John Ellis, Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow
John Ellis and associates cook up madcap hijinks and disarming pathos
The past associations of saxophonist John Ellis resonate on Dance Like There's No Tomorrow, which is imbued with the skewed humor and raucous energy of Charlie Hunter and the impeccable musicianship and Crescent City leanings of Ellis Marsalis. But Ellis himself deserves enormous credit for assembling the strikingly original instrumentation of Double Wide — from the oom-pah rumble-splat of Matt Perrine's sousaphone to the ballpark whirly of Gary Versace's organ — and then writing tunes with such evocative but apt titles as "Three-Legged Tango in Jackson Square" and "Zydeco Clowns on the Lam." Right from the opening strains of "All Up in the Aisles," with funky tambourine joining the Perrine's low notes and Versace's melodic glaze, you don't know whether you're at a sporting event, street fair or hip funeral, but smiles are nonetheless the only proper response. Likewise, "Three-Legged Tango" feels like a silent-movie soundtrack for Three's Company's John Ritter, and "Clowns," with Versace moving to accordion, is hell on wheels — probably unicycles.
The prevailing hijinks make the trio of slower, more balladic tunes — "I Miss You Molly," "Tattooed Teen Waltzes with Grandma" and "Prom Song" — akin to anti-comic relief. Versace steals the emotional show on a tribute to the feisty late newspaper columnist Molly Ivins "I Miss You Molly," while Ellis offers up the perfect horn phrases to capture the awkward sweetness of "Tattooed Teen Waltzes with Grandma." The other change-of-pace tune, "Prom Song," is a pretty number, plain and simple.
Finally, a special salute must go to the rhythm section. Ellis's use of Perrine as the de facto bassist goes beyond the New Orleans brass band tradition, and becomes more reminiscent of the way Henry Threadgill deployed the tubas in Very Very Circus. And Jason Marsalis (brother of Wynton, son of patriarch Ellis) not only delivers his patented march-time snare rolls, but simultaneously hastens and organizes the group gambols in masterful fashion, capped by a great, tom-tom-oriented solo on the closing title track.
