Editing Herb Ellis (section)

==Biography==
{{Moresources|section|date=July 2023}}

Born in [[Farmersville, Texas]],<ref name="LarkinJazz">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-580-8|page=136}}</ref> Ellis grew up on a farm.<ref name="Yanow">{{cite book |last1=Yanow |first1=Scott |title=The Jazz Singers |date=2008 |publisher=Backbeat |location=Milwaukee, WI |isbn=978-0-87930-825-4 |pages=63–64}}</ref> He was first exposed to guitar music when he heard the [[Light Crust Doughboys]] on the radio.<ref name="Yanow" /> At the age of three, Ellis was playing harmonica, and banjo by six.<ref name="Yanow" /> Although his brother owned a guitar, he tuned it wrong. Ellis wanted to play better than his brother, so he bought a book to learn how to tune guitar properly,<ref name="Yanow" /> and his interest in guitar grew from there.<ref name="Yanow" /> He was ultimately inspired to pick up jazz guitar after hearing [[George Barnes (musician)|George Barnes]] on a radio program.<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> 

Ellis was proficient on the instrument by the time he entered [[University of North Texas College of Music|North Texas State University]].<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> He majored in music, but because the university did not have a guitar program, he studied the [[Double bass|bass]].<ref name="Yanow" /> He dropped out of college and toured for six months with a band from the [[University of Kansas]].<ref name="Yanow" /> From 1943–45 he joined [[Glen Gray]] and the [[Casa Loma Orchestra]].<ref name="LarkinJazz"/><ref name="Yanow" /> After Gray's band, Ellis joined the [[Jimmy Dorsey]] band where he played some of his first recorded solos.<ref name="LarkinJazz"/><ref name="Yanow" />

Ellis remained with Dorsey through 1947, traveling and recording extensively, and playing in dance halls and movie palaces. [[Lou Carter]] told journalist Robert Dupuis in a 1996 interview, "The Dorsey band had a six-week hole in the schedule. The three of us had played together some with the big band. [[Johnny Frigo|John Frigo]], who had already left the band, knew the owner of the Peter Stuyvesant Hotel in Buffalo. We went in there and stayed six months. And that's how the group the Soft Winds were born". Together with Frigo and Lou Carter, Ellis wrote the classic jazz standards "[[Detour Ahead]]" and "[[I Told Ya I Love Ya, Now Get Out]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://secondhandsongs.com/artist/30808/works#nav-entity|website=Secondhand Songs|title=Herb Ellis|accessdate=September 13, 2021}}</ref><ref name="Yanow" />

The Soft Winds group was fashioned after the [[Nat King Cole]] Trio. They stayed together until 1952. Ellis then joined the Oscar Peterson Trio (replacing [[Barney Kessel]]) in 1953,<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> forming what [[Scott Yanow]] would later on refer to as "one of the most memorable of all the piano, guitar, and bass trios in jazz history".

Ellis became prominent after performing with the [[Oscar Peterson]] Trio from 1953 to 1958, along with pianist Peterson and bassist [[Ray Brown (musician)|Ray Brown]].<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> He was a somewhat controversial member of the trio, because he was the only white person in the group in a time when racism was still very much widespread.

[[File:Herb Ellis 1953 Gibson ES-175.jpg|thumb|Herb Ellis's 1953 Gibson ES-175]]
In addition to their live and recorded work as the Oscar Peterson Trio, this unit usually with the addition of a drummer, served as the virtual "house rhythm section" for [[Norman Granz]]'s [[Verve Records]], supporting the likes of tenormen [[Ben Webster]] and [[Stan Getz]], as well as trumpeters [[Dizzy Gillespie]], [[Roy Eldridge]], and [[Sweets Edison]] and other jazz stalwarts. Ellis was part of the rhythm section but did not solo on every track. With drummer [[Buddy Rich]], they were also the backing band for popular "comeback" albums by the duet of [[Ella Fitzgerald]] and [[Louis Armstrong]].

The trio were one of the mainstays of [[Norman Granz|Granz]]'s [[Jazz at the Philharmonic]] concerts as they swept the jazz world, almost constantly touring the United States and Europe. Ellis left the Peterson Trio in November 1958, to be replaced not by a guitarist, but by drummer [[Ed Thigpen]]. The years of 1957 through 1960 found Ellis touring with [[Ella Fitzgerald]].<ref name="LarkinJazz"/>  In addition, Ellis was a mainstay in Hollywood recording studios playing on various types of sessions.  Eventually, he left studio work to concentrate on his jazz career, both onstage and on records.

The three provided a stirring rendition of "[[Tenderly]]" as a jazz improvisational backdrop to John Hubley's 1958 cartoon ''The Tender Game''.<ref>"[http://forum.bcdb.com/forum/Legendary_jazz_guitarist_Herb_Ellis_dead_at_88_P108019/  Legendary jazz guitarist Herb Ellis dead at 88 ] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120710125132/http://forum.bcdb.com/forum/Legendary_jazz_guitarist_Herb_Ellis_dead_at_88_P108019/ |date=July 10, 2012 }}". ''Forum.bcdb.com'', March 29, 2010</ref>

With fellow jazz guitarists [[Barney Kessel]], [[Charlie Byrd]] and later, [[Tal Farlow]], he created another ensemble, the [[Great Guitars (band)|Great Guitars]].<ref name="LarkinJazz"/>

Herb Ellis was also featured on an episode of ''[[Sanford and Son]]'' accompanying Fred Sanford's singing.

Ellis gave cartoonist and ''[[The Far Side]]'' creator [[Gary Larson]] guitar lessons, in exchange for the cover illustration for the album, ''Doggin' Around'' (Concord, 1988) by Ellis and bassist [[Red Mitchell]].

In 1994, he joined the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame. On November 15, 1997, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the [[University of North Texas College of Music]].

Ellis died of [[Alzheimer's disease]] at his Los Angeles home on the morning of March 28, 2010, at the age of 88.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/apr/02/herb-ellis-obituary|title=Herb Ellis obituary|date=April 2, 2010|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=July 26, 2021}}</ref>