April, 2005
John
Ellis
'One Foot in the Swamp'
Hyena Records
 The
groove is the thing on John Ellis’ One Foot In
The Swamp. No wonder: The saxophonist’s
day job is with guitarist Charlie Hunter, and Ellis
has plenty of New Orleans’ street cred. He’s
worked with Ellis Marsalis and Walter Payton as well
as in bands led by drummer Jason Marsalis, bassist Roland
Guerin and guitarist Steve Masakowski. All of
those influences come into play on Ellis’ second
disc as a leader, a warm, engaging collection of original
compositions recorded with several Crescent City musicians,
including the in-sync, pliable rhythm axis of Marsalis
and Guerin, and trumpeter Nicholas Payton, at the
city’s Ultrasonic Studios.
“Happy”
following the experimental electronic squiggles of eight
second opener “Intro,” is a terrific choice
for an opening tune, a
medium-tempo funk piece with John Scofield’s guitar
lines snaking around Ellis’ jaunty melody on tenor
and pianist Aaron Goldberg injecting a vintage feel
into the proceedings with his comping and soloing on
Fender Rhodes; the title is apt for the emotional feeling
of the piece. Scofield’s exhortations lead
the way into another groove machine, “One For
the Kelpers,” which shuttles between second-line
rhythms and a mellow floating section. The closer,
“Sippin’ Cider,” boasts a similar
rhythmic thrust and a coda featuring the exotic, pipes-like
sound of Ellis’ ocarina.
Ellis’
rangy set also includes a laidback ballad, “Country
Girls,”
overlaid with tenor and Gregoire Maret’s melancholy
chromatic
harmonica, and the hypnotic “Ostinato,”
with Ellis establishing the rhythm with a tricky bass
clarinet line, and Payton and Maret providing various
countermelodies.
-Phillip
Booth
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