By Yoshi Kato
Special to the Mercury News
-SAN FRANCISCO

A conversation with jazz guitarist Liberty Ellman can be like a Sonny Rollins sax solo: an outpouring of invention, humor and allusion that dazzles a listener because of the complexity of the ideas, the effortlessness of the execution and the speed of delivery.

Ellman constantly frames his thoughts within a musical, philosophical or socioeconomic context, peppering his conversation with anecdotes, references to current events and humor.

Over lunch at the Mission District resident's favorite Chinese restaurant in Noe Valley, Ellman discusses events that led to the release of his first album, "Orthodoxy," on his own Red Giant label (www.redgiantrecords.com). His quartet will play Monday night at Yoshi's in Oakland.

His career choice seems natural when you learn that his father, who lived in Queens, was a studio drummer who played on sessions such as Bette Midier's "Divine Miss M." album and was a member of Todd Rundgren's Utopia band.

His mother, a singer-songwriter and guitarist, "hung out with Jimi Hendrix and a bunch of other rock stars in Greenwich Village," Ellman says. "She was in this Rolling Stone book called 'Groupies."'

Quit guitar lessons

At age 5, Ellman started guitar les sons. But he soon quit because he didn't like learning songs such as "Yankee Doodle." After moving with his mother to Mill Valley, he thought he wouid become a drummer like his father. That is, until he saw the artist then known as Prince in the 1983 film "Purple Rain."

"I was into him before that, but I wanted to be like him afterward. So I committed to guitar," he says. His stepfather bought him a white guitar, "which was very cool," and he pursued studies on his own.

"I liked Prince as an icon. It was attractive. He was a really great musician and famous and the whole thing. But when I started getting into the music, it was my mom's record collection that I checked out. So Jimi was my earliest influence and then John McLaughlin, because he was playing on this Miles (Davis) record that my mom had. And soon as I heard that stuff, it was just like, 'Whoa! This is the real deal! What is that?'"

A similar reaction came when Ellman, 26, first heard John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" album. "I had to find out what that was all about, why I found it so confusing but at the same time beautiful."

While studying jazz and guitar on his own during high school, he played in garage bands. His friends weren't jazz fans. So they stuck to the music of Led Zeppelin and the Police, "which was great, because I love that stuff anyway," he says.

After high school he moved to Oakland and commuted to Santa Rosa Junior College and then Sonoma State University, earning a degree in jazz studies in 1993.

He started playing up to five shows a week with his own groups and Anibade, a local soul and R&B combo. He also became a musician with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. "It really broadened my perspectives, both musically and politically," he says. In that job he studied country music and leamed Mexican folk songs. He also has gained insight into events such as the Zapatista uprising in Mexico and America's HMO systems.

Next came rap

In 1995, he joined the San Francisco rap group Midnight Voices and added a deeper understanding of hip-hop to his musical palette. When it came time to record "Orthodoxy," he brought all these experiences to the mix.

The opening cut, "Translator," is a groove-centric original. In addition to guitar, saxophone, piano, bass and drums, it features  Midnight Voices member DJ Pause on turntables; Babou Sagna on djembe; and E.W. Wainwright on drums.

"To me, the percussion language has not changed that much (over the years), even if the instruments have changed," he says. "You can have these three guys playing together, and they're improvising. It feels very natural."

Six other original tracks follow, ranging stylistically from the hard-swinging "Out of a Jazz Coma" to the smart soundscapes of the title track. The album closes with a searching exploration of Billy Strayhorn's "Blood Count."

"I tried to choose pieces that represent the broadest sense of what I was doing then," Ellman says. "DJ Pause was in Midnight Voices with me; so I wanted to bring in that element and appeal.... Having 'Blood Count' on there represents the standards side of jazz for me. And every thing in between is represented on the other tunes.

"What I did try to do is approach each of those things with the same energy, in my own vision, so it doesn't have a scattered feeling. I wanted to have a 'Liberty Ellman sound,' and I think that was accomplished."
 
 

The Liberty Ellman Ouartet

Where: Yoshi's, Jack London Square, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland
When: 9:30 p.m. Monday
Tickets: $6
Call: (510) 238-9200, BASS, TWEB