Lisle Ellis

Lisle Ellis gained initial recognition through partnerships forged in the late 1980s and early 1990s with Canadian pianist Paul Plimley. Subsequent work brought him together with an array of West Coast free jazz figures, among them clarinetist François Houle, drummer Donald Robinson, and violinist India Cooke. Additional associations connected him to Northern California players such as saxophonist Glenn Spearman, pianist Matthew Goodheart, and saxophonist Larry Ochs. In the mid-1990s Ellis joined Ochs and Robinson to create the trio What We Live, which released albums on the Black Saint and New World labels. Now based in the U.S., he continues to contribute to the San Francisco Bay Area free jazz community. A versatile musician, Ellis draws extensively on art music beyond jazz, a quality reflected in projects with classically oriented percussionist William Winant and members of the ROVA Saxophone Quartet.