roots,branches & leaves

John Ellis | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 16, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Fresh Sound New Talent
• ASIN: B000065TM3
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #352,676 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars farm boy with a sax, August 11, 2005

By 

mark weiss (Palo Alto) - See all my reviews

This review is from: roots,branches & leaves (Audio CD)

This cd is the debut of John Ellis, best-known as a sideman with Charlie Hunter Trio. John plays tenor, soprano, bass clarinet and flute. This cd features his New Orleans friends Jason Marsalis, Roland Guerin and Nicholas Payton, plus Brooklyn buddies Aaron Goldberg and Bilal Oliver (who's actually from Philly and sings like a girl). The standout on this fine set is "John Brown's Gun" which features Bilal on vocals (although in concert John sometimes gets Dean Bowman to do the part) and is based on a folk song his Grammy taught him, growing up in rural North Carolina. Maybe someday Ellis will have a Grammy -tm to go along with his memories of his Grammy.

Downbeat gave it a rare 4.5 stars and it's hard to find in bricks-and-mortar world (Fresh Sounds New Talent is known for discovering new talent -- Ellis, Bad Plus, Robert Glasper -- but not getting their cds out there much).

5.0 out of 5 stars Great album, July 4, 2006

By 

mike zichella - See all my reviews

This review is from: roots,branches & leaves (Audio CD)

This entire album is really interesting and exciting to hear. John Ellis writes great songs. This whole band makes the songs lively and spontanious. I don't even want to continue trying to tell you about it, I can't. Even if you never listen to "jazz", get a good listen to this album. I wouldn't call it jazz anyway. Happy listening.