DON ELLIS

Don Ellis (July 25, 1934December 17, 1978– died at age 44) 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 signatures. 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.

Ellis was born in Los Angeles, CA on July 25, 1934. It was after seeing a Tommy Dorsey 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. 

In October 1962, Ellis traveled to Poland to take part in the 1962 Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw; 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.

In New York, Ellis formed the Improvisational Workshop Orchestra, which gave its debut performance on February 10, 1963 at the Five Spot. 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. 

The Don Ellis Orchestra was different from most other big bands in several ways; most obviously in its instrumentation but also in Ellis’ 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 19/4 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’ later interest in Eastern European folk music, such as that of Greece and Bulgaria.

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. 

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. 

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. This new timbre 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. 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.