Herb Ellis

Mitchell Herbert “Herb” Ellis was born August 4, 1921, in Farmersville, Texas, a cotton-farming town north of Dallas. He took up banjo at age eight before switching to his older brother’s guitar. Ellis later described his rural upbringing bluntly: “if you could see where I lived, it would give you the blues.” After hearing electric guitarist George Barnes on the radio, he enrolled at North Texas State University to study music. The school had no guitar program, so he studied string bass instead. Financial hardship forced him to leave after two years. Ellis toured with a University of Kansas dance band in 1941, then joined Glen Gray’s Casa Loma Orchestra in 1943. He moved to Jimmy Dorsey’s orchestra in 1945 and stayed until 1947.

In 1947 Ellis left Dorsey with pianist Lou Carter and bassist Johnny Frigo to form the drummerless trio Soft Winds, modeled on Nat “King” Cole’s group. The trio co-wrote “Detour Ahead,” later recorded by Billie Holiday and established as a standard. Oscar Peterson sat in with Soft Winds in Buffalo in 1952. When guitarist Barney Kessel left Peterson’s trio in 1953, Peterson hired Ellis to replace him. The Peterson-Ellis-Ray Brown trio, active from 1953 to 1958, became one of the most celebrated small groups in jazz. It served as house band for Norman Granz’s Verve Records and the Jazz at the Philharmonic tours, backing Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, and Ben Webster. Ellis was the trio’s only white member during an era of pervasive segregation. His rhythmic drive was so secure that Peterson replaced him with a drummer after his departure.

Ellis cited Charlie Christian, a fellow Texan, as his defining influence, and his bop-based style carried a slight country twang. He later paid tribute with the 1960 album “Thank You, Charlie Christian.” While still with Peterson, he cut solo dates for Verve, including “Ellis in Wonderland” (Norgran, 1956) and his personal favorite, “Nothing But the Blues” (Verve, 1957), featuring Stan Getz, Roy Eldridge, and Ray Brown. He left Peterson in 1958 and toured briefly with Fitzgerald. Ellis then settled into West Coast studio work, backing television shows hosted by Steve Allen and Merv Griffin. He also recorded with Jimmy Giuffre on “Herb Ellis Meets Jimmy Giuffre” (1959) and with Charlie Byrd on “Guitar/Guitar” (1965).

Ellis’s career surged again in the 1970s through producer Carl Jefferson’s new Concord Jazz label. He reunited with Ray Brown and paired with guitarist Joe Pass on “Two for the Road” (Pablo, 1974) and live sets such as “Seven, Come Eleven” (1974). Ellis co-founded the Great Guitars with Byrd and Barney Kessel, touring through the 1970s and 1980s. He later recorded “Windflower” (Concord, 1978) with Remo Palmieri. Personal touches marked his later career: he gave cartoonist Gary Larson guitar lessons in exchange for cover art, and he appeared on “Sanford and Son” accompanying Redd Foxx’s singing. The Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame inducted him in 1994, and the University of North Texas awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1997. Ellis died of Alzheimer’s disease at his Los Angeles home on March 28, 2010, at age 88. He is remembered as a bridge between swing-era guitar and bebop.