[Dixielandjazz] In Memory of Herb Ellis

[Norman Vickers]

To:  Musicians and JazzFans list & DJML
From:  Norman Vickers, Jazz Society of Pensacola

Here's a link to "Jazz on the Tube"  with six video clips of Herb Ellis-
Solo, with Barney Kessel,with Great Guitars,  with Oscar Peterson trio on
the Nat "King" Cole TV show.

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http://www.jazzonthetube.com/videos/herb-ellis/in-memory-of-herb-ellis.html

- Lester Perkins
Jazz on the Tube 
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Here's the Herb Ellis obituary from today's NYTimes:


March 31, 2010
Herb Ellis, Jazz Guitarist, Is Dead at 88
By PETER KEEPNEWS

Herb Ellis, a jazz guitarist whose polished, blues-inflected playing earned
him critical acclaim as an outstanding soloist and worldwide recognition as
a member of the pianist Oscar Peterson’s trio, died Sunday at his home in
Los Angeles. He was 88.

The cause was Alzheimer’s disease, said his son, Mitch.

Mr. Ellis was an early disciple of Charlie Christian, whose deft
improvisations, built on long single-note lines, established the template
for modern jazz guitar in the 1940s. But he was always more than an
imitator: his style mixed the harmonic sophistication of bebop with the
earthy directness of the blues and seasoned the blend with a twang more
typical of country music than jazz.

While never a major star, he was long a favorite of critics and musicians.
In 1959 a fellow guitarist, Jim Hall, praised his “fantastic fire and
drive.” In 1990 Gary Giddins of The Village Voice raved about the “easy,
loping quality” of his playing, “buoyed by familiar dissonances yet
surprisingly free of cliché.”

Mitchell Herbert Ellis was born in Farmersville, Tex., on Aug. 4, 1921, and
played banjo and harmonica as a child before taking up guitar. He studied at
North Texas State Teachers College (now the University of North Texas), one
of the first colleges to offer instruction in jazz (and later the first to
offer a jazz degree).

In 1947 he and two associates from Jimmy Dorsey’s band, the pianist Lou
Carter and the bassist Johnny Frigo, formed the vocal and instrumental trio
the Soft Winds, whose song “Detour Ahead” became a jazz standard, recorded
most memorably by Billie Holiday.

He first attracted wide attention during his five-year stint with Peterson’s
popular group, which, like the Soft Winds, included a bassist (Ray Brown)
but no drummer. The absence of a percussionist required Mr. Ellis to provide
the rhythmic foundation for Peterson’s energetic playing as well as the
guitar solos; he did it so well that when he left the trio in 1958, Peterson
replaced him not with another guitarist but with a drummer.

Mr. Ellis’s reputation grew when he toured and recorded with Ella
Fitzgerald, from 1958 to 1962. He was also a frequent participant in the
impresario and record producer Norman Granz’s all-star Jazz at the
Philharmonic touring shows, and in Granz-supervised recording sessions led
by Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz and, on occasion,
Mr. Ellis himself.

When jazz fell out of fashion in the 1960s, Mr. Ellis became a busy studio
musician in Los Angeles, earning his living mainly on television variety
shows. He returned to jazz in 1973, teaming with his fellow guitarists
Barney Kessel and Charlie Byrd in the group Great Guitars. He recorded
frequently over the next two decades, with that group and as a leader, for
the Concord Jazz label.

In addition to his son, of Los Angeles, Mr. Ellis is survived by his wife of
52 years, the former Patti Gahagan; a daughter, Kari Ellis Yedor, also of
Los Angeles; and three grandchildren.
	
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