Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Enjoyin' this 
new cd, One Foot in the Swamp from the talented John Ellis. He's a sax (and clarinet) player that's been featured on several of Charlie Hunter's cd's. This is his latest release and, for some inexplicable reason, is dirt-cheap ($11.98) @ amazon.com. Players include John Scofield on guitar, Jason Marsalis (the Marsalis gene pool is absolutely incredible) on the drums, Gregoire Maret on chromatic harmonica, the incredible Nicholas Payton on trumpet & flugelhorn, and Aaron Goldberg on rhodes. Nine of eleven compositions are by Mr. Ellis. This cd has been reviewed and classified as "Southern" modern jazz. Not sure what that means. Usually when music is classified as "Southern", the critic is referring to rock 'n roll and specifically the Allman Bros. and their musical descendents. I'd correct that and say it's New Orleans in the style of Los Hombres Calientes . Jason Marsalis was a founder and a player in that group, along with Jason Moran and Bill Summers. Nicholas Payton hails from New Orleans as well. John Ellis, born in North Carolina, moved to New Orleans and attended the U of N. O., where he was taught by, among others, 
Ellis Marsalis, the father of many performing sons. The album has hints of Charlie Hunter, with Hunter's space-time continuum thing happening. The organ playing even has the hesitation style sound of the George Lowell version of Little Feat. There's a low level funk to the album. But, Jason M. is there to ground the beat and Mr. Payton is there to add vigor and flavor. I recommend this highly for the jazz folks out there. For the other folks, $11.98 is an unheard of price for such great music. Give it a listen. Exercise some patience. You'll love the scope of this cd. For a fascinating bio on Mr. Ellis, scoot over to Johnaxsonellis.com. While there, click on "Gigs". He'll be playing with his own trio as well as with the Charlie Hunter Quartet in a city near you. I, unfortunately, clued in too late to this site. Bummer on a large scale!! He'd just played in Philly this past Tuesday.
new cd, One Foot in the Swamp from the talented John Ellis. He's a sax (and clarinet) player that's been featured on several of Charlie Hunter's cd's. This is his latest release and, for some inexplicable reason, is dirt-cheap ($11.98) @ amazon.com. Players include John Scofield on guitar, Jason Marsalis (the Marsalis gene pool is absolutely incredible) on the drums, Gregoire Maret on chromatic harmonica, the incredible Nicholas Payton on trumpet & flugelhorn, and Aaron Goldberg on rhodes. Nine of eleven compositions are by Mr. Ellis. This cd has been reviewed and classified as "Southern" modern jazz. Not sure what that means. Usually when music is classified as "Southern", the critic is referring to rock 'n roll and specifically the Allman Bros. and their musical descendents. I'd correct that and say it's New Orleans in the style of Los Hombres Calientes . Jason Marsalis was a founder and a player in that group, along with Jason Moran and Bill Summers. Nicholas Payton hails from New Orleans as well. John Ellis, born in North Carolina, moved to New Orleans and attended the U of N. O., where he was taught by, among others, Ellis Marsalis, the father of many performing sons. The album has hints of Charlie Hunter, with Hunter's space-time continuum thing happening. The organ playing even has the hesitation style sound of the George Lowell version of Little Feat. There's a low level funk to the album. But, Jason M. is there to ground the beat and Mr. Payton is there to add vigor and flavor. I recommend this highly for the jazz folks out there. For the other folks, $11.98 is an unheard of price for such great music. Give it a listen. Exercise some patience. You'll love the scope of this cd. For a fascinating bio on Mr. Ellis, scoot over to Johnaxsonellis.com. While there, click on "Gigs". He'll be playing with his own trio as well as with the Charlie Hunter Quartet in a city near you. I, unfortunately, clued in too late to this site. Bummer on a large scale!! He'd just played in Philly this past Tuesday.
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