Donald Johnson Ellis was born on July 25, 1934, and passed away on December 17, 1978. He was an American musician who played the trumpet and drums, wrote music, and led bands. He is most famous for trying many new ways to play music, especially with different ways to count beats. Later in his life, he worked as a film composer, creating music for the movies The French Connection (1971) and The Seven-Ups (1973).

Early life

Ellis was born in Los Angeles, California, on July 25, 1934. His father worked as a Methodist minister, and his mother played the organ at a church. He studied at West High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After attending a concert by the Tommy Dorsey Big Band, he developed an interest in jazz. Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie were also important influences on him early in his life. In 1956, he graduated from Boston University with a degree in music composition.

Early career

Ellis's first job was with Glenn Miller's band, which was led by Ray McKinley. He stayed with the band until September 1956, when he joined the U.S. Army's Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra and the Soldiers' Show Company. Ellis was sent to Frankfurt, Germany for his military duty. In the Army band, Ellis met pianist Cedar Walton and saxophonists Eddie Harris and Don Menza. While in that band, Ellis had his first chance to write and arrange music for a big band.

After two years, Ellis left the Army band and moved to Greenwich Village in New York City. He found work, mostly with dance bands and other local groups. He toured briefly with bandleader Charlie Barnet and joined the Maynard Ferguson band in the spring of 1959. He remained with Ferguson for nine months.

New York avant-garde

After this, Ellis joined the avant-garde jazz scene in New York City. He played on albums by Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, and George Russell, and was part of a group of six musicians for two years. From 1960 to 1962, Ellis led several recordings with small groups. These groups included musicians such as Jaki Byard, Paul Bley, Gary Peacock, Ron Carter, Charlie Persip, and Steve Swallow. The final recording, called Essence, was made in mid-July 1962.

On June 3, 1962, Ellis performed a jazz composition called Evensong, written by Edgar Summerlin. This performance happened at the First International Jazz Festival in Washington, D.C., and was broadcast on the radio show Look Up and Live on August 12, 1962. During the performance, Ellis played with Lou Gluckin on trumpet, J. R. Monterose on tenor saxophone, Eric Dolphy on flute, Slide Hampton on trombone, Dick Lieb on bass trombone, Barry Galbraith on guitar, Ron Carter on bass, and Charlie Persip on drums.

Europe and America

In October 1962, Ellis went to Poland to perform at the 1962 Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw. His quartet’s performance was partially recorded on a 10-inch (250 mm) EP that was only available in Poland. Ellis wrote about his experience in an article titled "Warsaw Diary," which appeared in the January 3, 1963, issue of DownBeat magazine. In December 1962, Ellis took part in the NDR Jazz Workshop in Hamburg, Germany. In early 1963, he traveled to Stockholm, Sweden, where he gained some recognition for his use of experimental performances called "happenings," similar to those created by artists in the Fluxus movement.

After returning to New York, Ellis formed the Improvisational Workshop Orchestra. The group gave its first public performance on February 10, 1963, at the Five Spot. Another recording of the same group, listed in the Don Ellis Collection as being made on February 9, 1963, may have been a rehearsal. The performance at the Five Spot used methods similar to those Ellis used in Stockholm, such as performers using cards to decide the order of events and musicians using their instruments to interpret a painter’s work. The performance included unusual musical elements, such as rhythms and scales from Arabian music and the use of shuffling feet.

New rhythms and the Third Stream

In 1964, Ellis started studying ethnomusicology in graduate school at UCLA. He learned from an Indian musician named Harihar Rao. Ellis was deeply influenced by Rao and wanted to use unusual time signatures in Western free-form music. Ellis and Rao wrote an article together in 1965 called "An Introduction to Indian Music for the Jazz Musician." At this time, Ellis briefly created the first version of his big band, but he ended the band when he received a grant from Rockefeller to work at SUNY Buffalo for a year.

While in New York, Ellis worked on several Third Stream projects, which combine jazz and classical music. A live performance from February 8, 1964, at Lincoln Center was recorded for Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts series. Ellis performed with other jazz musicians and the New York Philharmonic on pieces called "Improvisations for Orchestra and Jazz Soloists" (1961) and "Journey Into Jazz" (1962) by Larry Austin and Gunther Schuller, respectively. A later recording of Austin's piece, which included Ellis, bassist Barre Phillips, drummer Joe Cocuzzo, and the New York Philharmonic (led by Bernstein), was released on an album titled Leonard Bernstein Conducts Music Of Our Time (1965).

In November 1967, Ellis's first symphony, Contrasts for Two Orchestras and Trumpet, was first performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta.

The Hindustani Jazz Sextet

Returning to the West Coast, Ellis created The Hindustani Jazz Sextet, which used some of the ideas he studied at UCLA. The Sextet is often seen as the first group of its type in America. The Sextet focused on Ellis and his teacher Harihar Rao, who played sitar and tabla. Other members included vibraphonist Emil Richards, drummer Steve Bohannon, bassists Chuck Domanico and Ray Neapolitan, and pianist Dave Mackay. At least one show also included saxophonist Gabe Baltazar. The band played mostly original songs with titles such as "Sweet Nineteen," "Turks Works," and "Bombay Bossa Nova."

The Sextet became somewhat famous in Los Angeles, even though they had no commercially available recordings. Their biggest opportunity for attention came through "Synthesis," a piece written by Ellis, in which the Sextet performed with Stan Kenton's Neophonic Orchestra. The concert happened in February 1966 at the Los Angeles Music Center.

On July 14 of that year, the Sextet performed at Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium, playing before the Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company.

Don Ellis Orchestra

Ellis continued to work with the Hindustani Jazz Sextet while also writing music and rehearsing with a group that would later become the Don Ellis Orchestra. This group practiced and performed every Monday night for nearly a year. At first, they played at a place called Club Havana, and later moved to a club named Bonesville in Hollywood. There, the group gained many fans. To earn money, they charged a small fee for people to attend their rehearsals. They also wrote letters to try to get the band a chance to perform at the 1966 Monterey Jazz Festival. Their efforts worked, and the band was scheduled to perform in September.

The Don Ellis Orchestra was different from other big bands in several ways. One difference was the types of instruments used, as explained later. Ellis also included musical ideas from India in his compositions. He used time signatures he learned from studying with Rao, such as 5⁄4, 7⁄8, and 9⁄4. He also used more complex rhythms, like 19⁄8 and 27⁄16. Later, Ellis used even more complex meters and ways to divide standard rhythms. Some of these rhythms were inspired by his interest in folk music from Greece and Bulgaria.

Ellis had a special trumpet made by the Holton company in September 1965. This trumpet had an extra valve that allowed it to play quarter tones, which are notes that are not usually used in Western music. Some people believe this was influenced by Ellis’s studies of Indian music, as Indian music uses microtones, which are very small pitch changes. However, it is more likely that this was connected to Ellis’s work with experimental classical music, where composers like Harry Partch explored new musical ideas.

The unique features of the Don Ellis Orchestra created a musical experience that was new to the audience at Monterey. The band received loud applause and a standing ovation after their first song, which was named "33 222 1 222" because it used a rhythm based on 19. The band played songs with rhythms of 7, 9, and 27, as well as some with more common rhythms. Parts of the concert were released on Pacific Jazz the next year. A 1998 CD reissue added more songs from the concert. The CD’s notes also mention that a piece called "Concerto for Trumpet" was recorded a month later at a Pacific Jazz Festival in Costa Mesa. The version performed at Monterey was not considered good enough by Ellis and the album’s producer, Richard Bock.

After their successful performance at Monterey, the band played at the Pacific Jazz Festival in October 1966 and at Shelly’s Manne Hole in March 1967. Segments of these performances were released on the 1967 album Live in 3 + 2⁄3 /4 Time (Pacific Jazz).

Columbia Records

In 1967, John Hammond, a producer and talent scout for Columbia Records, helped the band sign a contract with the label. The band recorded their first album, Electric Bath, in September 1967. It was released the next year and received praise from listeners. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award and won the 1968 Down Beat "Album of the Year" award. It reached No. 8 on the Billboard jazz charts. The song "Indian Lady" became one of the band's most popular songs. On "Open Beauty," the band's trumpet player, Don Ellis, used a special effect called an echoplex to create a unique trumpet solo, combining traditional instruments with electronic technology. Ellis continued to experiment with this technique for the next five years.

In February 1968, the Don Ellis Orchestra returned to the studio to record a second album, Shock Treatment. However, there were problems with the recording process, and the album was released with edits and alternate takes that Ellis did not approve of.

Later in 1968, the Orchestra recorded songs for an album called Autumn. This album included a 20-minute piece called "Variations for Trumpet," which showed Ellis's skill on the trumpet. Another song on the album, "Pussy Wiggle Stomp," became the band's next most popular tune. Side two of the album included two long songs from a live concert at Stanford University in August 1968. These tracks demonstrated the band's powerful and energetic live sound, which was more intense than their earlier recordings.

In early 1969, the Orchestra recorded an album called The New Don Ellis Band Goes Underground at Columbia Studios. This album included pop songs arranged by Ellis and some of his own compositions. It featured vocalist Patti Allen performing songs by Laura Nyro, The Isley Brothers, and Sly Stone. The album also included "Bulgarian Bulge," a piece based on a traditional Bulgarian folk tune with a complex rhythm.

The band's lively live performances, such as the one at Stanford University, helped increase their popularity among college audiences. 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. A recording of these performances was released as a double LP in late 1970. The album, Live at Fillmore, included original songs and even a unique version of The Beatles' "Hey Jude."

At the same time, Ellis's influence grew among music educators. His band's musical arrangements were used by many high school and college big bands. Ellis gave lessons and performed with school bands.

In May 1971, Ellis added a string quartet to the Orchestra. He also hired Milcho Leviev, a Bulgarian pianist known for his ability to play complex rhythms. Leviev stayed with the band for five years. The Orchestra recorded an album called Tears of Joy in late May 1971 at Basin Street West in San Francisco. This album was released as a live double-LP in late 1971.

In 2002, a research paper titled The Exotic Rhythms of Don Ellis was submitted to The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University as part of a doctoral degree in music. The paper focused on a song called "Strawberry Soup" from the Tears of Joy album. This piece is notable for its complex rhythms, simple melody, and wide range of musical sounds.

The French Connection

Around this time, Ellis was asked by film director William Friedkin to create the music for his movie The French Connection. Ellis agreed to the project and wrote the music for his own orchestra to perform. Ellis later won a Grammy for this work (Best Instrumental Arrangement) and was invited to write the music for the film's sequel, French Connection II, in 1975.

Ellis's final album for Columbia Records, Connection, was recorded in August 1972. The album included "The Theme from The French Connection," a shorter version of Ellis's movie score, and "Chain Reaction," a complex and impressive piece by long-time collaborator Hank Levy. Other tracks on the album featured arrangements of pop songs by artists such as Carole King, Yes, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and The Carpenters. These arrangements were often humorous or playful, with Ellis changing the original rhythm or playing the melody in a funny way. There are no singers on this album.

No matter what inspired Ellis's creative changes to the popular songs, Connection was the orchestra's last album for Columbia Records.

MPS Records

In 1973, the Orchestra recorded an album called Soaring, which included original songs. Milcho Leviev wrote a song titled "Sladka Pitka," based on a Bulgarian folk song. Another song from the album, "Whiplash" by Hank Levy, was later used in a film with the same name. The album was released by MPS Records, which also released Ellis's next album, Haiku. This album featured Milcho Leviev, bassist Ray Brown, drummer John Guerin, and a large string orchestra. It included ten songs, each inspired by a Japanese haiku poem. The album had a calm and thoughtful style. Haiku was probably recorded in late 1973 and released in 1974.

In 1974, Ellis became interested in Brazilian music and learned Portuguese to communicate with local musicians. Around this time, he led a live band called the Organic Band, which was a simpler version of the Orchestra without electronic instruments or effects (except for amplification). The band also included a group of four vocalists.

These activities were paused when Ellis began experiencing health problems, such as feeling out of breath after climbing one flight of stairs. He was hospitalized in New York City, where doctors diagnosed him with mitral stenosis, a condition that caused his heart to beat irregularly. He was given medication and returned home to Los Angeles. Soon after, he felt unwell again and was re-diagnosed with an atrial septal defect. More tests were done, and a third diagnosis was made: cardiomyopathy. Ellis was given more medication, but his condition worsened, and he suffered a sudden heart failure in May 1975. Ellis later described the experience as "remarkably beautiful," even though he was close to death.

By 1976, Ellis was active again, though details about his work are limited. On December 3, 1976, the Don Ellis Orchestra performed on a television special hosted by Shirley MacLaine. The Orchestra played an arrangement of "Sweet Georgia Brown," which was renamed "Sweet Shirley MacLaine." The performance included a solo by Art Pepper, a group of tap dancers, and the return of the electric trumpet.

In 1977, Ellis signed with Atlantic Records, which promised to fund the Orchestra's trip to the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in exchange for a live recording of the performance. Before the trip, the record company asked Ellis to record arrangements of two songs from Star Wars: "Star Wars (Main Title)" and "Princess Leia's Theme," which were to be released as a 45 rpm single. Later, the company requested an entire album of new material to sell if the single became popular. Ellis had to complete this album in about a week before the band left for Montreux. The album could not include songs that would later appear on the live recording.

Ellis received help from other composers Tommy Vig and Curt Berg but mostly wrote the album himself. The album, titled Music from Other Galaxies and Planets, was released quickly. All the songs were renamed with space-themed titles, such as "Orion's Sword" and "Crypton."

The Orchestra's performance at Montreux was well received, and the album reached No. 48 on the Billboard jazz charts. This was Ellis's final album as a leader, though he later appeared on albums by Nick Gilder (You Know Who You Are) and Tommy Vig (1978).

Ellis's last known public performance was on April 21, 1978, at the Westside Room in Century City. After this, his doctor told him to stop touring and playing the trumpet because it was too hard on his heart. On December 17, 1978, after attending a Jon Hendricks concert, Ellis had a fatal heart attack at his home in North Hollywood, where his parents were staying. His condition was believed to be cardiac arrhythmia. He was 44 years old. Ellis was buried in the Sheltering Hills section of Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.

Legacy

Don Ellis had a strong influence on the people he worked with. Stu Blumberg, a former sideman, said Ellis helped him learn about the unusual aspects of music used in film soundtracks. Jim Snodgrass, a tenor saxophonist, said, "In many ways, Don was a teacher. His music taught me that I could play anything I needed to." Other sidemen, including Tom Scott, John Klemmer, Glenn Ferris, and Milcho Leviev, later had successful careers as solo musicians. Ralph Humphrey and Fred Selden also had successful careers as sidemen, session musicians, or teachers. Ellis was a strong believer in libertarian ideas, which some of his students said came from his openness to music from other cultures.

Most of Ellis's albums have been reissued on CD. Columbia Records originally released seven of his albums but only reissued Electric Bath (his most popular album) in 1997. The other albums were allowed to be reissued by other companies. Today, labels like Koch Jazz, Wounded Bird, and Mighty Quinn Productions have reissued almost all of his albums, making them widely available. The Sleepy Night record company in the UK recently released several CDs of live performances from Don Ellis's private collection.

Ellis also wrote many articles and books. His 1972 book, The New Rhythm Book, explains how to practice and perform in unusual musical rhythms. It includes a companion play-along LP or cassette called New Rhythms. His 1975 book, Quarter Tones, is a guide to using quarter tones in music. Both books provide detailed historical and cultural information about their subjects. Quarter Tones also includes exercises and practice pieces. These books are hard to find because they have not been printed since their first editions.

The Don Ellis Library and Collection is now kept in the Ethnomusicology Archives at UCLA. Before that, from 1981 to 2000, it was stored at Eastfield College, part of Dallas County Community College District in Mesquite, Texas. The collection includes his writings, instruments, and other items, as well as his Grammy Award for best score for the movie The French Connection in 1971.

Orchestra instrumentation

Ellis showed a strong interest in increasing the range of instruments used in big band music, even in his earliest Orchestra recordings, such as the 1966 album Live at Monterey. Influenced by his work with Latin music groups, Ellis expanded his rhythm section to include two drum sets, three double-bass players, at least two extra percussion players, piano, and organ. On the 1967 song "Turkish Bath" from the album Electric Bath, bassist Ray Neapolitan played the sitar in addition to his usual instrument. Ellis's horn sections were usually standard, but later he added a tuba and French horn to the brass section. Sometimes, saxophonists also played other instruments like flute, oboe, clarinet, and saxello.

In 1967, Ellis began using electronic instruments. His pianist used the Fender-Rhodes electric piano, clavinet, and electric harpsichord. Ellis himself used a trumpet with amplified sound, which he called the "electrophonic trumpet." This instrument often had its sound changed using electronic effects. The first use of this innovation was on the 1967 track "Open Beauty" from Electric Bath, where Ellis played a long solo with his trumpet sound processed through an echoplex. Ellis also used a ring modulator, an electronic device built for him by Tom Oberheim.

In 1968, Ellis replaced his double bass players with one electric bassist. The first bassist was Joe Julian, followed by Dennis F. Parker, and later Dave McDaniel. He also hired guitarist Jay Graydon, who stayed with the band for many years.

In 1971, for the Tears of Joy tour, Ellis added a string quartet to his band. The string instruments were amplified using new pickups made by Barcus-Berry to make them audible over the brass and saxophones. These new sounds gave Ellis many creative opportunities. He explained, "People listen to brass quintets, woodwind, or string quartets for hours, so I thought having all of these in a big band would create a wide range of musical colors."

The 1974 album Haiku was recorded with a jazz quartet and a full string orchestra. Because of the group's size, this was likely not meant to replace the Don Ellis Orchestra for live performances.

Ellis's "Organic Band," which toured in the spring and summer of 1974, reduced the band size from 21 or 22 members to 15. The horn section was cut in half, the string quartet was removed, a vocal quartet was added, and no electronic effects (other than amplification) were used.

After his heart attack, Ellis briefly returned to using the electrophonic trumpet and continued with synthesizers and electronic keyboards. The string quartet, which had been part of his band since 1971, remained alongside the brass section. Ellis also began playing two new instruments: the superbone, a combination of a valve-slide trombone and trumpet, and the firebird, a similar instrument. Both were also played by Maynard Ferguson.

Discography

With Maynard Ferguson

• Maynard Ferguson plays jazz music for dancing (Roulette, 1959)
• Newport Suite (Roulette, 1960)
• Maynard '64 (Roulette, 1963)

• George Russell Sextet in K.C. (Decca, 1961)
• The Stratus Seekers (Riverside, 1961)
• Ezz-thetics (Riverside, 1961)
• The Outer View (Riverside, 1962)

• Charles Mingus , Mingus Dynasty (Columbia, 1959)
• Frank Zappa , Absolutely Free (Verve, 1967) – trumpet on " Brown Shoes Don't Make It "

Collaborators

Note: This list is not complete.
• Ed Shaughnessy
• Ralph Humphrey (drummer)
• David Garibaldi (musician)