Ellery Eskelin

In an Effort to deepen his understanding of be-bop Eskelin attended nightly informal jam sessions for several years at a local club called the "Star Cafe" on 23rd Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan.

These sessions were run by saxophonist Junior Cook and drummer Harold White (who Eskelin had first met and performed with in Baltimore).

In addition Eskelin pursued private studies with saxophonist George Coleman.

Eskelin's grandfather was the musical director of the church and played the pedal steel guitar in services while performing on the electric guitar professionally in Baltimore during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Baltimore had a rich musical legacy sustained by musicians such as saxophonists Mickey Fields and Gary Bartz.

Musicians from New York often passed through Baltimore to perform on the weekly Sunday afternoon Left Bank Jazz Society concert series presented at the Famous Ballroom.

Eskelin had opportunities to sit in with locals such as Fields as well as internationally renowned artists such as Bartz, Pepper Adams and Woody Shaw.

Early performances as a leader took place at various jazz clubs such as "The Bandstand" and "The Closet" run by saxophonist and entrepreneur Henry Baker, who had a long history in the Baltimore music scene having known Lester Young, Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis, Red Garland, John Coltrane, Clifford Brown and many others.

Baker predicted that the young saxophonist would one day become "a great tenor saxophone player".

At around this same time Eskelin met drummer Harold White (formerly with Horace Silver) and began performing regularly in White's quintet along with trumpeter Tom Williams.

Eskelin attended Towson University where he studied classical saxophone with Joseph Briscuso and performed in composer Hank Levy's Jazz Ensemble which played Levy's "odd-meter" big band compositions exclusively.

Bassist Drew Gress was a fellow student with whom Eskelin continues to collaborate and perform with to the present day.

Ellery Eskelin (born August 16, 1959) is an American tenor saxophonist raised in Baltimore, Maryland and residing in New York City.

His parents, Rodd Keith and Bobbie Lee, were both professional musicians.

Organist Bobbie Lee performed in local nightclubs in Baltimore in the early 1960s and provided Eskelin an introduction to standards from the Great American Songbook as well as inspiring an early interest in jazz music.

Ellery Eskelin began playing tenor saxophone in 1969 at the age of ten.

In interviews he claims his early influences as Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Lee Konitz, Stan Getz and John Coltrane.

His mother, organist Bobbie Lee, learned to play music in the Pentecostal church as a teenager, the influence of which carried over into her playing of secular music and also provided a strong and lasting influence on Eskelin.

Her playing was characterized by a strong rhythmic feel and a commanding delivery of American songs.

Rodd Keith died in 1974 in Los Angeles, California, and became a cult figure after his death in the little-known field of "song-poem" music.

In 1979 Eskelin met pianist Marc Copland and joined Copland's band for engagements in Washington D.C. including the Cellar Door, Blues Alley and the One Step Down.

Copland was a former New York saxophonist who moved to Washington DC and switched to piano in order to more deeply explore the role of harmony in his own music.

Eskelin, along with Drew Gress, would reunite with Copland years later in New York City in one of Eskelin's early groups as a leader.

Also in 1979 Eskelin encountered bay area saxophonist Mel Ellison who was performing in Baltimore for an extended engagement with trumpeter Ted Curson's group.

Eskelin took an informal lesson with Ellison, whose unique style made a lasting impression.

Also in this group was drummer Tom Rainey, who in subsequent years Eskelin would tour and record with as part of bassist Mark Helias' ensemble.

He has released more than twenty-five recordings as a leader since the late 1980s, primarily for the Swiss hatOLOGY label.

From late 1981 until early 1983 Eskelin toured with swing-era trombonist Buddy Morrow in a big band setting performing one-nighters across the United States and culminating in a tour of South America in early 1983.

Eskelin has resided in New York City since 1983 and has led numerous international touring ensembles while participating as a sideman or collaborator with many of today's most forward-thinking composers and improvisers.

In March 1983 he left the road tour and moved to New York City taking any kind of musical work available in order to make a living.

During the summer of 1984 Eskelin joined organist Jack McDuff's band (which featured guitarist Dave Stryker and legendary drummer Joe Dukes) on a regular engagement at Dudes Lounge in Harlem.

By 1985 Eskelin slowly began to develop his own musical approach, combining his roots in jazz with his interests in other forms of music, particularly free improvisation.

Laying the groundwork for these explorations were studies with saxophonist David Liebman which led to informal jam sessions and eventually a working professional relationship.

In 1987 Eskelin began developing original music with drummer Phil Haynes leading to the formation of the cooperative group "Joint Venture" (with trumpeter Paul Smoker and bassist Drew Gress) as well as numerous other projects centered around Haynes' Brooklyn loft and rehearsal space.

Along with a group of like-minded musicians they presented a number of annual self-produced festivals in Manhattan at the Knitting Factory which ran into the early 1990s.

His most important work has been with the group he formed in 1994 featuring keyboardist Andrea Parkins and drummer Jim Black as well as a later group called "Trio New York" with organist Gary Versace and drummer Gerald Cleaver.

Eskelin has maintained lasting musical associations with Joey Baron, Mark Helias, Gerry Hemingway, Marc Ribot, David Liebman, Han Bennink, Sylvie Courvoisier, Bobby Previte and Daniel Humair among others.

'Down Beat magazine has recognized him as "a major player in today's creative music" (September 1995) and described his compositional approach as "a startlingly new concept" (January 1997).

Eskelin's style has its roots in the jazz realm yet his unique phrasing (which is compared to Arnold Schoenberg's technique of "klangfarbenmelodie" in The Wire, December 1996) and the unorthodox techniques utilized in his compositions (in which composed and improvised elements often collide unpredictably) make for a music that defies easy categorization.

Over the years, Eskelin has garnered significant critical praise in the international jazz press.