Lisle Ellis’s Sucker Punch Requiem: An Homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat Sucker Punch Requiem: An homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat, music composed by Lisle Ellis, is a delight and surprise. Translating the work of a young visual artist into a musical palette takes some doing, and Ellis does it with great imagination, integrity, and beauty; all those traits exuded by Basquiat as well. More than just fine notes, Ellis and the other musicians portray the passion of art, music, life and its vicissitudes thereof. Certainly Basquiat experienced many of those in his way-too-short life. The music radiates experience, anguish, joy: all the demands and rewards of quotidian life as it unfolds. Some stages/phrases are rough, some smooth; some improvised, some composed; some last awhile and some are fragmented into bits. All are inherent and necessary to creative existence. And creative this is . . . Sucker Punch Requiem. Take a listen. Some 2008 honors: AllMusic’s Favorite Jazz Albums of 2008 http://blog.allmusic.com/2008/12/08/allmusics-favorite-jazz-albums-of-2008-2/ Review by Michael G. Nastos Bassist Lisle Ellis has been a fine creative improvising bassist within tuneful or song line jazz structures. As an instrumentalist and soloist he has been praised for innovations beyond normalized players in his field. For this CD, Ellis has taken a new step, incorporating the styles his second career authored as a painter and musical sound sculpture. His inspiration is the New York City artist and poet Jean-Michel Basquiat aka SAMO, who was culturally and politically motivated, and was paid tribute by graffiti drawers in the Big Apple. A study of the requiem form, particularly the Catholic "Mass of the Dead" welded onto Basquiat's line "Jimmy Best on his back to the sucker punch of his childhood files" has led Ellis to the "Sucker Punch Requiem." Many of these pieces are shorter, repeated or modified later in the program, and act as preludes or interludes. Of the extended tracks, "La Pulgas" (Repelling Ghosts) starts with a fractured intro, then eases into a 9/8 to 4/4 shuffle, powered by the unlikely pairing of the tart alto sax of Oliver Lake and the more tonic flute of Holly Hofmann. These two, with Lake on soprano sax and teamed with trombonist George Lewismake due with "For Blues & Other Spells," as mainstream jazz pianist Mike Wofford also steps out and explores. This is no ordinary blues connotation, as its deft, deliberate stance turns to rock & roll, a chamber waltz, and a chance for veterans Lewis and Lake to have at it in vibrant discourse. "Untitled" (Still Life) is a deep tune, the true requiem coda, and wrapped in an Asian motif with the probing bass of Ellis, naked and unfettered, chiming "Taps" while the somber band tearfully agrees. Of the shorter pieces, "Summonings" is a spooky siren song with SAMO's name being invoked, "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict" is a dirge, "Bas Relief" a free jazz snippet feature for Lake and drummer Susie Ibarra, "Suicide Study" is a blues shuffle/swing for Hofmann and Wofford and the first take of four "Perishable Fig." inserts gives the most industrial electronic surge. The diversity held throughout this CD is astonishing, disarming, and unmistakably truthful, as testament to the fortitude of Ellis, a high-water mark for his career, and a marvelous statement as to how different elements of art can be made into startling music. 2008's Top Recordings Alain Drouot http://www.jazzhouse.org/10_08/?who=druout Sucker Punch Requiem in Drouot's Top Ten. SHORT BIOGRAPHIES Individual websites included Lisle Ellis is a multifaceted creator whose work reflects his interests in music, visual art, computers/technology, and community.  As a composer and improvisor-bassist his oeuvre spans three decades and two countries and has brought him international recognition as an artist with an exceptional vision. Ellis's distinct instrumental voice has been heard in concerts in the company of legends of the avant-garde such as Paul Bley, Peter Broetzmann, Andrew Cyrille, and Joe Mcphee, and on more than 40 recordings for international labels such as Black Saint, DIW, and Hat Art, and New World. Currently, Ellis's principal interest is in developing an electro-acoustic architecture he calls string-circuitry confluence; he continues projects with his long standing trio with Larry Ochs and Donald Robinson, What We Live,; Di Terra, an Italian based trio with Alberto Braida and Fabrizio Spera; and duos with pianists Paul Plimley and Mike Wofford. www.lisleellis.com www.profile.myspace.com/lisleellis Pamela Z is a composer/performer who makes solo works combining a wide range of vocal techniques with electronic processing, sampled sounds, and The BodySynth™ gesture controller. She has also composed scores for dance, film, and new music chamber ensembles. Her audio works have been presented in exhibitions at the Whitney in NY and the Diözesanmueum in Cologne. She has toured throughout the US, Europe, and Japan in concerts and festivals including Bang on a Can, the Japan Interlink Festival, Other Minds, and the Venice Biennale. Her numerous awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Creative Capital Fund, the CalArts Alpert Award, the ASCAP Award, and the NEA/JUSFC Fellowship. www.pamelaz.com Holly Hofmann    "One of the most accomplished jazz flutists in the U.S., she has single-handedly destroyed the stereotype of the delicate female flutist, thanks to her muscular attack and improvisational abandon." (L.A. Times) Since receiving two degrees in music from Cleveland Institute of Music and University of Northern Colorado, Holly now makes her home in San Diego, California where she is the Music Director for several series and festivals. She has gained international notice for her work in jazz with the likes of Ray Brown, Kenny Barron, Cedar Walton, and Mike Wofford to name a few. She has eleven critically acclaimed recordings as a leader and currently tours with her quartet and quintet with string orchestra. www.hollyhofmann.com Oliver Lake is a renaissance man who paints, composes and performs and views it all as parts of the same whole. Lake attributes much of his diverse array of musical styles to his experience with the Black Artists Group (BAG), the legendary St. Louis collective he co-founded over 35 years ago. He also cofounded the World Saxophone Quartet with Hemphill, Hamiet Bluiett and David Murray in 1977.  A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship. Other commissions received include Library of Congress, the Rockefeller Foundation ASCAP, the Int. Assoc. for Jazz Education, McKim Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Trust and the Lila Wallace Arts Partners Program.  www.passinthru.org and www.oliverlake.net. George E. Lewis, improvisor-trombonist, composer and computer/installation artist, is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University. The recipient of a MacArthur "genius" Fellowship in 2002, a Cal Arts/Alpert Award in the Arts in 1999, and numerous fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Lewis studied composition with Muhal Richard Abrams at the AACM School of Music, and trombone with Dean Hey. He has explored electronic and computer music, computer-based multimedia installations, text-sound works, and notated forms. A member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, Lewis's work as composer, improvisor, performer and interpreter is documented on more than 120 recordings. www.music.columbia.edu/people/bios/lewis-george Mike Wofford  "A jazz pianist who makes equal use of brain, heart and muscle." (JazzTimes) He has a long list of associations with such widely diverse artists as Harry "Sweets" Edison, Zoot Sims, Charlie Haden, Shelly Manne, Benny Golson, Vinnie Golia and George Lewis. Wofford is also known for his creative work as pianist and Music Director for the late Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald and for his composing and arranging for many years in Los Angeles. Now residing in San Diego, he primarily records and performs with his own trio, as well as in a duo and quartet with his wife, flutist Holly Hofmann. www.mikewofford.com Susie Ibarra, percussionist, improviser and composer, Ibarra performs both as a soloist and a collaborator. One of her passionate interests is the folkloric and indigenous music of the Philippines which influences her contemporary work. Several recent composition and performances include “Pintados Dream/The Painted’s Dream” music for orchestra and drums commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, “Drum Sketches,” “These Trees That Speak” commissioned for Ethos Percussion, “Dancesteps” for solo piano, “Black and White” solo violin and field recordings, “Dream Etudes” music for Susie Ibarra Trio, and “Paradiso” music for Electric Kulintang. She received her music diploma from Mannes College of Music, B.A. from Goddard College, and has studied drumset with Milford Graves, Vernel Fournier and Buster Smith and Philippine Kulintang with Danongan Kalanduyan. www.susieibarra.com