ELLERY ESKELIN - Ten

2004 marks the ten year anniversary of my band and this recording was supposed to be our ten year anniversary project. But it turned out to be something very different. It seemed obvious to want to record the band this year yet I wanted to do something a little special to mark the anniversary. I thought about doing a live recording, maybe even doing the same repertoire we played on our first concert in May of 1994. At the same time I was toying with the idea of adding bass, an instrument I've not often employed, and fill out the low end of the sound. Also on my mind was the fact that we'd been working with vocalist Jessica Constable for a number of years (I had met her at a festival in southern France and was so impressed that I immediately introduced myself and asked if she'd like to perform with us) and I felt that we were long overdue in recording with her. So should I make a quartet or quintet recording? And how does that relate to the idea of a ten year anniversary? The other factor in the mix was that the music was becoming less pre-composed and more improvised over the years. After a lot of deliberation it dawned on me that we could make a recording half of which was the band and half of which the band with guest musicians.

In 2002 we played a festival in Holland on a triple bill with DD Jackson and Marc Ribot. I'd worked with Marc back in '96 on a recording called "The Sun Died" (Soul Note), a tribute to Gene Ammons, and had always wanted to follow that up. Marc had an opportunity to hear us that night and when I later ran into him at Tonic (in NYC) for the Irving Stone birthday celebration (we performed a duo that was captured for the recent Tzadik release commemorating Stone's life) I asked Marc about being a guest on the new recording. He accepted.

Melvin Gibbs I first met at a festival in Switzerland where he was performing with the band "Harriet Tubman" (with Brandon Ross and JT Lewis). The band sounded great and I was very much taken with Melvin's sound, feel and approach. It had been quite awhile since I had played with an electric bassist and listening to Melvin reminded me of my days coming up in Baltimore playing in rock and funk bands. I missed that and felt that I could recapture that feeling with Melvin who is also a very fluid improviser and is ready for anything at any time. So I asked and he also said yes. So with Jessica, Marc and Melvin I had a project that would tie all these ideas together at once.

But just to make things even more interesting I decided not to write any music for this project. We would improvise completely. I had done this once before with "Vanishing Point" (my recording with strings and vibraphone) but ironically, in the ten years of playing with Andrea and Jim we'd rarely performed completely improvised music on any of our concerts with the exception of some of the work we'd done with Jessica. Part of the success of an idea like this lies in the selection of musicians, the way things get set up (how the musicians come to be invited to the session and the various expectations they each bring) as well as the subtle ways I might direct the session.

We recorded over two afternoons. The first day was mostly Andrea, Jim and myself, the second day combining everyone. I planned on using the band as a nucleus around which I would introduce one or more guests at different places on the recording. Things were going well and it was clear we were going to have plenty of music to choose from so I felt emboldened to try some mixed configurations among the musicians; duos, trios, quartets and quintets. The one thing I had actually ruled out was the idea that all six of us would play together. It seemed a recipe for disaster to try and improvise all at once with that many people and that much sound. But there was a moment in the studio when all of us were in the room together, we had time and nothing to lose so I said what the hell, let's make some noise. To my surprise we obtained a very cohesive yet multifaceted and dynamic result. In fact, I can't imagine this recording without those pieces.

Once the session was over and I started listening to the music at home it became clear that I was going to have to follow the music and rely less on preconceived notions of what I had set out to do. Gone was the idea of the band with guests. In fact, I wound up with only two pieces by the band. This music had become something else completely, transcending the idea of an improv party. The music sounded much more composed than I would have expected and as a result reached some emotional recesses that I could not have anticipated.

So what of the ten year anniversary celebration? Well, I take this music as a sign that whatever I may want or think I want there are forces at work beyond my awareness and that improvised music can offer wonderful surprises if one is open to them. As for the band, we've been playing a lot in 2004 celebrating our anniversary. Probably more of a commemorator of the year is our tour diary DVD, "On the Road with..." (prime source) that was released last spring. It offers a behind the scenes look at life on the road from our 2003 European tour.

And so our celebration of a decade of music is marked with a project that does not look to the past but to the future. We look forward to celebrating that future with you in another ten years.

Ellery Eskelin
2004, NYC


All compositions by Ellery Eskelin, Tuhtah Publishing / SUISA. Text to "Take Me" by Benjamin Constable.

Recorded January 23rd and 24th at Systems Two Studios in Brooklyn, NY. Jon Rosenberg, engineer. Mix and mastering by Peter Pfister. Liner notes by Ellery Eskelin. Produced by Ellery Eskelin, executive production by Werner X. Uehlinger. Thanks to everyone...all the promoters who have hired us and all the listeners who have attended our concerts and purchased our recordings. Thanks to all of the radio stations who have programmed our music and the journalists who have covered it. Thanks also to Andrea, Jim, Marc, Melvin and Jess as well as Benjamin Constable, Bethany Ryker and WFMU, WXU, Peter and Fanny, Gunnar Pfabe, Robert Lewis, Tobin Video, Phil Milstein and Aaron Fuchs. Thanks also to Rolf Fehlbaum. Special thanks to my family for their constant support.



1. If Not Now 3:25
2. Tell me When 4:07
3. Anyone's Guess 6:01
4. Say it Again 5:09
5. Ask to Be 6:14
6. More Than That 5:26
7. Anywhere, Not Here 5:35
8. If So 2:17
9. Ask Me Why 2:35
10. No Illusions 8:34
11. I Couldn't Say 6:19
12. Take Me 8:04

Total Time: 63:46

Ellery Eskelin - tenor saxophone
Andrea Parkins - piano, accordion, sampler
Jim Black - drums and percussion
Marc Ribot - electric guitar
Melvin Gibbs - electric bass
Jessica Constable - voice