Don Ellis - Haiku (1973) {2010 MPS Reissue 441132 CD}

Don Ellis, the American composer and trumpeter, who died in his 40s in 1978, is mostly overlooked, though his great, fusion-anticipating 1967 Electric Bath album is still prized. This 1973 recording with a strings ensemble is very different from his adventurous work with mind-boggling time signatures in the 60s. But an Ellis venture is never without surprises. All the segments are inspired by haiku, and they reflect that form's brevity.

The opening Children is an exultant, church-choral chase for overlaying strings motifs, which beautifully envelop the leader's emerging trumpet. Ellis elegantly scores these 10 episodes to convey different moods, from the swoon of Water Jewel to the unnerving jangle of the strings that shifts to baroque stateliness on Cherry Petals, and then free-jazz between Ellis and pianist Milcho Leviev. The leader's unique brass sound embraced technical security, classical purity and an old jazz-brass swagger, and if some of the music gets a little Disney, it's an object lesson in orchestral writing for improvisers.

Personnel
Don Ellis – trumpet and arranger
Milcho Leviev – keyboards
Larry Carlton, David Cohen, Tommy Tedesco – guitar
Ray Brown – bass
John Guerin – drums
Israel Baker, Erno Neufeld, Jacob Krachmalnik, George Kast, George Berres, Gerald Vinci, Shirley Cornell, Marcia van Dyck & Marvin Limonick – violin
Samuel Voghossian, Alfred Barr & Dan Neufeld, Allan Harshman, David Schwarz & Myra Kestenbaum – viola
Raphael Kramer, Frederick Seykora, Ronald Cooper & Catherine Gotthofer – cello

Track Listing
01. Children
02. Blossoming
03. Water Jewel
04. Cherry Petals
05. Forest
06. Summer Rain
07. Two Autumns
08. Mirror-Pond of Stars
09. Parting
10. Dew