The Squid's Ear Magazine


Eskelin, Ellery: Solo Live At Snugs (Hatology)

Ellery Eskelin performing solo on tenor saxophone at 61 Local in Brooklyn, NY, four original compositions, personal and distinctive improvisation like listening to tales from a well seasoned and adept traveler.
 

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Ellery Eskelin-tenor saxophone


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UPC: 752156073123

Label: Hatology
Catalog ID: Hatology731
Squidco Product Code: 20328

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2015
Country: Switzerland
Packaging: Cardstock gatefold foldover
Recorded live at 61 Local in Brooklyn New York on Dece,ber 1st, 2013 by Jon Rosen-berg.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"...After five years of reassessment, a new solo concert program remained an unmet challenge. The idea was just as intimidating as it was the first time, maybe even more so. As it happened, Anabel Anderson extended an invitation to take part in her "Snugs Concert Series" of solo concerts at 61 Local in Brooklyn. Her invitation offered a second opportunity to rethink an approach to the solo saxophone and ask new questions... ... All I had to do on this evening was start from the beginning and play until the end."-Ellery Eskelin


Artist Biographies

"For the past thirty years Ellery Eskelin has been at the forefront of the global creative improvised music scene. Based in New York City, he has traveled widely performing, recording and amassing a very personal and iconoclastic body of work. And yet Ellery Eskelin has always remained deeply committed to the traditions of jazz and American music. Eskelin embodies this seeming contradiction with ease. He does not see jazz as a style or idiom but as a process. Further, a process of creative development that has great relevancy to our time. In this pursuit Eskelin consistently delivers to the listening public unadulterated, passionate music with no excuses and no apologies.

Ellery Eskelin (born 1959) was raised in Baltimore and began playing the tenor saxophone at age ten, inspired by his mother "Bobbie Lee" who played Hammond B3 organ professionally in the early sixties. In 1983 Eskelin moved to New York City and in 1987 began recording with the cooperative group Joint Venture which also began his exposure on the European international touring circuit. Soon after, Eskelin formed the first of many projects as a leader beginning with a trio comprised of bassist Drew Gress and drummer Phil Haynes followed by a short lived group featuring Joe Daley on tuba and Arto Tuncboyaciyan on bakdav drums and percussion. In 1992 Eskelin joined drummer Joey Baron's group, "Baron Down" (instrumentation of drums, trombone and saxophone), an experience that proved to be an important catalyst in his own work fostering an increased interest in new and unusual instrumentation. In 1994 Eskelin formed the group most often associated with him including accordionist Andrea Parkins and drummer Jim Black. To date he has written over 50 compositions for this group, each of which has been documented on a series of CD releases on the Swiss hatHUT record label. The band has toured regularly and performed hundreds of concerts in the US, Canada and throughout Europe during the past twenty years. Eskelin's most recent project is "Trio New York" featuring organist Gary Versace and drummer Gerald Cleaver. "Trio New York" takes a free approach to the great American songbook, bringing Eskelin full circle to his musical beginnings while addressing his varied musical journeys since then.

Along the way Eskelin has done a number of side projects including a group featuring guitarist Marc Ribot and drummer Kenny Wollesen dedicated to the music of Gene Ammons, improvisatory duos with Dutch drummer Han Bennink, an improvising ensemble consisting of strings, vibraphone and saxophone and most recently a group featuring Susan Alcorn on pedal steel guitar and bassist Michael Formanek. Over the years Eskelin has developed a number of other important associations with musicians such as Gerry Hemingway, Mark Helias, Sylvie Courvoisier, and Bobby Previte. As a side-person Eskelin has worked with a broad cross section of jazz, avant-pop and new-music figures such as organist Brother Jack McDuff, composer Mikel Rouse, guitarist Eugene Chadbourne, oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil, drummer Daniel Humair and the pseudo-group "The Grassy Knoll" among many others.

Eskelin's recordings as a leader and co-leader (there are currently twenty) have been named in Best of the Year critics' polls in the New York Times, The Village Voice , and major jazz magazines in the US and abroad. He also appears on over fifty recordings as a side person. DownBeat Magazine named Eskelin as one of the 25 Rising Stars for the Future in its January 2000 issue ("...players who not only insure the music's survival but promise to take it to the next level") as well as including him in their Annual Critics Polls nearly every year since then. Eskelin was a nominee for the prestigious Danish Jazzpar award in 2003 and was the recipient of a Chamber Music America French-American Exchange grant in 2007 and in 2014 as well as a Chamber Music America New Jazz Works grant in 2009."

-Ellery Eskelin Website (http://home.earthlink.net/~eskelin/styled-5/)
2/12/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Turning A Phrase 13:50

2. State Of Mind 11:23

3. Unwritten Rule 10:25

4. Weave / Wrap And Woof 14:33

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Recordings by or featuring Reed & Wind Players
Solo Artist Recordings
Hat Art
Top Sellers and Staff Lists for 2015
Jazz & Improvisation Based on Compositions

Search for other titles on the label:
Hatology.


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