Liberty Ellman

Liberty Ellman leads bands and serves as a go-to session guitarist and composer across numerous projects, most notably as a founding member of Henry Threadgill’s Zooid. He not only performed on the Pulitzer Prize-winning In for a Penny, In for a Pound but also handled its production and mixing duties. Additional collaborations, both onstage and in recording studios, link him to forward-thinking jazz figures such as Joe Lovano, Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret, Wadada Leo Smith, and others. Among his own releases, the 1998 album Orthodoxy fused unusual meters, brooding motifs, and hip-hop touches within a jazz framework. Tactiles, issued in 2003, highlighted his compositional maturity through shifting M-Base-derived textures—both abstract and straightforward—alongside meticulously crafted yet unconventional rhythmic patterns. Two years afterward came Ophiuchus Butterfly, which ventured further with intricate interlocking grooves, angular melodic phrasing, and layered rhythmic complexity set against unexpected harmonic foundations. Following the well-received 2015 recording Radiate, Ellman earned the top Rising Star Guitarist distinction in the 2016 DownBeat Critics Poll. Beyond jazz circles he has partnered with hip-hop acts Midnight Voice and the Coup plus EDM producer Joaquin “Joe” Claussell. Studio expertise in mixing, mastering, and production has further defined his path, encompassing work with artists from Chico Freeman and Tyshawn Sorey to Kris Davis and Gregory Porter, notably including the latter’s Grammy-nominated Be Good.

Although born in London in 1971 and raised in New York and on the U.S. West Coast, Ellman participated actively in the Bay Area arts scene, performing alongside kindred spirits Vijay Iyer and Eric Crystal, contributing to hip-hop ensembles the Coup and Midnight Voices, and writing pieces for the San Francisco Mime Troupe. There he absorbed the M-Base Collective’s aesthetic principles through Iyer and fellow musicians. In early 1997 Ellman launched Red Giant Records, which issued his debut Orthodoxy along with projects by Iyer, Crystal, and Midnight Voices. After moving to New York in late 1998 he recorded for the dance-music labels Spiritual Life, began performing with saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, appeared regularly with his own trio, and joined the touring band of M-Base originator Greg Osby.

Ellman entered Henry Threadgill’s Zooid sextet in 2000 as its acoustic guitarist alongside tubist Jose Davila. Zooid’s 2001 Pi debut Up Popped the Two Lips initiated an extended period of work and study under Threadgill. Ellman’s own Pi album Tactiles appeared in 2003, featuring bassist Stephan Crump, drummer Eric Harland, alto saxophonist Osby, and tenorman Mark Shim. He also contributed to Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd’s cross-disciplinary In What Language. The next year he both played on and mastered Zooid’s Pop Start the Tape, Stop while also appearing on Groove Collective’s Grammy-nominated People People, Music Music. Beginning in 2005 he served as mixing and mastering engineer for trumpeter Graham Haynes & Hardedge across three albums through 2006, the year he released his own widely praised Ophiuchus Butterfly. That ensemble comprised drummer Gerald Cleaver, bassist Stephan Crump, Zooid colleague Jose Davila on tuba, and longtime associates Mark Shim and Steve Lehman on tenor and alto saxophones. Despite strong critical response, nine years passed before another leader date emerged.

From 2006 to 2015, membership in Threadgill’s Zooid occupied the bulk of Ellman’s time as guitarist, producer, and engineer. Live and studio commitments also included Groove Collective—Jen Chapin, Rudresh Mahanthappa and Steve Lehman, Iyer and Ladd, and Joel Harrison—on the charting, Grammy-nominated People People Music Music, where he again fulfilled multiple roles. The year 2016 proved pivotal: Ellman participated centrally in Zooid’s Pulitzer-winning In for a Penny, In for a Pound, contributed guitar to pianist Myra Melford’s landmark Snowy Egret, and joined Adam Rudolph’s Go Organic Guitar Orchestra for Turning Towards the Light, a composition scored for guitars, bass, and banjo alongside Nels Cline, fellow M-Base member David Gilmore, Rez Abbasi, Miles Okazaki, and Harrison. Capping the year, he issued Radiate on Pi in August with bassist Crump, drummer Damion Reid, Lehman on alto, trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson, and Davila on trombone and tuba. The album garnered Ellman’s strongest reviews to date for its breakbeat-infused blend of progressive, post-bop, avant-jazz, fractured funk, propulsive rock, and contemporary composition delivered through interlocking grooves and intricate lyricism; The Wall Street Journal described it as “…bristling with energy and innovation….”

After festival touring with the group, Ellman resumed sideman and studio work. Subsequent years found him on recordings by JD Allen, Melford, Jason Robinson, Ugandan/Nigerian singer Somi, and director Stan Douglas with Jason Moran on the score for Luanda-Kinshasa. He produced Henry Threadgill Ensemble Double Up’s Old Locks and Irregular Verbs (2016), 14 or 15 Kestra: Agg - Dirt… And More Dirt, and Double Up, Plays Double Up Plus (both 2018). Additional mixing and mastering credits encompass albums by Mary Halvorson, Finlayson, Harrison, Sorey, Borderlands Trio, and Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition’s Agrima. In late 2019 Ellman reconvened the Radiate sextet for Last Desert, titled after 4 Deserts, the annual ultra-marathon traversing the Atacama in South America, the Gobi in China, the Sahara in Egypt, and the “White Desert” of Antarctica. Paralleling the stark opposition between those terrains and the races’ physical demands, Ellman’s six compositions balance raw emotion, refined lyricism, and intellectual rigor. Last Desert appeared at the close of March 2020.