DON ELLIS

Candid Recording(s):

Out Of Nowhere(CCD 79032)

Biography:

Donald Johnson Ellis was born in Los Angeles, California in 1934. His mother was a church organist and he led his own dance bands while still at school. His B.Mus was obtained at Boston University and after his graduation in 1956 he joined the band of Ray McKinley. During his national service in 1958/8 he worked with U.S. Army Bands in Germany. He had spells with Charlie Barnet and Maynard Ferguson in the ensuing years but it was his recordings with George Russell in 1961 that brought him to the attention of international audiences.

He quotes his influences as Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and Clark Terry but, as his work with Russell and this recording showed, he had, by 1961, become an individual stylist in his own right. His tone was light but brassy, his articulation clean and his technique such that he was able to realise even the most elaborately ambitious ideas without trouble.