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Dave Ellis

Tenor saxophonist Dave Ellis has long been a key figure in the fertile Northern California jazz scene. His story is a tapestry woven from myriad musical adventures. It begins with his days as a ten-year-old musical prodigy and opens on a new chapter with State of Mind, his debut recording for Milestone, featuring a sterling jazz veteran cast of pianist Mulgrew Miller, bassists Peter Washington and Christian McBride, drummers Carl Allen and Lewis Nash, and alto saxophonist Vincent Herring.

Along the way, Ellis was named Best New Talent (along with Diana Krall) in the 1997 Jazziz magazine Readers Poll. He scooped up two 1999 California Music Awards—for Outstanding Jazz Album and Outstanding Jazz Artist in Northern California, and jazz critics hailed his mature saxophone style for its "enveloping sound and emphatic attack" (Bob Blumenthal, Atlantic Monthly) and its "alternately earthy, probing, and lyrical" sound (Mike Joyce, Washington Post). As legendary record producer Orrin Keepnews writes in his liner notes to the first new Ellis recording in five years, "even on the shifting and difficult terrain of early 21st century jazz, a talent as formidable as his should and will be recognized."

Keepnews, who has worked with many of the all-time tenor greats, including Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, and John Coltrane, served as both producer and mentor for Ellis on State of Mind. "What he has done for me in this period of my life, the encouragement and the affirmation he has given me, are the kinds of things I'll be talking about when I'm old," Ellis says. "To have the experience of doing a record with Orrin Keepnews—in New York City, with these heavyweight hitters at the top of their craft—I just feel really fortunate."

For Ellis, the lucky streak began with growing up in the Bay Area's multicultural environment, where he could listen to all kinds of music, including funk, R&B, and rock, while learning to play jazz in the renowned Berkeley schools music programs. He was already a precocious player by the time he got to high school and came under the tutelage of jazz ensemble director Phil Hardymon and his successor, Charles Hamilton. Among the players to come out of that milieu have been saxophonists Craig Handy and Peter Apfelbaum, trumpeter Steven Bernstein, and pianist Benny Green. Graduating in 1985, one year ahead of future star Joshua Redman, Ellis moved on to the Berklee College of Music, where he focused on his composing and arranging skills on all sorts of instruments, in all sorts of styles, and graduated with a degree in music production and engineering. At school and in the rich performing scene around the Boston/Cambridge area, his peers included such leading lights of new-generation jazz as Roy Hargrove, Antonio Hart, Mark Turner, Kenny Brooks, Donny Mcaslin, Seamus Blake, and Chris Cheek.

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Album Review

Erik Jekabson Sextet III: One Note At A Time

Read "One Note At A Time" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


By the time One Note At A Time's first two songs have finished, it's been made abundantly clear that trumpeter Erik Jekabson appreciates a groove as much as he values space. The opener—"Days of Haze"—provides an introductory shot of adrenaline in the form of a tight, funk-framed blues, and “Dusk," in contrast, looks to open vistas, with longer lines and a less-is-more attitude reflecting the liminal spirit in its name. Foreshadowing what's to come, those early offerings prove complementary through ...

614
Interview

Dave Ellis: Of Jams and Jazz

Read "Dave Ellis: Of Jams and Jazz" reviewed by Forrest Dylan Bryant


Tenor saxophonist Dave Ellis has been a stalwart of the Bay Area jazz scene for years. An East Bay native, he honed his craft in the famed Berkeley High School jazz program and, appropriately enough, the Berklee school of Music in Boston. After returning to the Bay Area, he spent time in the original version Charlie Hunter Trio as well as several other groups, and began recording a series of critically acclaimed albums. The most recent of these, 2003's State ...

509
Interview

Dave Ellis: Talented Tenor on the March

Read "Dave Ellis: Talented Tenor on the March" reviewed by R.J. DeLuke


Why Not?

So many jazz musicians have been heralded as the next “big thing” since the 80s it’s hard to keep track. It can cause one, after a while, to cast a sideways glance at the next pronouncement. But when a saxophonist creeps up on you with a lively, burnished tone and a swagger begat from the likes of Dexter... maybe it’s time not to ask why, but to say why not.

Dave Ellis isn’t a ...

148
Album Review

Dave Ellis: State of Mind

Read "State of Mind" reviewed by Franz A. Matzner


A severe gap exists between technical facility and profound expression. The jazz world has become flooded with technically adept performers, and whether they’ve come up from within the rigorous university system or the art institutes, they all display a studied command of their instruments, harmony, sight-reading, and composition. They’ve all been tested, certified, and approved; they’re all fully saturated with the historical development of their instruments. Unfortunately, the majority fails to translate this scholastic excellence into the kind of personally ...

908
Interview

Dave Ellis: Talented Tenor on the March

Read "Dave Ellis: Talented Tenor on the March" reviewed by R.J. DeLuke


Why Not? So many jazz musicians have been heralded as the next “big thing" since the 80s it's hard to keep track. It can cause one, after a while, to cast a sideways glance at the next pronouncement. But when a saxophonist creeps up on you with a lively, burnished tone and a swagger begat from the likes of Dexter' maybe it's time not to ask why, but to say why not.

Dave Ellis isn't a ...

91
Album Review

The Other Ones: The Strange Remain

Read "The Strange Remain" reviewed by AAJ Staff


For over 30 years, The Grateful Dead criss-crossed the country, the house band at party after party in countless cities for a roaming community best known as “Deadheads;" their common bond, to gather and celebrate. Skeptics often write off The Grateful Dead, dissing their fans, attacking the band's now mythical drug habits and citing their poor output of studio recordings, without ever really taking the time to consider the massive body of work they left behind. In this writer's opinion ...

148
Album Review

Dave Ellis: In The Long Run

Read "In The Long Run" reviewed by Jim Santella


The biography at http://www.monarchrecords.com/bio-ellis.html refers to saxophonist Dave Ellis as a “30-year-old rising-star saxophonist" who offers a variety of styles and preferences. The Monarch web site also includes samples from each of the tracks on In The Long Run. His early experience and few recordings only show the surface of what Ellis can do. His two Monarch recordings have proven that Dave Ellis is a “talent deserving wider recognition."

“The Waterbearer," written by Mingus Amungus pianist Muziki Roberson, is one ...

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Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

One Note At A Time

Wide Hive Records
2020

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State of Mind

Fantasy Jazz
2003

buy

In The Long Run

Monarch Records
1998

buy

Penumbra

Monarch Records
1996

buy

Red Reflections

Monarch Records
1995

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