Customer Reviews

Connection

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Connection (1972) features several arrangements of popular rock songs forced into meters different than the original - none of which were arranged by Ellis. Based on Ellis's success of his film score to the movie The French Connection, the popular "Theme from the French Connection" was included on this release. Also included on the release was Hank Levy's "Chain Reaction," a piece Levy considered to be his finest effort for the Ellis ensemble (5+ stars). The scope and sophistication of Levy's composition makes it stand apart from the rest of the pop-influenced selections on the recording. Connection was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1972.

Even though I work with the Don Ellis estate in many capacities and have done so for many years, I will be the first to admit that this album does not represent the Don Ellis Orchestra at its best. However, there are still several things about it worth recommending.

Hank Levy's "Chain Reaction" and Don's arrangement of his own "French Connection" theme are exceptional and worthy of inclusion on any of the acknowledged better albums. They are worth the price all by themselves. The rest of the album consists of covers by various members of the band of pop tunes of the day. Some very good in their own right. While obviously a marketing crossover attempt, many of these arrangements are infused with the traditional Ellis trademarks that make you either love or hate the band: odd time signatures, creative use of electronics and orchestration, humor, and high energy performances. The solos, though often brief, are fully engaged. Very little of the album feels compromised or phoned in.

I also happen to like the engineering and recording quality on this recording probably more than on any other Ellis album. It has good balance and presence from top to bottom. The band sounds at its most "electric" here and, for me, that's a good thing. It reminds me of the very first time I heard the band live and the lasting impression it had upon me. No other band sounded like this before or since.

There are certainly "better" Ellis albums available and it definitely wouldn't be at the top of my desert island list. With that caveat, there are worse ways to spend your listening time and there are definite pleasures to be had-and not of the guilty variety.

One of the most beautiful innovative jazz masterpieces I have ever heard. Don Ellis died at an early age. The jazz world lost a giant. Thanks to Amazon, he still lives. Thank you,

Paul G. Bogosian, DC
Philadelphia, PA

I agree completely with Nick DiScala's review.
This was the last LP Don Ellis recorded for Columbia and only features two compositions (Chain Reaction and Theme from The French Connection) which accurately demonstrate the true power and beauty of Don's vision. While the majority of Ellis albums contain original material, the remainder of this album includes arrangements by various Ellis Orchestra members of current pop tunes. Sound quality (production by Teo Macero) was quite good, however the two previous Ellis recrodings (Live At Fillmore and Tears of Joy) were both live albums, so Connection stands the as the first studio document of Ellis band in quite a few years.
The next recording of the Ellis Orchestra (Soaring)produced by Ellis was also a studio recording and the sound quality is as good, if not better then the sound quality of Connection. I am very pleased with the recent release of "Connection" and the superb "Tears of Joy". Hopefully many new folks will discover the shear joy and genuis of Don Ellis. I can only hope that Wounded Bird releases "Soaring", "Haiku" and "At Fillmore" in the near future.

I liken this album to "The Don Ellis Band Goes Underground"...aberrations in a brilliant big-band legacy. That doesn't mean that both albums aren't fun, professional and have their exhilarating moments. As noted earlier "Connection" has a very slick well-produced sound. This is a mature big band (most of these guys had been around Ellis for years) recorded at the height of their powers. They make the tricky arrangements sound easy! Ya gotta love the electric string section.

Yes, this album covers mostly pop tunes done "Ellis style" but the arranging is enjoyable and fits the band. The two great tracks are Ellis' abbreviated arrangement of his "Theme From the French Connection" (a real cooker) and Hank Levy's masterpiece "Chain Reaction" with absolutely beautiful trumpet playing by the virtuoso Ellis.

Pop tunes played great by an unbelievable big band lead by a one-of-a-kind trumpet player.

As some other reviewers have already commented, there is one track on
"Connection" that is worth the price of the whole cd. That track is
"Chain Reaction", which I will award 5 stars. It's Ellis and his band
at their absolute finest and pure dynamite. Another great track from
this cd is Ellis' "French Connection" movie theme, which also gets 5
stars. However, for me, the rest of this cd is absolutely DREADFUL.
I've always been puzzled with this recording as to why there are only
two great cuts out of a total of 11. If it wasn't for these two tracks,
I wouldn't even have it. The 9 minute opus "Chain Reaction" is just
what I want to hear out of Ellis and his band. Just a shame that the
majority of "Connection" is so sub-par (and even corny). Will never
understand what Don was thinking with this?? 5 stars for the two great
tracks and 1 star for the rest. Since "Chain Reaction" is such a long,
outstanding track, I'll give the whole cd 3 stars.

I saw the movie, "French Connction" starring Gene Hackman, many years ago. Don Ellis' film scoring and musical background to the film, especially the chase scenes, were uniquely outstanding. His creative talents were so different from so many of the established of the Hollywood movie score composers, yet musically valid. I am so sorry Don Ellis did not live longer. He died at an early age. I am grateful to Amazon for making his recordings available to the public.

Yours truly, Paul Bogosian, DC
Philadelphia, PA

I just happened to get this reissue recently, and read some of the reviews from long ago. I spoke with Hank Levy, who contributed 'Chain Reaction' to this album, some years before his death about this record, and his comments can illuminate a lot of the controversy over this recording.

Apparently, Ellis was due for a new Columbia album, and put together a huge concert of material (somewhere in California) mostly for the purpose of showing off their best new stuff for Columbia execs. It was, in Hank's recollection, a spectacular concert of new music in the 'Tears of Joy' vein. The Columbia suits were unimpressed, and seeking a commercial success, rejected all of the music from that show except for 'Chain Reaction'.

They then literally assigned a number of titles to Hank, Ellis, and the other arrangers in the band. The French Connection theme was allowed since it was a movie theme and could possibly make some money. The other tunes were all chosen in some executive meeting and doled out, more or less arbitrarily to the writers. Hank was appalled when he went to the record store to buy the single of 'Conquistador'. "That tune's about as Spanish as I am!" was his reaction upon hearing it (I think the producer told him "just make it sound like a western"). He decided that castinets and the strings going "dumm-da-da-dumm-da-da-dumm", like on Bonanza, would be sufficiently Spanish-sounding. He hated that tune and couldn't stand the whole album. (He wasn't even that keen on Chain Reaction; he thought the mixing was poor and sounded nothing like the real band, and that the performance lacked some key details). Other than French Connection and Chain Reaction, none of the other pieces were ever performed, according to Hank.

The take-away from all this is that it seems that Ellis had no desire to record any of that other stuff, it was strictly the will of Columbia to exploit the tunes in their catalog to get hits. Looking at other pop records from that era, it seems like this was Columbia's m.o. (about the same time they dropped Mingus, Bill Evans, Stan Getz and all other acoustic jazz from the label). I consider this a two-track album by the Don Ellis Orchestra, with some other junk from the era which happened to be played by the same musicians. That's a pretty accurate description of the album. Whatever further merits it may have come from the fact that they were professionals, and are in spite of the fact that they were compelled to record this stuff that had nothing to do with their band.

It's the usual story: "We have the rights to this stuff, which has proven to make us money in the past, so any artists on our current roster will be used to milk that stuff for all it's worth (or be dropped)". Which is why it was Ellis's last Columbia album. Notice that 'Soaring', recorded the next year for MPS, contains nothing like the pop on Connection.

So for an album with two legitimate tracks, I'd say it's for completeists only. Two stars for those tracks. I agree with Hank that it sounds nothing like a real band. Tears of Joy is a far superior record sonically.

There is nothing wrong with the genius who released Live at Monterey wanting to play some rock. He did that briliantly on the classic Electric Bath. Even soul and cover tunes are great. Check out Don Ellis'Goes Underground.

What is a little disturbing about connections is that the choices here seem pretty obvious--a Carol King song, a Carpenter's track, and Jesus, a Gilbert O'Sullivan tune. You used to give half hour performances in 17/2. What the hell ya doin'?

Even his performacne here of his own brilliant theme from the French Connection is gussied up--all the fantastic cello taken out. For the real deal here, you should seek out the real score of the film, which is on CD.

It is not that any of this music is bad--I actually like a lot of this, but as a fan of 70s program music and cheese funk, not as a fan of the great Don Ellis.

There is not a lot here that is uniquely Don, and if he was trying for mass appeal after the sucess of the film French Connection, he was over reaching--what Carpenter's fan in 1972 Ohio is going to buy a Don Ellis album to hear him cover "Superstar," and what fan of At Monteray in 1972 New York is going to by an album WHERE he covers "Superstar?"


Still, this is fun for what it is. It is unfortunately not Don, but unfortunately, it is Don.

This album definitely has its high points: Ellis's composition "Theme from The French Connection," a nice rendition of the rock hit "Roundabout," and Hank Levy's composition "Chain Reaction." However, much of the album shows the Ellis band succumbing to the "jazz rock" fad of the early 1970s, during which most of the popular big bands felt compelled to record their own versions of pop/rock tunes. Granted, the Ellis band could do jazz rock better than just about anybody else, but that can't overcome the inherent weaknesses of the style, which often yielded arrangements that were very repetitive and not worthy of a jazz orchestra of this caliber. Compare this to previous Ellis albums, particularly "Tears of Joy," and you'll see what I mean. Only "Chain Reaction" measures up to the innovative jazz that fans came to expect from the Ellis band. (This is the album's longest track - 9 minutes - and diehard fans may want the CD just for this.)
Some listeners may find pop tracks such as "Alone Again (Naturally)," "Superstar," "Goodbye to Love," and "Lean on Me" clever in their Ellis-inspired use of electronics and odd meters; others may find these tunes dated or even corny. For my own listening, only five of the 11 tracks made it to my iPod.