Editing Don Ellis (section)

== New Rhythms and the Third Stream ==
In 1964, Ellis began graduate studies in [[ethnomusicology]] at [[UCLA]] where he studied with Indian musician [[Harihar Rao]]. Greatly inspired by Rao, Ellis sought to implement odd meters in a Western improvised context and (with Rao) co-authored the 1965 article "An Introduction to Indian Music for the Jazz Musician".<ref>Ellis, Don and Harihar Rao. "An Introduction to Indian Music for the Jazz Musician". ''Jazz magazine'', April 1965.</ref> Ellis briefly formed the first version of his big band at this time but disbanded it when he received a Rockefeller Grant to work at [[University at Buffalo, The State University of New York|SUNY Buffalo]] for a year.<ref name=Agostinelli/><ref>Ellis, Don. ''The New Rhythm Book''. Ellis Music Enterprises: Hollywood, 1972, 6.</ref><ref name=Fenlon/>

While in New York, Ellis was involved with several [[Third Stream]] projects. A live performance from February 8, 1964, at the [[Lincoln Center]] was filmed for [[Leonard Bernstein]]'s ''Young People's Concerts'' series. He performed with other jazz musicians alongside the [[New York Philharmonic]] on [[Larry Austin]]'s "Improvisations for Orchestra and Jazz Soloists" (1961) and [[Gunther Schuller]]'s "Journey Into Jazz" (1962). A later recording of Austin's piece, featuring Ellis, bassist [[Barre Phillips]], drummer [[Joe Cocuzzo]], and the [[New York Philharmonic]] (directed by Bernstein) was released on an album entitled ''Leonard Bernstein Conducts Music Of Our Time'' (1965).

In November 1967, Ellis's first symphony, "Contrasts for Two Orchestras and Trumpet", was debuted by the [[Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra]] under [[Zubin Mehta]].<ref name=Agostinelli/>