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Ellery Eskelin

For the past forty 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 personal and iconoclastic body of work with the view that jazz and American music is an ongoing creative process with great relevancy to our time. In this pursuit Eskelin consistently delivers a passionate musical expression to the listening public.

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.

Subsequent touring and recording projects include "Trio New York" featuring organist Gary Versace and drummer Gerald Cleaver, taking a free approach to the great American songbook, as well as a trio including Swiss bassist Christian Weber and German drummer Michael Griener exploring both free improvisation as well as renditions of early jazz classics. 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 many recordings as a leader and co-leader 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.

Terrence McManus: Music for Chamber Trio

Read "Music for Chamber Trio" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
September 28, 2024

Terrence McManus' Music for Chamber Trio is a masterclass in the art of minimalism, a testament to the power of understated composition. The album, which features an unconventional trio, challenges traditional notions of chamber music, favoring textural exploration over melodic or rhythmic dominance. From the outset, guitarist McManus makes it clear that this is no ordinary affair with acclaimed artists, saxophonist Ellery Eskelin and drummer Gerry Hemingway. His guitar provides the foundation, not through ostentatious displays of technique, ...

Album Review

Phil Haynes: 4 Horns & What? – The Complete American Recordings

Read "4 Horns & What? – The Complete American Recordings" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
July 8, 2024

Con minime variazioni fra le diverse edizioni di questo suo gruppo così particolare (quattro fiati più batteria), sicuramente in grado di esprimere (verrebbe da dire “esporre") al meglio le sue doti di compositore e “demiurgo" musicale in senso lato, Phil Haynes, oggi sessantatreenne, riunisce tre sedute d'incisione (l'ultima dal vivo) datate rispettivamente 1989, 1991 e 1995, oltre tre ore e un quarto di musica serratissima (salvo i brevi parlati introduttivi dell'ultimo volume), ricchissima sia sotto il profilo, appunto, compositivo, che ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Entity

Read "Entity" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
November 29, 2021

Undicesimo album per l'Orchestra New York di Satoko Fujii, qui composta di tredici elementi, dei quali ben nove già presenti nel primo lavoro, South Wind, risalente al lontano 1997. Il disco è registrato nel maggio del 2019 ed è uscito già lo scorso anno, ma merita egualmente grande attenzione, in quanto si tratta di un lavoro di primissimo livello. Né poteva essere diversamente, considerando non solo la qualità media, altissima, delle produzioni della musicista giapponese, ma anche l'organico straordinario della ...

Album Review

Ben Goldberg: Everything Happens To Be.

Read "Everything Happens To Be." reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
November 17, 2021

If you do not listen too closely, there are parts of this download-only release that sound soothing and gentle. That is not really the case and that is the fun part of this music. When the reed players play a pretty or swinging melody line, there is always some irritant factor elsewhere in the band to spice things up. All of these musicians are known for their experimental tendencies and have worked together before in various combinations. The ...

Album Review

Ben Goldberg: Everything Happens To Be.

Read "Everything Happens To Be." reviewed by John Chacona

by John Chacona
June 18, 2021

The music of Ben Goldberg seems to come from a place outside of time--or maybe it comes from several times simultaneously. Maybe it's the instruments he chooses; while the clarinet family has been on the comeback trail in jazz for a quarter century, it's a sound that invariably invokes the New Orleans of a century ago. That's especially true when Goldberg picks up the mellow, woody, Albert-system E-flat instrument on “Cold Weather." That tune's sweet melancholy wobbles perilously close to ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Entity

Read "Entity" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
January 26, 2020

As she did in 2019, pianist/composer Satoko Fujii—an artist at home in many formations—opens the new decade with an orchestra recording. Entity, from Fujii's Orchestra New York, is the eleventh release from the ensemble that has remained largely intact for almost twenty-three years. It is an all-star collective that includes saxophonists Oscar Noriega, Ellery Eskelin and Tony Malaby, trumpeters Natsuki Tamura and Herb Robertson, guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Ches Smith. Entity has its moments of tranquility but ...

Album Review

Ellery Eskelin/Christian Weber/Michael Griener: The Pearls

Read "The Pearls" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
November 29, 2019

It's Interesting that Ellery Eskelin chose time as the subject of his liner notes essay for this release, because his music has always had a feeling of timelessness about it. His discourse ranges from concrete sundials to wrist watches and atomic clocks to the abstraction of music's swing and stop-time improvisations. Without diving too deep into a philosophical argument about whether time moves only irreversibly forward, the saxophonist, Swiss bassist Christian Weber, and German drummer Michael Griener, proceed to time ...

192

Recording

Ellery Eskelin, Andrea Parkins & Jim Black: One Great Day... on Hatology

Source: Werner Uehlinger
June 18, 2011

In some ways I think that a recording is the best medium for this music. I can think of a lot of music that speaks better on a recording than it does in a club where the environment and the audience's expectations exert an effect on the music. With this recording we've found a mix between the two. Writing music for this band has been a real break through for me. Andrea and Jim have ears for anything I put ...
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140

Performance / Tour

Ellery Eskelin / John Hebert / Devin Gray at the Tea Lounge on July 30th

Source: Michael Ricci
July 28, 2010

138

Recording

Ellery Eskelin: "On Great Night...Live" on Hatology 683

Source: All About Jazz
August 13, 2009

Ellery Eskelin: On Great Night...Live on Hatology 683 Ellery Eskelin –tenor saxophone Andrea Parkins –accordion, electric piano, organ, laptop sampler & grand piano Jim Black –drums & percussion

A live concert recording at Towson University, Baltimore on December 9th, 2007.

Throughout this set, Eskelin, Parkins, and Black are completely at ease with the core material. Over the years these three have grown into a unit that can bristle and wail; pick up on a melody and ...
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107

Performance / Tour

Terrence McManus/Ellery Eskelin/Gerry Hemingway at Stain Bar on December 16

Source: All About Jazz
December 9, 2008

242

Music Industry

David Liebman, Ellery Eskelin, Tony Marino, Jim Black - Renewal (Hat Hut, 2008) ****

Source: All About Jazz
June 5, 2008

As Ellery Eskelin writes on the liner notes, this is a real quartet album, with contributions coming from all four musicians, and all equally contributing to the overall sound. Ellery Eskelin and David Liebman play tenor sax, Tony Marino bass and Jim Black drums. The music is excellent, composed, yet open and free, not really boppish, rather post-bop, but then a tad more free. So how can I describe this : lots of references to the jazz tradition, lots of ...
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243

Recording

David Liebman-Ellery Eskelin Quartet: "Renewal" on Hatology 654

Source: All About Jazz
April 23, 2008

David Liebman & Ellery Eskelin -tenor saxophones,Tony Marino -double bass and Jim Black -drums: Renewal on Hatology 654 Also available Hatology 615: Different But The Same There is a common understanding that we all share of freedom and spontaneity framed within underlying structures accompanied by a loving nod to the jazz legacy. The compositions heard on this CD evidence a diversity of idioms and styles unified by a common aesthetical approach. This is a group where straight ahead and free ...
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268

Recording

Ellery Eskelin Releases "Quiet Music" on Prime Source Records

Source: All About Jazz
October 28, 2006

Ellery Eskelin - tenor saxophone Jessica Constable - voice Andrea Parkins - accordion, piano and sampler Jim Black - drums and percussion With special guest Philippe Gelda - piano, organ and voice (on selected tracks) Quiet Music is a double CD release recorded in May 2006 during the band's European tour at “Studios La Buissonne" in France, one of the finest recording facilities in the world. The sound achieved on ...
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129

Event

Seattle's Earshot Jazz presents Sam Rivers Trio and Ellery Eskelin in May concerts

Source: All About Jazz
April 27, 2005

EARSHOT JAZZ PRESENTS JAZZ INNOVATORS IN SPECIAL MAY CONCERTS Sam Rivers Trio w/ Doug Mathews & Anthony Cole Thursday, May 19, 8pm at Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park Legendary jazz innovator Sam Rivers has been called “a National Treasure." The venerable saxophonist, flutist, pianist, and composer who, approaching 82 years of age, is still playing with extraordinary energy and inventiveness, is one of the most important figures in progressive jazz. He brings to town his highly original trio, ...
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157

Recording