Hunter Trio
Original Release Date: 1993 |
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Album
Title: Ultimate
Ellington
Artist: Various
including Dave Ellis
Original Release Date: 1999 |
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Album
Title: Come
On Home
Artist: Boz
Scaggs with various artists including Dave Ellis
Original Release Date: 1997 |
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Album
Title: Penumbra-Moon
Sessions
Artist: Dmitri
Matheny w/ various artists including Dave Ellis
Original Release Date: 1996 |
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Album
Title:
Ready Set Shango!
Artist: Charlie
Hunter Quartet with Dave Ellis
Original Release Date: 1996 |
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Album
Title:
Red Reflections
Artist: Dmitri
Matheny w/ various artists including Dave Ellis
Original Release Date: 1994 |
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Album
Title: San Francisco Jazz Festival Sampler
Artist: Various including Dave Ellis
Original Release Date: 1996 |
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Album
Title: Something Blue Sampler
Artist: Various including Charlie Hunter Trio with Dave
Ellis
Original Release Date: 1995 |
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