Don Ellis 1977 (10) Pussywiggle Stomp 

Played Don Ellis and Hank Levy/Stan Kenton arrangements through high school. Even got a change to play Pussy Wiggle Stomp for Don at a two band shoot-out/seminar Don invited us to at Glassboro State College. That was a real treat. Got him to sign my PWS sheet music.

So glad that more and more Don Ellis stuff keeps surfacing. He deserves a proper documentary movie

I was very fortunate, in 1974, Don Ellis came to my college to do a clinic with our jazz band in which I played lead trumpet. It was a great educational experience working with the multi meter jazz charts in 5/4, 7/4, 9/4, 10/8 etc! He was such a great guy and gave all of us tremendous confidence in our playing. After the concert with Don our jazz band had a party; everyone was sipping beer and wine, but right there in the middle of it all was Don Ellis drinking a glass of milk! It was shortly after this he started having heart problems. It was sad to see him pass away so soon. The jazz world certainly misses him.

As an 80 year old.. Still diggin' Ellis! Ain't dead yet!

There is a fun story Don Ellis liked to tell. He had an ethnomusic fellowship. He came home and charted some 6-8 and 8-12 tunes. His band said, "You can't play this Sh*t!" He loaded a tape of little kids from Turkey playing this same stuff.

Played this many, many years ago...swing in 7/4 time...still will sing it while walking and walk real funny whilst doing so! Great chart!!! R. I. P. Don.....

Can anyone watch this video and not smile at the end? What a genius.

Don Ellis was a genius. No one else's band played in those off the wall meters yet still swung like crazy. My favorite: Bulgarian Bulge from Tears of Joy. I'm a studied drummer and after hundreds of listenings I still can't nail it.

Just after he died I went to work at Bell Labs in Holmdel NJ. They had a terrific big band and I became the leader after year. I bought a bunch of these charts and played them at noontime concerts in the lab auditorium. Those concerts were always packed houses. I think the odd time signatures appealed to the audience of engineers and scientists. Great times!

The advanced stage band played this back in HS days, every time at was rolled out at contests it gave instant wins! That beginning with the clapping still rings in my heart 47 yrs. later.

"I should also add that this was "The Electric Band" that I believe Glenn Stuart was leading when Don was ill. Ellis then reappeared a year before his death and went all out basically telling his doctors to go to hell... "I'm go'in out in style! Incredible, masterfull.. thanks!

After listening to "33 222 1 222" this song almost counts itself. I could swear I saw people unsquare dancing to this in the aisles.

A little irony - I played this in my high school jazz band, like many of you. However, unlike all of you, the bass player in my high school jazz band was Leon Gaer, who appears in this video as a member of the Don Ellis band. He must have learned a lot in high school.

I am a massive don ellis fan and have every album I can find.thanks for the interesting fact about don dying at 44.the only thing he played in 4/4 time was take 5.he was a great musician.

I am on my 3rd copy of "Live at Fillmore" now. Getting hard to find. Don Ellis was such a genius!

It makes me so happy seeing a crowd clap in seven-time.

I discovered Don Ellis in a record store, playing, in 1970 and fell in love at age 18!

Looks like a young Ted Nash on alto. We played together that same year in the Monterey All Star High School Jazz Band. Hank Levy was our guest arranger that year! George Duke, Clark Terry and Benny Golson were our guest artists! What a great week at the Monterey Jazz Festival!

Five years ago, almost to the day, an Ellis reunion concert took place in L.A.. It featured many of the performers in this video. They played a lot of stuff that Don had recorded toward the end of his career, but topped it off with this one, his true signature piece. I was there, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

The best title of a song ever by a fantastic musician. RIP Don. You are remembered.

Toooooo Gooooooood!!!!!!!

I have watched this video many many times and I still get a lump in my throat each time I do. It was a tremendous loss for all of us when when Don was taken away from us, but even so we were very lucky to have had him even if only for a short while. And from a distance of many miles and thirty five years I find myself loving Ruth Ritchie more and more. I tend to press the pause button when thay have a close up of her.

I love the music of levy. It's amazing. My high school jazz band is playing three levy charts this year: chain reaction, rock odyssey, and whiplash. It's sweet

My highschool jazz ensemble opened w Final Analysis and also did Hank Levy tunes, stuff from the Towson St. Jazz Ensemble. are band director was totally hip. turned me on to Don/Fillmore and his book. Saw him in NY@ Avery Fisher w George Duke on solo piano. Don had a string quartet within the orchestra and was playin stuff i never heard before. i remember it sounding like music from angels. he passed after that. 'least i got to see him once. sombody please put up Hey Jude from the Fillmore! hysterical!

Something to note: Ralph Humphrey (one of the drummers on Don Ellis at Fillmore) went on to play with Zappa from 1973 to 1974.

Saw him twice in the 70's when promoting Live at The Fillmore and then with Tears of Joy and the string section. He was incredible.

I have a hard time watching this because every time I do my eyes get so full of tears, that seeing becomes difficult. There has been only one Don Ellis. Thank God there was one and we were lucky enough to have had him. My friend likes to tell a story that the only thing Don ever did in 4/4 was an an arrangement of Take Five.

Rock in my back. 😢

Played this in college stage band in 1972. Don Ellis Orchestra gave a concert there. Wild, inventive music.

As one person said, "Isn't it ironic that this cat played in 5/4, 7/4, 33/16 time...but he died at the age of....44? 4/4?"

So lucky and blessed to see him and his band play in 1974.

What a Masterpiece of a Composition! The Band smokes something fierce...... percussion is at point !

The great Glenn Stuart on lead trumpet, I stayed with him at his house in laguna beach and had a trumpet lesson, I also spent a wonderful day of sailing to Catalina island on his boat, he passed away in very tragic circumstances.

Excellent lead trumpet. He's pumping out dozens of his high Gs (F concert pitch) That's hard work

Wow! Thanks for posting this. Don Ellis fan all of my life. Unfortunately I was born too late to ever see his orchestra for myself.

Fantastic listening! This guy certainly pushed back the barriers and helped drag big band jazz into the modern world

Just been following the links to Don and found this, it's made my day. First time I've seen the band play after following his music since the 70's, I hope more clips keep turning up.

People always go on about Zappa's odd time signatures but Don Ellis did it with a 30 piece band. In about a six month time in 70 or 71 I went to see Zappa first and as a drummer was duly impressed. A few months I went to see the Don Ellis big band during "The Tears of Joy" period, not one piece in 4/4 He did Bulgarian Bulge (33/16) and I said to myself that's how it should be done!

DAS MAIORES BIG BAND DE TODOS OS TEMPOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DON ELLIS, SEMPRE CLASSE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very cool to see this. I played lead trumpet on this piece with my high school jazz band. Needless to say,it was great to watch and hear it done properly here!

I saw the thumbnail for this video while looking for a solution to a generator problem. Not familiar with this cut, I asked myself what could be more mind blowing than Turkish Bath? Gaaaawd dang! Thank so much for this out of sight posting. Yeah, I'm old enough and go I back enough dedcades to be say that phrase(smile). Ain't no shame in my game. I thought, my favorite, Turkish Bath, was ridiculous(meant in high praise), this is ridiculous times ten. God bless you Don Ellis for making sure we smile and laugh we when listen to your works. God bless you for having some of us awkwardly tapping our feet and clapping our hands while filled with the joy and the love of the music you gave us to listen to. You did your appointed job, my man, and we are better for it. Rest in peace, Don Elllis and thank you for the gifts and love of music you left behind.

WONDERFUL!!! I bought the album when it came out. Still wonderful all these many years later!! Fantastic video, capturing the sheer enjoyment this band had and gave.

The great Don Ellis.

Eine tolle Big Band und ein Don Ellis in Höchstform, schade dass er schon lange nicht mehr unter uns weilt

SO GLAD to see this on RU-vid! Played this in a college jazz band in the early 70s. Now I do it fingerstyle guitar.

Fantastic listening 1

Crazy cool - played this chart in college at the Philadelphia Musical Academy and feel in love with Don Ellis

Good posture in trumpet section! They are using the stance taught by Maynard. Note the page turn 2nd trumpet makes at 7:26. Whoever he is he displays the best stance of all of them. Biviano took this to the extreme too.

Beautiful!

Perfect! I look forward to see/hear more of Don and his band

Thanks so much for posting this video. I've got the Atlantic recording of Don Ellis live at Montreaux (released 1978) and always wondered what the concert footage looked like! What a treat.

It's a thrill to see this video. In July, 1972, our high school jazz band played "Pussy Wiggle Stomp" at the Montreux Jazz Festival! I was one of the drummers who performed. I'd like to believe Don Ellis heard about us performing this song in Montreux 5 years earlier, so he wanted to do it too. I doubt it. Thanks for posting this, although it took me 9 years to find it. LoL

Thanks for posting this. The Tuba player (Jim Self) is from my hometown of Oil City, PA. Mr. Self was also the "voice" of the mothership in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

It's a Flugelhorn with a 4th valve that functions a bit like the 1st trigger on a bass trombone or the 4th valve on some tubas (lowers the series a fourth). If you listen to his solo on one of the tunes on "Tears of Joy", he descends down the scale to a pedale low f# and back up with it.

Only Don could make 7 groovy as hell!

this is MUSIC

Maynard Ferguson meets Frank Zappa!

I saw this great band at Avery Fisher Hall in NYC around this time. After a particularly impressive piano solo, Don said "Randy Kerber - remember that name." And I always did. And damned if he hasn't become one of the busiest pianists, orchestrators, and composers in recent American cinema. He's got a Wikipedia page that I can't link to here, but his did indeed become a name to remember.

Wow, this is good. I have this on LP, what a genius.....

Thank you for posting this! I stumbled upon the "Live at the Fillmore" album in an antique shop in Stockholm in the mid 80s and have been a fan of Don's ever since. I have been scanning You Tube for years for videos of this band and I am so happy to have found this!

Someone has loaded the studio version from the original album, and the live version from the 1970 Montreux album, but this is my favorite version!!! Totally get to feel the vibe, see the thrill. What a great tune!!! Thanks, TONS, for uploading!

Dude... This is insane!

always good to see some more Don ellis coming about - so sad there was not enough recorded and kept at the time!

My brother cant share...never could

Baddest band that has ever existed!

I didn't know Jim Snodgrass, but what baby faces on Ted Nash and Randy Kerber--wow! (Reseda High grads)

Need to share with you the music of the West African band Osibisa which I discovered while in 'Nam years ago from a buddy who turned me on to their music...

I first got to know about Don Ellis through a German documentary about the making of Pussy Wiggle Stomp, which I saw on TV at the time, in 1970 or 1971 (?). The documentary was fascinating, all-encompassing, with a lot of individual chats with all the musicians, many practice takes of the band rehearsing the PWS movements, it was a complete education about music and Don Ellis' philosophy, goals and ambitions. I've only just been thinking about trying to find that documentary, it's got to be somewhere, but so far no easy hits via Google. Pussy Wiggle Stomp never left me, just love that 7/4, swinging like crazy, proving that we do not need to have our music measured out in 4/4 all the time!

what a wonderful musician he was, I miss his inspiration

Now that's a well drilled band! Makes me giddy. Music is the best!

I had the pleasure of doing a gig with David Crigger and WOW, what an awesome drummer -hope I can work with him again sometime

My college jazz ensemble at CWRU in Cleveland opened for 2 concerts by The DEO. Our director, Bob Curnow, was a former bandmate of his in Stan Kenton's band.

ok i was there. i played in ellis b band on my bass. loved this guy. rip in 7. this was exciting as mostly i played 4/4. i used all my fingers and toes to keep da rhythm.

Genius is 7/4

Heard the Band once here in Minneapolis. It was an unforgettable experience. Don died way too young

Don Elis!!!7 wow!Great.

Coool .❤❤❤

Dat drum duo!

to continue.... As far as the young band goes - yes there was a major turnover before the Star Wars/Montreux projects and finances did play a big part in it - but the band at the time of that "big shift" again, was many bands down the road from the Columbia years. In a nutshell, over the years, there were lots and lots (and lots and lots) of players that did stints with the Don Ellis Band. Oh and I agree with you regarding PW on Fillmore - that's my favorite version as well.

Brilliant

We played this song back in Stage Band high school.

300 chrislyer....❤

amen

Anyone else hear that old commercial here "my Dog's better than your dog"? Lol. Love the Dixieland ending in 7!

I loved how PWStomp sounded like a game show intro. Don Ellis did a blues tune with a Beethoven (Moonlight Sonata) intro in 11/8 "called blues in elf". it's funny how dropping a beat each measure slightly changes the feel.

And BTW is currently the drummer of Dancing With The Stars

Gettin a groove is bad enough when people can't clap on 2 and 4, but hopeless when they can't clap 2,4,6,7!

And the amplification via the pick up in the mouth piece not at the bell🎺🇺🇸🎺

Listen to the “small group” section @10:11 where the melody is passed back and forth. A weird little detail that Don threw in there…just because.

Where did all the unused 8s go? ;)

Awesome !!

Believe it or not, I went to see him perform in a club in West Los angeles in the 60s. I think he was there every tuesday.

I hear you man. Don was...well what can you say? Can you imagine what he would be doing now? He had first heart attack in 75 or 76....They were able to restart his heart and he was told he'd "never play again." Well, that didnt' last long. But two years later, he passed away. I never saw him play live and these videos of the band in Montreux are incredible. Totally different than what I imagined! And why didn't they include this on the CD release???

Great listening

Actually there were many versions of the band between the end of the Columbia years (and even during those years for that matter) and the Montreux band. In fact, Glenn, Chino and Jack being in the Montreux band was more a function of them having returned to the band after fairly significant absences than them being the "lat men standing". As for the moniker given the band on the "Star Wars" album - that was a bit of nonsense penetrated by the current manager, and was never embraced after that.

No, this concert has never appeared for sale on DVD. The entire concert is posted on this channel (though some tracks have been blocked by the record label) with the exception of the "Star Wars Theme" that started the concert and possibly "The French Connection" walk-on segment - both lost to missing and un-viewable video.

If you're referring to the big round thing Don plays through most of the middle section beginning with 4:53, that's a flugelhorn.

I especially like drummers who "play the tune". When this guy is doing his drum solo, you can hear the music. There are only a few who can play like that. One is here in the bay area: Akira Tana (hope I spelled it right!).

He added a quarter tone 4th valve.

Dave ... the be a t. You can dee😢😢😢