Don Ellis - ESSENCE (Mighty Quinn)

[JSngry]

No, I repeat, no "gimmickry" at all (and only a little "self-consciousness" in the "experiments"), Paul Bley & Gary Peacock in outstanding early-60s form, a drummer named Gene Stone who I'd never heard of, but who sounds like one playin' motherfukker, a version of "Johnny Come Lately" that is damn near revelatory (and which cooks like a big dog), all of it recorded hard, loud, and clear, and all of it from 1962 (even though everything on here would still sound "modern" in 1972, or even 1982. Most of it even in 1992).

My interest in getting this disc was mostly to check out Bley & Gary Peacock. I wasn't really sure what to expect out of Ellis, but it sure wasn't this. Those with conservative/purely "traditional" tastes will not be at all interested (but those whose tastes begin w/AACM-ish and beyond type material will be). Everybody else, check it out. Recommended, and enthusiastically.

[JohnT]

I just received this yesterday and made my way through it today!!

WOW!! I concur with JSngry -- don't miss this one!! Great playing from all around.

I bought it mainly to hear Gary Peacock in his early years which I really like (since I'm a bassist). He is in fine form -- kind of in his Scott LaFaro like mode -- fantastic!! I always wondered if he and LaFaro crossed paths -- very similar approach. Wish he had done more with Bill Evans (than just the Trio 64 recording).

I think this is going to one of my favorites for the year!!!

Between Mighty Quinn and Water -- we're gettin' some great reissues!

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Peacock and Stone play together on a couple of other 1962 LA things - Clare Fischer: First Time Out and Prince Lasha & Sonny Simmons: The Cry.

Mike

[JSngry]

And then?

The cat PLAYS!

[JohnT]

Isn't the Clare Fischer slated to be a part of the PJ Piano Trio Mosaic Select coming out in the Fall?

I hope so -- more Peacock and Stone!! Yeah!!

Edited August 28, 2005 by JohnT

[Michael Fitzgerald]

A few more, rather infrequently. Have a look here:

http://www.attictoys.com/jazz/KG.HTM

He's still around, plays at the Baked Potato and elsewhere. Latest record I know of is with guitarist Joe Gaeta in 2002.

Mike

[JSngry]

Isn't the Clare Fischer slated to be a part of the PJ Piano Trio Mosaic Select coming out in the Fall?

←

Cuscuna's liner notes refer to that set as if it has already been issued!

They also refer to as Essence as Ellis' "last recording as a leader". Surely he means last small-group recording.

What has he been smoking?

[JSngry]

A few more, rather infrequently. Have a look here:

http://www.attictoys.com/jazz/KG.HTM

He's still around, plays at the Baked Potato and elsewhere. Latest record I know of is with guitarist Joe Gaeta in 2002.

Mike

←

Thanks!

[Michael Fitzgerald]

There's even one more small group item, live in Poland from Oct. 1962, but perhaps that Muza release is not legit.

What's really interesting is the stuff I've heard by Ellis's 1963 NYC group with folks like Barre Phillips, Joe Cocuzzo, Don Heckman - several others. Free stuff, with a "concept". Unfortunately, rehearsals only. The gigs (which definitely had Ken McIntyre, Steve Swallow, Earl Zindars, and more) weren't taped, as far as I know.

Mike

[JSngry]

That NYC band really sounds interesting.

I confess to not being familiar w/Ellis' Prestige (New Jazz?) & Candid albums. I am familiar with his work w/Mingus, Russell, & Ferguson, but viewed it as "interesting", and not too much more. If those other albums are along the lines of Essence, then it's been my loss. "Johnny come Lately" by itself was a shock, with Ellsi using harmonic concepts that just weren't in the air at the time (or more accurately, were just beginning to come into the air). Imagine a Dizzy-like tone with a Woody Shaw-esque harmonic sense, sorta. WHOA!

Everything else that followed was an equally pleasant surprise. Definitely a most pleasant surprise.

[JSngry]

And speaking of Don Heckman (yes, the L.A. critic), does his playing appear on record anywhere besides the excerpts heard on John Benson Brooks' Avant-Slant? I'm not counting BS&T 4, of course(?).

[paul secor]

There's even one more small group item, live in Poland from Oct. 1962, but perhaps that Muza release is not legit.

What's really interesting is the stuff I've heard by Ellis's 1963 NYC group with folks like Barre Phillips, Joe Cocuzzo, Don Heckman - several others. Free stuff, with a "concept". Unfortunately, rehearsals only. The gigs (which definitely had Ken McIntyre, Steve Swallow, Earl Zindars, and more) weren't taped, as far as I know.

Mike

←

I remember seeing an Ellis group with Don Heckman on WNET - Channel 13 in the NYC area - back in the early '60s. I don't remember much about the music, except that I believe they did one composition with solos based on cards drawn from a deck.

[rostasi]

There's even one more small group item, live in Poland from Oct. 1962, but perhaps that Muza release is not legit.

←

The Ellis on Muza is legit 'cause I have it...somewhere.

I used to really be into the Muza modern classical

and discovered at the same time some of their jazz titles.

Hokey covers - I think the word "jamboree" was used somewhere for the series titles,

so you can imagine what they looked like!

[Chuck Nessa]

That NYC band really sounds interesting.

I confess to not being familiar w/Ellis' Prestige (New Jazz?) & Candid albums.

←

Gotta check out the New Jazz date for Al Francis if nothing else!

At the time of issue, I bought the New Jazz, Candid and PJ lps and had big hopes for Mr. Ellis. The subsequent big band dates were such a disappointment it has taken me 40 years to "warm to them".

[Michael Fitzgerald]

There are a few other Heckman appearances in the mid-1960s - see the Joe Hunt and Steve Kuhn discographies on my website.

The rehearsal tapes mention preparing for a TV show - that WNET thing could very well have been it. I wonder if anything survived.

Re: the Muza, when I said "legit" - I meant authorized and officially sanctioned, which is highly suspect in the world of Soviet-period Poland (and maybe Post-Soviet too).

Mike

[JSngry]

I hear ya', Chuck. Coming of age in jazz when, where, and how I did, those Ellis big-band sides were some hot shit. But then the shit cooled once I got into other things. Still, I've re-warmed to the best of them.

Nothing like re-warmed shit. Comfort food for the Stage Band Generation!

Edited August 28, 2005 by JSngry

[Guest akanalog]

yes jsngry, shalome. i have an OJC date with jaki byard and ron carter and charli(e) persip and al francis. i like it a lot. i would recommend that.

also as mentioned, "the cry" is good for some gene stone and early peacock. i had never heard of stone either and was impressed by him on this set.

also-why were don ellis' groups generally like 90% caucasian? was it conincidental or preference? was it because for his complex music he needed good sight readers and at the time many people trained in that way (classical training?) were caucasians?

[Chuck Nessa]

also-why were don ellis' groups generally like 90% caucasian?  was it conincidental or preference?  was it because for his complex music he needed good sight readers and at the time many people trained in that way (classical training?) were caucasians?

←

The early "east coast" recordings were very "unwhite". You can't be talking about those.

Then he moved to California.............................................

[Dennis_M]

Coming of age in jazz when, where, and how I did, those Ellis big-band sides were some hot shit. But then the shit cooled once I got into other things. Still, I've re-warmed to the best of them.

Nothing like re-warmed shit.

Exactly. The best was really outstanding, but a lot of it was forgettable. Something to do with making a living, I think.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

There's a ton of Ellis appearances that are stashed in the vaults - like the 1962 DC International Festival performance by the George Russell Sextet with Ellis, Paul Plummer, David Baker, Russell, Steve Swallow, and Pete LaRoca. Or the 1960 Enrica album. Or the *other* 1960 Candid album. Or the Hindustani Jazz Sextet stuff from 1964-66.

Unfortunately, the Ellis name isn't what it once was. We're lucky to see Essence and the big band things.

Mike

[JSngry]

also-why were don ellis' groups generally like 90% caucasian?  was it conincidental or preference?  was it because for his complex music he needed good sight readers and at the time many people trained in that way (classical training?) were caucasians?

←

I doubt it was preference, nor do I think it was coincidental. I'd bet that it was more or less a "social" thing, players of like interests and backgrounds coming together and feeling a rapport. The jazz world back then was very "cliquish", and not necessarily maliciously. Guys like Ellis were totally outside the mainstream in terms of industry "support systems". This is the pre-big band period I'm talking about. Lots of different "avant-garde" movements were afoot then. It was hardly a monolithic movement. So you find some guys to play your music that you feel comfortable working with, and you stick together in order to stay together with your own thing. This isn't segregation or racism, there's no malevolent intent. It's simple survival skills. And it was practiced by blacks and whites alike.

Now, if you're talking the big-band days, well, those charts were so wack that, yeah, some pretty heavy duty reading chops were required, and L.A., being home to all the studio stuff, had its own network of such players, most of whom were white. When you're putting a big band together, networking is how it gets done. And remember - Ellis' was a touring band, or at least was attempting to be one. So a certain level of committment was most likely expected out of the players. Once you got the gig, I'm sure you were expected to hang.

Plus - look at the black L.A. avant-garde of the time - Tapscott, Bradford, etc. Totally different music in terms of both style and "intent". I doubt there was much of an intersection of either musical or personal interests, at least not enough to make for a fruitful professional, ongoing musical interaction. That's perhaps even more relevant - who can you get to play your music who wants to play it?

Sometimes "divisions" happen for totally natural reasons. Sometimes.

[JSngry]

also-why were don ellis' groups generally like 90% caucasian?  was it conincidental or preference?  was it because for his complex music he needed good sight readers and at the time many people trained in that way (classical training?) were caucasians?

←

The early "east coast" recordings were very "unwhite". You can't be talking about those.

Then he moved to California.............................................

←

Not having heard those, I can't comment on the music, but in terms of personnel, the inclusion of Jaki Byard on the Candid & the New Jazz is telling, I think. They were associates in Maynard's band, right? And they both had this thing of openly/specifically referencing older styles, as opposed to Ornette's referencing of the feel of them, Cecil's abstraction of them, and Trane's remodeling of them (I'm basing this on what I've heard of Ellis from this time outside of these recordings). This was pretty much at odds with the prevailing trends of the East Coast "avant-garde" jazz scene of the time, Mingus notwithstanding. Byard, of course, could do what he did without his "authenticity" being questioned. Ellis, for obvious reasons, could not. Not that such questions shouldn't be asked, mind you.

None of this is as neat as I'm making it out to be, obviously, but a guy like Ellis was highly unlikely to find a lot of black players who were into exactly what he was into at that particular time. Factor in the extra-musical social circumstances of the time, and it's kind of an "against the odds" thing that he got to make those records with the players he did, I think, and definitely understandable why his NYC band that Mike refers to was mostly (all?) white.

Then, as you say, he moved to California.............................................

[Michael Fitzgerald]

I'm sure that Ellis and Byard went back before their time with Maynard (where Byard replaced Zawinul in summer 1959; Ellis joined six months earlier).

Ellis went to school at Boston University and graduated (BM in composition) in 1956. Byard, of course, was a Boston legend going back to the 1940s.

Mike

[jlhoots]

Sideman with George Russell too - right??

Oops, I'm late on this, but at least I'm correct.

Edited August 28, 2005 by jlhoots

[brownie]

I'm with Chuck Nessa about Don Ellis. Promises unfullfilled.

I still love his 'New Ideas' and 'Essence' albums (the Pacific Jazz vinyl still comes with a 22-Franc mark, original vinyls were pretty expensive 40 years ago!).

And the various albums he made with George Russell (GR in KC, 'Ezz-Thetics' and 'The Outer View') but have still to groove on any of his big band sides.

I heard his big band when Don Ellis appeared at the 1968 Antibes jazz festival but was left pretty unimpressed. Count Basie and Pharoah Sanders were also at the festival that year and the Ellis appearance seemed a downer compared to those.