Haiku
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Don Ellis Orchestra: Haiku -- Album Cover (German)
Don Ellis Orchestra: Haiku -- Album Cover

Date(s) Recorded

1974

Tracks

  1. Children
  2. Blossoming
  3. Water Jewel
  4. Cherry Petals
  5. Forest
  6. Summer Rain
  7. Two Autumns
  8. Mirror-Pond of Stars
  9. Parting
  10. Dew

Credits

  • Don Ellis - Trumpet
  • Israel Baker - Violin
  • Erno Neufeld - Violin
  • Jacob Krachmalnick - Violin
  • George Vinci - Violin
  • Shirley Cornell - Violin
  • Marcia Van Dyck - Violin
  • Marvin Limonick - Violin
  • Allan Harshman - Viola
  • David Schwartz - Viola
  • Myra Kestenbaum - Viola
  • Samuel Voghossian - Viola
  • Alfred Barr - Viola
  • Dan Neufeld - Viola
  • Raphael Kramer - Cello
  • Frederick Seykora - Cello
  • Ronald Cooper - Cello
  • Catherine Gotthoffer - Harp
  • Larry Carlton - Guitar
  • David Cohen - Guitar
  • Tommy Tedesco - Guitar
  • Milcho Leviev - Keyboards
  • Ray Brown - Bass
  • John Guerin - Drums 

Releases

MPS MC 25341 (1973)
BASF 21916 (1973)

Haiku (1974) represents another radical departure from both the conventions and the direction Ellis had been setting for himself and his ensemble. This recording features pristine chamber music-like settings of Ellis's favorite examples of ancient Japanese Haiku poetry, and foreshadows the "New Age" textures that became popular during the 1980s. Ellis provides the verbal narration of each for the ten settings himself.  Ellis's stylistic development is best demonstrated on this release in the selection "Children," which features a sublime counterpoint writing in a 7/8 canonic passage.