Who Is/Was Lloyd Ellis

[JSngry]

Whazzup with THIS?

[Spontooneous]

Never heard of the guy myself. But an album cover like that inspires a little Google journey.

Here's what I turned up:

page with a little bio

Also references in the Guitar Player magazine index to the issues of 3/75 and 1/95.

And Ellis is apparently on a late-career Red Norvo album, "Vibes a la Red," on the Progressive label. Being on a Norvo date is a pretty decent recommendation for a guitarist, no?

Anybody out there know more?

[Jim R]

Never heard of the guy myself. But an album cover like that inspires a little Google journey.

Here's what I turned up:

page with a little bio

What a riot. You've gotta love an online resume like that. Brian's brushes with greatness! Check out his homepage and other links for more laughs, including his Cub Scout photo.

I haven't heard much of Ellis, but my general impression is that he's a "superpicker" type, with his roots in country music. I guess he was quite the Vegas sideman...

[JSngry]

Well, as fate would have it, a friend sent me a dub of this album, and "superpicker" seems an apt description. Not really "jazz" as we know it (although all the tunes have a "West Coast" kind of groove to them), but the guy's got pretty impressive chops - very clean, very fleet, a fat tone on the bottom end of the axe (that always impresses me for some reason), total ease with harmonics, the whole shebang of guitaristic techniques flawlessly executed in good taste. And he doesn't NOT swing.

Not a side I'm likely to listen to w/any regularity, but for those who are "guitar geeks", I'd think that this one would be worth a checkout or two. I enjoyed/appreciated it as a display of an instrument being very well-played, and I got a corner of my plate reserved for that type of thing.

As for being a Vegas sideman, let us not forget that James Moody toiled in those same pits for a few years in the late-60s/early-70s, as did Red Rodney & Carl Fontana (I think). A deathbed of creative opportunities, but a hotbead of highly skilled instrumentalists. In those days, you had to be a helluva player to work on that circuit.

[Jim R]

Jim, I too have a fondness for a fat bottom (no, no, I'm not going there ), and I too have a corner of my plate (even if it's one of those plastic picnic jobs with the triangular corners) open for this kind of shit. May I ask for some discognographical details on this? Is it a G-B-D outing? Curious to know what tunes he did, as well.

Speaking of Fontana, he was on that "Las Vegas - 3 a.m." disc referred to in "The Life Of Brian" (I just loved that guy's site ).

No real disrespect to Ellis in my previous post, BTW. Obviously, some guys can play tremendously, and even place themselves (and succeed in doing so) in jazz circles when that may not be the place they truly belong (Hank Garland comes to mind here) in terms of their true musical soul.

[JSngry]

Discographical information is as follows -

Carlton LP 12/104 (released in 1958) Apparently this has been reissued on CD in Japan, but seeing as how all the Carlton master tapes have been mysteriously lost (see HERE.) it's an LP dub, and not an unobvious one either).

Tunes are:

Crazy Rhythm

Patsy

Stuffy (yes, Hawk's tune)

Savoy (as in Stompin' at the...)

The Man I Love

Hot Rod

Gully Jumper

Nitecap

Topsy

Sleepy Time Down South

Playing time is between 36-37 minutes.

Personnel is Ellis; Tony Morell as/fl; Jerry Christy - b; Bennie Steele - dr

The other players are competent, featured as "relief", and no more. It's really Ellis' show here.

Found another Ellis album (aside from some squaredance calling records on Decca tthat are co-led by a "Lloyd Ellis", may or may not be the same guy) HERE.

You gotta love the title (at least I do) - SO TALL, SO COOL. Sounds like a Dexter side!

[Jim R]

Thanks Jim. I've seen a few Carlton discs over the years, as I'm sure you have. Interesting to see Tubby Hayes and Anita Bryant on the same label, not to mention some titles like "Greatest Stereo Harmonica in Recorded History".

The other link provided some entertaining things as well, such as the title: "EL-100 - Music to Play Checkers By - Danny Gould [1959]" (let's see if Dan notices this).

Ellis has the distinction of haviing his LP followed in the Trey numerical series by the classic: "Tales for Young 'Uns - Dan Blocker". (that's Hoss, for all you non-Bonanza fans).