subject: Herb Ellis - The Most Awesome Jazz Music Guitar Personality Ever [print this page] Herb Ellis - The Most Awesome Jazz Music Guitar Personality Ever
Jazz guitar player Herb Ellis like many other top American jazz guitar players (including Charlie Christian, Eddie Durham, and Oscar Moore) was born in the south western region of the the USA. The blues, with a touch of country music, are a distinctive characteristic of his jazz guitar music sound and his guitar playing technique. It is most surely owing to the atmosphere in which Ellis was brought up. Herb Ellis initially performed on the banjo, though it is stated he played the harmonica at the age of 4, and took up the guitar at the age of 10. While he was at high school he played alto horn in the school band. Ellis studied at the North Texas State College and helped start a jazz guitar music program there which included collection books of his jazz guitar tabs and jazz guitar tablatures. He met and befriended quite a few now well known jazz musicians while at this college such as Jimmy Giuffre, Gene Roland, and Harry Babasin.
Herb graduated in 1941 and joined Glen Gray's band. In 1945 he joined the Jimmy Dorsey Big Band traveling and performing with them for three years. Following that, Ellis formed his own instrumental / vocal trio known as "The Softwinds". This group, which showcased Lou Carter on Piano and Johnny Frigo on bass, performed with each other for 5 years. Through that time Herb authored various successful compositions such as "Detour Ahead" and "I Told You I Love You - Now Get Out". Ellis's jazz guitar expertise initially grew to become internationally acknowledged in 1953 when he took over from jazz guitar player Barney Kessel in the Oscar Peterson Trio. There is no question that in the course of his five year stint with Peterson, and his following four years accompanying the well known jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, Ellis developed his musical talents as a soloist and accompanist to the fullest. It is in the course of this time that he also started a lengthy affiliation and friendship with bass performer Ray Brown.
After that time Herb Ellis led a professional career as one of the busiest jazz guitarists on the international jazz music scene. Through the years he performed and made albums with "The Great Guitars", a group that featured pickstyle jazz guitarist Barney Kessel and fingerstyle jazz guitar performer Charlie Byrd, in a duo with jazz guitar player Joe Pass, and as leader of his own trios and quartets. Although for quite a few years Ellis worked in the Los Angeles studio scene and was a regular member of the Don Trenner Band on the popular 'Steve Allen Show', he later went back to a lifestyle devoted to jazz guitar music once again appearing and making albums regularly with Oscar Peterson. Herb died on March 28th, 2010 but thankfully for aspiring guitarists, he published a number of jazz guitar tab books and DVD courses that teach his single note improvised solos and chord melody solos as well as the guitar techniques he used to play them
