Liberty Ellman

Brooklyn based jazz guitarist Liberty Ellman has begun to receive much deserved acclaim as one the most original practitioners of his instrument. A longtime collaborator of saxophonist Henry Threadgill and pianist Myra Melford, Ellman’s recent release, Radiate (Pi Recordings), has received glowing reviews, and his growing reputation is reflected by Jazz Times’s new Expanded Critics Poll, which lists him along John Scofield, Bill Frisell, and Julian Lage as best guitarist of 2015. Whether he’s working alongside Joe Lovano or playing the music of John Zorn, Mr. Ellman has been recognized as one of the artists who are helping to pushing the sound of jazz forward.

Radiate comprises a new collection of original pieces Ellman wrote for his ensemble with support from the Shifting Foundation. The music is exciting and contemporary, featuring rhythmic, multi-layered melodies that provide both an accessible and thought provoking experience, reflecting much of what is going on in New York’s creative jazz scene. A strikingly imaginative guitarist, he has chiefly been known as a key member of Henry Threadgill’s Zooid, a collaboration that has been ongoing for almost 15 years. Ellman has worked with a number of today’s most original figures in jazz, such disparate artists such as Vijay Iyer, Joe Lovano, Myra Melford, Jason Moran, Greg Osby, Wadada Leo Smith, and Butch Morris, and the standout vocalist Somi.

Mr. Ellman’s accomplished band is made up of some of the top musicians on the New York scene, each of whom he has played with in various contexts for over a decade: Steve Lehman on alto saxophone, who was voted #1 Rising Star in the 2015 Downbeat Critics Poll; Jonathan Finlayson, a long-running member of alto saxophonist Steve Coleman’s Five Elements, who was himself voted #1 Rising Star Trumpeter in the 2014 Downbeat Poll; Jose Davila on tuba and trombone, a partner of Ellman’s in Zooid; Stephan Crump, who is perhaps best known as the longstanding bassist in pianist Vijay Iyer’s Trio; and drummer Damion Reid, who plays in the bands of Steve Lehman and Jonathan Finlayson in addition to pianist Robert Glasper’s Trio.

“The distinctive guitarist is helping define post-millennial jazz.” –Wall Street Journal

“This is deeply modern music with a sense of chamber-esque sophistication and interplay that is buoyed by the improvisational rigor of jazz. Ellman’s gift for clear eyed melody gives the music on Radiate something unique, indelible and fully human.” Downbeat Magazine

“He phrases his output with an implicit sense of breath; on ‘Furthermore,’ which unfolds in a fever-dream rubato, his lines evoke the cadence of oratory.” New York Times

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“Brilliant sort of music …which is simultaneously kind of rhythmically complex but very, very grooving also does some kind of extraordinary things with melody and dissonance. I think the whole thing hangs together brilliantly. I love this.” BBC Jazz on 3

“Hands down one of the best releases of 2015.” Nextbop