Planet Jazz: The founder of this group and the composer of a lot of the music was a musician named Johnny Ellis. I remember clearly the first time I met Johnny. It was one night in 1990 at the Milano Bar, which was a dingy dive on Houston Street. Johnny was playing drums there. He seemed wild eyed and maniacal to me, and emanated the craziest frenetic energy. Frankly, he scared me. This was my first encounter with a real hardcore New York jazz musician, someone who was in it for the long haul. Up to that point I had been safe in the incubator-like confines of the New School Jazz Department which was filled with kids, albeit talented ones. But this guy played with the passion of a person who had nothing left to lose. For him music was no sideline or hobby but rather a reason for being and maybe his only one. I realized that night the price one paid to play jazz in this way; you paid with your life. This impacted me quite strongly at my young and impressionable age. Grant Stewart, who at that time was a precocious teenager and my roommate, began to spend time with Johnny. I didn't think this was such a good idea because frankly, Johnny spooked me. But soon enough I got to know him too, and he became my friend. As I entered into his personal world and learned what made him tick I saw that he was a guy with a huge heart and a tortured soul. He was off beat and lived completely contrary to the conventions of normal society. He had this hilarious (if not perverse) sense of humor and had an original, creative mind. All these factors came into play when he created music, particularly when he composed it. Johnny was from Trenton, New Jersey. His father, John Ellis Sr., was an excellent professional bass player. Johnny came up in the New York jazz scene of the 1970's, which was a harsh time for jazz, particularly for guys who were swing oriented. Johnny and a group of young musicians (which included pianist Mike Ledonne and alto saxophonist Mike Hashim) created The Widespread Depression Orchestra, which focused primarily on a repertoire of Ellington and music of the 30's and 40's. This was when the loft scene and free jazz were at their peak and jazz musicians simply didn't play music like this anymore. Swinging and playing blues, at that time, was reactionary and almost an act of rebellion. Johnny also began to compose original pieces with quirky and melodic lines. Duke Ellington was his biggest influence and he knew Duke's music inside and out. The titles Johnny chose for his tunes reflected his strange sense of humor - he composed pieces like: "A Bee Has Two Brains" or "Red-Pig Dinette Set". In fact, most of his music had some kind of animal-theme. Maybe this why he chose to call his own band "Planet Jazz" - to represent all the life forms. Planet Jazz had several incarnations but when I joined the group in 1991 the members were the same as they are today: Grant Stewart, Joe Magnarelli, Peter Bernstein and Neal Miner. In the years to follow we played gigs in the bars and clubs of New York and recorded several self-produced projects and focused, primarily, on Johnny's music. In the year 1999, Johnny succumbed to the personal demons that had plagued him throughout his life and he died, too young, at age 44. The following year I organized a memorial concert with the original band members and we performed his book. The band chose Joe Strasser as the drummer to replace Johnny. We knew that Johnny had always loved and admired Joe's playing and Joe fit in naturally with the music. After this concert, I came to realize how rare it was to have a band of guys who had all come up together. The group had a book of original music and an original vibe. It seemed a shame that this should end. Thankfully, Mitch Borden the proprietor of the jazz club Smalls offered us a steady Sunday evening gig to re-work the music and to add new material. The band began to redevelop and after a year of gigs, Marc Edelman of Sharp Nine records offered us the opportunity to document this music. The disc starts out with an Ellis original titled, Mommy, Mommy, NO! The dark nature of the title betrays the joyful and playful feeling of the tune. Everyone in the group is featured. Notice the shout chorus at the end of the solos. This is a fine of example of Ellis' composing at its best, where he derives a remarkable thickness from voicing the tenor and trumpet with the guitar as a horn. Buttermoose was Johnny's nickname for his wife Ellen. This tune is a brisk 'rhythm-changes' type tune with a bridge based on 'Stomping At The Savoy'. Johnny conceived it as a sparring match between Grant Stewart and Joe Magnarelli who exchange 8's and then 4's, which finally culminates in a Joe Strasser drum solo. The Cow Is Now is a piece that Johnny composed towards the end of his life and is one of his most lovely. It's a waltz with an extended form and features Peter Bernstein who navigates the changes masterfully. The surprise at the very end is typical of Johnny's sense of humor. The Lemur Is A Dreamer is Johnny's magnum opus. He conceived it in three sections: as a ballad, then as a double time swinger and then as a quadruple time up-tempo. He got this musical device from Art Taylor and his Wailers whom he admired a great deal. The writing is masterful throughout the piece and features Grant Stewart as well Pete and myself. Dawn On The Desert is from the John Kirby sextet of the 1940's, which I feel Planet Jazz has a strong kinship to. They were a tight-knit small band with interesting and modern original numbers. The theme here is also a familiar Charlie Parker quote. I liked the quasi-Latin vibe of this piece and arranged it for the group. The changes are similar to "Summertime" and it features Pete, Grant and myself. The Squirrel Is A Girl is another Ellis original from his ark of planetary creatures (cows, lemurs, squirrels). It's a joyful medium tempo swinger with some challenging chord changes. The harmony on the bridge is particularly fascinating. The solos feature Joe, Grant and myself. Sonara is a lovely tune in 3/4 by Hampton Hawes. I heard it on a live trio recording which he made towards the end of his life. The melody is very pretty and has some nice classical harmonic movements. I thought it would make a good Planet Jazz piece and arranged it for the group. The solos feature Joe Magnarelli, myself, and then Joe Strasser soloing over a vamp. The disc concludes with Duke Ellington's Dual Highway, which is blues and features everyone in the group. This comes from the Ellington small group sessions, which I think were a big influence on Johnny and how he wrote for this ensemble. I certainly hope you enjoy this music and find it as fresh and as interesting as I do. I tip my hat to Grant, Joe, Pete, Neal and Joe as well as Mitch and Marc for making this project a reality this year. I think Johnny would certainly be pleased with the outcome.