Biography
John Ellis distinguishes himself through inventive saxophone work that fuses a progressive post-bop approach with broad stylistic threads drawn from New Orleans jazz, R&B, funk, classical traditions, and contemporary creative music. After establishing himself in New York in the closing years of the 1990s, he issued several acclaimed recordings such as Roots, Branches and Leaves in 2002, Dance Like There's No Tomorrow in 2008, and Charm in 2015, the last featuring his exploratory Double-Wide ensemble. He has also joined playwright Andy Bragen on ambitious theatrical projects, among them the environmentally themed Mobro from 2014 and the 2020 jazz opera The Ice Siren. In 2023 Ellis and his quartet issued Bizet: Carmen In Jazz, wedding themes from the opera to modern jazz.
Ellis entered the world in North Carolina in 1974 and trained on piano during childhood while also taking up the clarinet. After finishing high school he moved to New Orleans, where he worked with pianist Ellis Marsalis and performed in the groups of Brian Blade and Nicholas Payton.
During his New Orleans period he put out his first leader date, 1996’s The Language of Love. He subsequently settled in New York City and completed a music degree at the New School. In 2002 he placed second at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. Beyond his own ensembles, Ellis has shared stages with bassist John Patitucci, organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, saxophonist Miguel Zenón, pianist Helen Sung, the Holmes Brothers, Sting, and additional artists, and he remained a longtime associate of guitarist Charlie Hunter.
After the debut, Ellis sustained a steady flow of stylistically diverse recordings. Roots, Branches and Leaves from 2002 appeared on Fresh Sound New Talent. One Foot in the Swamp in 2005 and By a Thread in 2006 both came out on Joel Dorn’s Hyena Records and earned widespread international praise. The 2008 release Dance Like There's No Tomorrow marked the first album by John Ellis & Double Wide on Hyena; the lineup featured drums, upright bass, guitar, piano or organ, sousaphone on bass lines, and Ellis on saxophone, bass clarinet, and ocarina. A follow-up Double-Wide effort, Puppet Mischief, surfaced in 2010 and carried the same New Orleans sensibility refracted through the perspective of a New York-based jazz musician.
Ellis had begun working with playwright and librettist Andy Bragen as early as Dreamscapes in 2007. In 2011 the pair received a Jazz Gallery commission for Mobro, a ninety-minute through-composed work scored for nine instrumentalists and five vocalists and prompted by the 1987 voyage of the garbage scow that transported an identical cargo of refuse along the eastern seaboard from New York City to Belize and back before disposal was arranged. They presented workshop versions throughout 2011, gave the complete premiere in December, and subsequently toured the piece.
Ellis assembled a quintet for the 2012 album It’s You I Like and, two years afterward, recorded on Criss Cross with keyboardist Aaron Goldberg and guitarist Mike Moreno from Double Wide plus drummer Rodney Green and bassist Matt Penman; the program presented Ellis’s treatments of songs by indie singer-songwriter Elliott Smith and by jazz pianist and children’s-television figure Fred Rogers. Also in 2014 he captured and issued Mobro on his newly established Parade Light Records label.
After American and European tours, Ellis reconvened an expanded Double-Wide configuration, tracked at Esplanade Studio in New Orleans, and delivered Charm on Parade Light Records in 2014. That same year he joined saxophonist Donny McCaslin, bassist Chris Lightcap, and drummer Adam Cruz for the post-bop session Venture Bound on Enja. The next year Ellis participated with the Klemens Marktl Sextet, saxophonist Seamus Blake, pianist Aaron Goldberg, vibraphonist Joe Locke, and bassist Harish Raghavan on December, released by Fresh Sound New Talent.
As early as 2009 Ellis and Bragen had composed the chamber jazz opera The Ice Siren and presented its premiere that May. Building on Mobro’s reception, they engaged nine musicians together with vocalists Gretchen Parlato and Miles Griffin and taped the score in a New York studio. In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the recorded edition of The Ice Siren appeared and drew favorable international notices. Ellis also self-released When The World Was Young that year, a set of alternate trio takes recorded with drummer Anwar Marshall and bassist Madison Rast.
In 2021 Ellis, guitarist Adam Levy, and pianist Glenn Patscha brought out Say It Quiet on Sunnyside Communications. He further appeared as co-billed featured soloist alongside the Norwegian jazz trio Solid!—guitarist Bjørn Vidar Solli, organist Daniel Buner Formo, and drummer Håkon Mjåset Johansen—on Woodworks, their first recording in ten years. In December Ellis’s quartet, completed by drummer Jason Marsalis, pianist Gary Versace, and bassist Reuben Rogers, released Bizet: Carmen In Jazz on Blue Room Music, merging themes from the composer’s opera with contemporary swinging post-bop.
Ellis entered the world in North Carolina in 1974 and trained on piano during childhood while also taking up the clarinet. After finishing high school he moved to New Orleans, where he worked with pianist Ellis Marsalis and performed in the groups of Brian Blade and Nicholas Payton.
During his New Orleans period he put out his first leader date, 1996’s The Language of Love. He subsequently settled in New York City and completed a music degree at the New School. In 2002 he placed second at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. Beyond his own ensembles, Ellis has shared stages with bassist John Patitucci, organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, saxophonist Miguel Zenón, pianist Helen Sung, the Holmes Brothers, Sting, and additional artists, and he remained a longtime associate of guitarist Charlie Hunter.
After the debut, Ellis sustained a steady flow of stylistically diverse recordings. Roots, Branches and Leaves from 2002 appeared on Fresh Sound New Talent. One Foot in the Swamp in 2005 and By a Thread in 2006 both came out on Joel Dorn’s Hyena Records and earned widespread international praise. The 2008 release Dance Like There's No Tomorrow marked the first album by John Ellis & Double Wide on Hyena; the lineup featured drums, upright bass, guitar, piano or organ, sousaphone on bass lines, and Ellis on saxophone, bass clarinet, and ocarina. A follow-up Double-Wide effort, Puppet Mischief, surfaced in 2010 and carried the same New Orleans sensibility refracted through the perspective of a New York-based jazz musician.
Ellis had begun working with playwright and librettist Andy Bragen as early as Dreamscapes in 2007. In 2011 the pair received a Jazz Gallery commission for Mobro, a ninety-minute through-composed work scored for nine instrumentalists and five vocalists and prompted by the 1987 voyage of the garbage scow that transported an identical cargo of refuse along the eastern seaboard from New York City to Belize and back before disposal was arranged. They presented workshop versions throughout 2011, gave the complete premiere in December, and subsequently toured the piece.
Ellis assembled a quintet for the 2012 album It’s You I Like and, two years afterward, recorded on Criss Cross with keyboardist Aaron Goldberg and guitarist Mike Moreno from Double Wide plus drummer Rodney Green and bassist Matt Penman; the program presented Ellis’s treatments of songs by indie singer-songwriter Elliott Smith and by jazz pianist and children’s-television figure Fred Rogers. Also in 2014 he captured and issued Mobro on his newly established Parade Light Records label.
After American and European tours, Ellis reconvened an expanded Double-Wide configuration, tracked at Esplanade Studio in New Orleans, and delivered Charm on Parade Light Records in 2014. That same year he joined saxophonist Donny McCaslin, bassist Chris Lightcap, and drummer Adam Cruz for the post-bop session Venture Bound on Enja. The next year Ellis participated with the Klemens Marktl Sextet, saxophonist Seamus Blake, pianist Aaron Goldberg, vibraphonist Joe Locke, and bassist Harish Raghavan on December, released by Fresh Sound New Talent.
As early as 2009 Ellis and Bragen had composed the chamber jazz opera The Ice Siren and presented its premiere that May. Building on Mobro’s reception, they engaged nine musicians together with vocalists Gretchen Parlato and Miles Griffin and taped the score in a New York studio. In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the recorded edition of The Ice Siren appeared and drew favorable international notices. Ellis also self-released When The World Was Young that year, a set of alternate trio takes recorded with drummer Anwar Marshall and bassist Madison Rast.
In 2021 Ellis, guitarist Adam Levy, and pianist Glenn Patscha brought out Say It Quiet on Sunnyside Communications. He further appeared as co-billed featured soloist alongside the Norwegian jazz trio Solid!—guitarist Bjørn Vidar Solli, organist Daniel Buner Formo, and drummer Håkon Mjåset Johansen—on Woodworks, their first recording in ten years. In December Ellis’s quartet, completed by drummer Jason Marsalis, pianist Gary Versace, and bassist Reuben Rogers, released Bizet: Carmen In Jazz on Blue Room Music, merging themes from the composer’s opera with contemporary swinging post-bop.
Albums
Somethings I Said
2024
Tales from the Irk
2024
Confessions & Revelations, Vol. I
2020
Introduction
2017
Rural
2012
Come Out Fighting
2010
A Collection of Short Stories About Fear
2008
Roots, Branches & Leaves
2002
Singles
