It seems there are often two sides that must be acknowledged when considering an idea, concept or object. It could be as simple as candy being both spicy and sweet or something philosophically deeper, like seeing a destructive fire allowing for renewal. Woodwind specialist and composer John Ellis lives a musical life frequently dealing in dualities. On his new recording, Fireball, Ellis presents a new collection of music with his beloved Double Wide band that inspires dancing as much as analysis.
Originally from North Carolina, Ellis has embraced a musical identity that walks a line between heady and visceral. This identity is informed in part by the influences of his southern upbringing and formative years in New Orleans along with his longtime investment in the jazz world of New York City.
Ellis’s Double Wide band was assembled to feature the astounding New Orleans sousaphonist Matt Perrine. Over nearly twenty years, the fluid membership of the ensemble has solidified to include trombonist Alan Ferber, keyboardist Gary Versace, and drummer Jason Marsalis. Double Wide remains an eclectic ensemble highlighting fantastic individual musicians of linguistic flexibility and expressive depth.
Double Wide did take the opportunity to spend extended time at Brooklyn Recording after a rare appearance at the Lake George Jazz Festival in 2019. Ellis used three days to allow the band to take their time and experiment in the studio, ironing out Ellis’s original material there. The music captured on Fireball focuses on the extraordinarily wide breadth of colors, textures, and moods that the members of Double Wide can provide.
The music Ellis conceived for Fireball is inspired by a composition fellowship he received in Santa Monica, California and his recent work for podcasts. These pieces are short, story-telling vehicles that are unique and concise miniatures, split evenly between being playful and contemplative.
The program begins with “Wash Ya Mouth Out,” the melody being an instrumental interpolation of a colloquial warning for cursing of the south over an infectious beat. A relaxed Brazilian feel saturates “Top Down” as Ellis’s clarinet and Versace’s Fender Rhodes provide sunny tones, while the offbeat “Clown Car” presents a metrically challenging, circus-friendly blues. “The Whistler” provides a unique blend of rhythmic elements from Brazil and New Orleans and features the brilliant whistling of Jason Marsalis, who even learned Versace’s piano solo to overdub in duet.
The title track simmers with a quick tempo as soprano sax and accordion dance against the tuba and trombone. There is a bittersweet flavor in the moving ballad “Crocodile Tears.” The piece layers Versace’s poignant organ and piano playing for a spiritual, church-like feel. The bombastic “Meat Pie” celebrates un-elevated bit of cuisine that exists in nearly every culture. The group’s raw performance revels in the evocative and silly nature of the thought of the meat pie. Appropriately, the program concludes with the ambient “From The Ashes,” a hopeful piece for rebirth that was generated by having Marsalis create a loop on drums that the other instrumentalists played over. The drums were then removed and Marsalis played loosely atop the instrumental track to create the free sounding piece.
In a world full of dualities, it is possible to find perfect balances. John Ellis continues to make brilliant music that inspires exuberance and thoughtfulness, his Double Wide band being the ideal sounding board for it as their new album, Fireball, can attest.