09.06.08
John Ellis: playing originals vs. standards
John Ellis from New Orleans is one of the great saxophonists around right now. He is soulful, creative and melodic. I love what he has to say about playing his original music in an interview from “All About Jazz” by Jason Crane…
“All About Jazz: You’ve spent so much time playing either your own original music or someone else’s original music, as opposed to mining the standard repertoire. Has that been an intentional choice?
John Ellis: It has been for a variety of reasons. I guess I feel the most at home when I’m playing music either written by me or by friends of mine that we’re interpreting for the first time. I think there’s such a weight of tradition and a burden of tradition in jazz. I love the tradition so much, and I’ve listened to it so much, that to do a half-assed version of it—or like “Look at me, I can play like so-and-so”—has never been something that I was motivated to do. And in many ways, I don’t think I was ready to make a strong statement on the standard material. I still have an ambition to do that in the future, but I feel like the more I can spend time trying to cultivate a perspective and nurture the music I’m interested in, then maybe I’ll have a hope of playing some of that standard material with a personal spin.“