“Creatively I felt (and feel) that I need to record a new album every year,” saxophonist John Ellis explains about the release of his latest release, By a Thread. Always adapting and honing his techniques, Ellis will create his 2006 signature sound when he hits the road on May 12, heading his own group. Although the band’s members are not the “New York Crew” from By a Thread, the shows promise to connect audiences with refreshing tones and a futuristic beat.
By a Thread served as another opportunity for Ellis to sit down and record music in an immediate, yet spontaneous way. The release of the disc also marks his turning point from Charlie Hunter Trio sideman to full-time bandleader. Holding on to his southern and New Orleans roots while embracing a variety of new sounds, Ellis is stepping into his own. Following 2005’s One Foot in the Swamp, By a Thread features a list of up-and-coming gentle giants in the jazz world. Terreon Gully (Christian McBride Band, Stefon Harris, Burning Spear) on drums brings his trance-like beats and hip-hop influence into the fold, and Mike Moreno (Joshua Redmon Elastic Band) swings in on guitar with crisp accompaniment and leads. Aaron Goldberg (Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redmon) works his magic behind the piano, Wurlitzer, Rhodes, and pump organ, while Reuben Rogers (Jackie McLean, Diana Reeves) is an integral part of the rhythm on bass.
Ellis plays soprano and alto saxophones, bass clarinet and multiple ocarinas. Composing all of the selections, Ellis walks the line of “The Next Big Thing” everyday. From loose, gritty “Tall Drink of Water” to smooth, elongated “Little Giggles,” Ellis flexes his versatile playing ability. He showcases his swinging sense in “Umpty Eleven,” laying solid when needed and backing off when appropriate. The album comes to a deep groove brand of funk close in “Moore’s Alphabet,” a song written for drummer Stanton Moore (Galactic, Garage A Trois). While Ellis appreciates that different communities of music-fans have embraced him and his music, he has trouble placing a label of what sort of music he creates. Glide met up with Ellis recently as he walked the streets of Brooklyn, and he shared a peek into his musical psyche.
You just got back from Japan with the Charlie Hunter Trio. Does the crowd response differ?
It’s funny, because you want to generalize about a country and say “a Japanese audience is x” but especially this time I learned that you can’t really even do that. Depending on the venue we play in, the audience is totally different. Japan definitely thinks in terms of absolute categories: which is the jamband scene which is different from the jazz scene which is also different from the reggae scene. When we played in more of a jamband venue, it was crazy. We’d start playing a tune, and they’d recognize the tune from the record. People were yelling. Back at the Blue Note in New York, people were much more conservative. But I will say that everyone seemed to love it, but showed it more in the jamband venue.
It just matters on the venue and the particular day.
Yeah, right. The context of the music makes a really big difference.
So you’re about to start your own tour to promote your album.
That’s right. Derrek Phillips, who plays drums with Charlie Hunter, is playing, and Mike Moreno is on guitar. A bass player I’ve been playing with a lot from Houston named Allen Hanson rounds out the quartet.
Are there any musicians you’d like to work with if money were no object?
Oh man, probably Stevie Wonder. I’d love to just hang out with Stevie Wonder.
One can definitely hear a funk influence in your playing.
Yeah, I don’t know. Some of it’s from playing with Charlie; some of it’s from living in New Orleans. I just try to write music and not think too much about what it is, but rather observe what it becomes. Sometimes it does end up being some funkier stuff, but it’s not that I have some sort of agenda to be a funk musician. The music industry in general depends on compartmentalization, because that’s how branding works. They say “acid jazz” or “jambands” or whatever terms people come up with, but it doesn’t mean anything. But that’s how we talk about stuff to each other and how things are sold. Everything is sold with some kind of category or story. I think to a certain extent people who easily define or categorize themselves can do really well that way, also.
Do you have a particular method to get in the mind-frame to compose, perhaps a place you like to go?
Hmmm, not really. Deadlines really help. I probably spend too much time beating myself up for not composing more, because I always love it when I do it, but it’s easy for me to get sidetracked to something different. I’m always juggling ten different things. I love to write on the piano, sometimes on the airplane. Really, I can kind of write anywhere; it’s just a matter of getting focused. Sometimes projects help, like thinking about the orchestration. I’m hoping that my next project is going to be a band with a tuba, accordion, organ, drums, and, of course, saxophone.
But no, I don’t have a set strategy. If I had a set strategy maybe I’d record more! My life in the moment has no consistency. I’m always gone; I’m coming back. Some of those people I know wake up the in same bed everyday, have their coffee at the same time, and write everyday from this hour to this hour. It sounds so cool, but it’s not practical for my life. I travel a lot. So if you try to get a rhythm together, you’re interrupted.
Who do you consider as some of your musical influences?
The whole canon of jazz. I went through Sonny Rollins; I was super into John Coltrane, Charlie Parker….the obvious things I was into. I was influenced by Nicholas Peyton in New Orleans because he’s just a couple years older than me, before he got well-known with his solo career. It was influential how his brain worked on me at that time, and to a lesser extent, Jason Marsalis. Just because both of them opened my eyes to what was possible. They were both my age and had this breathtaking ability, an ability that’s easy to quantify. They could hear the music in this specific way.
For the saxophone, I was most influenced by my teacher James Houlik at the North Caroline School of the Arts who was an essentially classical guy. He was my first real saxophone teacher but really world class. I still think about him a lot because he set the bar really high. I’m more influenced today by my peers: Mark Turner, Chris Potter, Joshua Redman. I’m also really influenced by my brother too, who’s a more and more well-known artist.
I noticed he did the artwork for By a Thread.
Yeah, he does the artwork for pretty much all my records. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to keep getting him, though. He’s become really well-known. He has some films in the MoMA and travels the world doing these installations. But just seeing the way his brain works has been really influential on me since I was born, pretty much. He influenced me to move to New York. I’m from the South, and he moved here when he was 18. He kind of lobbied to have me come here. I probably wouldn’t have done it if he hadn’t made me feel like I had a support system.
So you’ve sort of gone from the small town Southern boy to this international artist. Have you played in Brazil?
Never. That’s the main one I’d like to play. I play with a lot of Brazilian musicians in New York, and they talk about it, like, “Oh you haven’t been to Brazil? You have to go!”
I think you’d be very well received there.
I went to Argentina, that’s the closest I’ve been. Actually it was the very first gig I did with Charlie. It was funny looking back on it, because almost all of our gigs are in the U.S. annd he has, more than the average jazz musician has, a big domestic audience. So it was funny that the first thing we did was in Argentina.
One last question, how did you spend your plane ride to and from Japan?
On the way there I was really productive. I was doing a lot of writing. I had this whole thing worked out on the piano, which I was thinking might be the beginning of this flute piece. I have to write a piece for this guy who is the principal flute player for the Chicago Symphony. I’ll play it with him and a group in August. I had been working out some stuff on the piano but never written anything down. So I just kind of notated it on the computer. I don’t know if it’s the right thing for him. I like to have little ideas like that, little themes. And they are like seeds, and they start to grow and you can figure out what setting makes the most sense for them.
