[JMT]

I went a little crazy at Tower Records today and bought 7 CDs. Of those, two were CDs by a trumpet player named Don Ellis.... Electric Bath and Don Ellis Orchestra Live at Monterey Jazz.

Don Ellis was (he died in 1978) a jazz trumpet player who cut his chops with the likes of Maynard Ferguson, Charles Mingus, George Russell, and Stan Kenton. He put together his own orchestra in the early 60s and began performing his own compositions. He is noted for very unique meterings (time signatures). He once said, "The only song that I play in 4/4 time is Take Five." He also introduced the 4 valve trumpet that allowed him to play quarter-tones.

I have all of his albums on vinyl, and have been looking for the CDs, these are the only two that I have found so far.

 

[rileycat]

i'm slowly building my jazz collection back up and i've never heard any of his music. which album would you recommend?

 

[JMT]

The two I mentioned above are great. If you can find "Tears of Joy" get that too (and get one for me, I cannot find it anywhere on CD

). Also "Live at the Fillmore" is another one that I cannot find.

 

[rileycat]

thanks, i'll keep my eyes open and my wallet ready

 

[gordie]

I love the Don Ellis big band. What a tragedy he died so young. I've listened to him since the early '70s when I was a kid studying jazz. I owe a huge debt to my music teacher at high school for turning us all on to him.

My favorite of his is "Soaring", which I can't find on CD anywhere. After that is "Electric Bath", although the French pressing of the CD sounds much much better than the awful American pressing (the trumpet distorts horribly on the American CD, at least the one I bought). Another great album of his that was recently released on CD is "Shock Treatment", I just ordered it from Amazon.com so I haven't heard it yet (I have the album but haven't heard it in years!)

-- Gordie

 

[JMT]

Gordie

I almost forgot about "Shock Treatment." I think that was the last album he recorded before his premature death. I especially liked his arrangement of Jesus Christ Superstar, and Alone Again, Naturally. I think I need to order it, thanks for the heads-up.

 

[rileycat]

I picked up Electric Bath today!

The only other album they had was Live in 3 2/3 4 Time.

Something new to listen too tonight.

High School music teacher? What's that? hehe. I unfortunately didn't have access to any good music teachers. I studied theory on my own in hopes of getting into the conservatory of music here in Milwaukee. I eventually did....too bad at the time the only two jazz albums I had (and had ever really listened too) were Kind of Blue and Wes Montgomery's Boss Guitar! I know, pretty sad. Oh well, i was finally introduced to bebop and from there everything else.

thanks again for the recommendation!

 

[JMT]

I would be interested reading your impressions of the CD. Have fun!

 

[archosman]

I just picked up Don Ellis Live At Fillmore today. Wounded Bird is re-releasing a few of his old albums. I haven't listened to it yet, but I had the album years ago so I recommend it.

http://www.woundedbird.com/ellis/

Anyone notice the out-of-phase sound on " Bulgarian Bulge" on the Tears Of Joy album?