Trumpeter
Don Ellis
' initial recording as a leader (and first of four small group dates from the 1960-1962 period) found him stretching the boundaries of
bop
-based
jazz
and experimenting a bit with time and tempo. Teamed up with
Jaki Byard
(who doubles on piano and alto), bassist
Ron Carter
and drummer
Charlie Persip
,
Ellis
(whose sound was already pretty distinctive) performs four of his unusual originals (including the 22-minute
"Improvisational Suite #1"
) plus
Byard
's
"Waste."
Although these musical experiments failed to be influential (
himself went in a different direction a few years later), the unpredictable music is still quite interesting to hear. ~ Scott Yanow