Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Don Ellis

Artist:Don Ellis w/George Russell
Song:Nardis
Album:Milestones: The Jazz Giants Play Miles Davis




This is a very good various artists comp from Prestige of jazz greats performing Miles Davis songs. It's recommended to beginners. Trumpeter Don Ellis experimented with big band forms in the 60s and also worked on films & TV. This version of Nardis is credited to Ellis on the CD but actually appears to be a George Russell recording. Don't know why they did that. He was born July 25, 1934 in Los Angeles. Ellis graduated from Boston University in 1956 with a composition degree. He worked in the Glenn Miller band directed by Ray McKinley, was in the Army band for a couple of years and joined Maynard Ferguson's band when he was discharged. In 1959, Ellis got into the avant garde jazz scene in New York and that led to him working with pianist George Russell. Nardis is from the 1962 George Russell album Ezz-thetics on Riverside and also features Eric Dolphy on sax, Steve Swallow on bass and Pete LaRoca on drums. That album was released on CD in 2007 with bonus tracks. I don't know why Prestige credited the track to Ellis but the comp also features Oscar Peterson, Dexter Gordon and others so it's worth checking out. Later on, Ellis would become known for his experiments in big band forms and he also wrote the score for the classic film The French Connection. Don Ellis died of a heart attack on Dec. 17, 1978 at age 44. Here's Don Ellis performing New Horizons in the 70s.