Dave Ellis

A lifelong northern Californian, Dave Ellis emerged as a prominent figure in the Bay Area jazz community of the 1990s while also pursuing interests in R&B, funk, and rock. The gritty tenor saxophonist participated in a high school jazz ensemble in Berkeley, then attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston, completing a B.A. in music production and engineering in 1992. Upon finishing his studies that same year, he returned to California and co-founded the Charlie Hunter Trio alongside guitarist Hunter and drummer Jay Lane. The ensemble performed regularly throughout the Bay Area and cut two albums for Blue Note prior to Ellis’s exit in 1996, the same year he issued his debut leader date, Raven, on the San Francisco-based Monarch imprint. During the late 1990s Ellis, who had appeared as a sideman on Dmitri Matheny’s 1995 Monarch recording Red Reflections, traveled with his own band and with Ratdog, the group launched by former Grateful Dead bassist Bob Weir. In 1998 he delivered his second Monarch album, In the Long Run, produced by veteran Orrin Keepnews, and prepared to tour with the Other Ones, the ensemble featuring Dead veterans Weir and Mickey Hart along with Bruce Hornsby. That affiliation led to his participation on the Other Ones’ first album, The Strange Remain. Ellis maintained a low profile until 2003, when he returned with State of Mind, his initial Milestone release, again produced by Keepnews.