EDUCATION | EXHIBITIONS: ONE LP EXH@BCU/RHYTHM CHANGES: THIRD FLOOR SECTION 1
The One LP Project - Rhythm Changes International Conference: Jazz Utopia - School of Media and the Faculty of Art, Design and Media, Birmingham City University.
Outline
One LP is a unique and critically acclaimed portrait photography project that explores the
inspirational qualities of jazz recordings and the impact that they have on people’s lives.
Each artist portrait features the subject holding a recording that is of fundamental importance to them. The photograph is accompanied by a short interview that explores the meaning and value of the selected album.
Concept and development
“One LP is a project that commenced in 2010 as a response to conversations with musicians about their relationship with the work of other artists encountered via recordings. In particular, conversations had focused on the albums that had profoundly moved the subjects. As a conversation is of course transient – usually committed only to memory - I was eager to find a format that would adequately document my interactions with the artists.
The One LP series is the outcome - something that excavates layers of memory, influence, being and uniqueness.
Perhaps more poetically, One LP has come to represent a
journey into another’s soul: the album that each artist selects is a part of them: their past, present and future.
The project, conceived in the jazz world has been extended and now includes around 200 people in a spectrum of occupations in the creative milieu - artists, academics, broadcasters, musicians, writers and photographers.”
William Ellis
Exhibitions
The premiere One LP exhibition was held in New York at the ARChive of Contemporary Music in 2014. The portraits were subsequently shown in Los Angeles during the Britweek arts program.
The exhibition at Birmingham City University is the most comprehensive to date and reflects the status of jazz as the most diverse of musical genres.
The artists featured here range from innovators whose provenance reaches back to the birth of the jazz genre and moves through to those at the cutting edge of contemporary composition and performance. The exhibition also includes subjects whose passion for the music inspires them to excel in their respective fields: here we feature world famous jazz club and specialist record store owners, concert directors and record producers, promoters, agents, journalists, historians and photographers.
One LP is a mature and ongoing project. However, initiatives to broaden its remit are welcomed. I am open to discourse on new collaborative assignments and projects in the UK and overseas
. William Ellis
British photographer William Ellis is perhaps best known for his impeccable photos of jazz musicians. Truly cool interactive exhibits like this that combine multiple art forms don’t come around often. Time Out New York
About
William Ellis was born in Liverpool in 1957. Developing his distinctive style encompassing portrait, performance and still life images of musical instruments via study and appreciation of a widerange of artists and fellow photographers.
His breakthrough into jazz came with the opportunity to photograph Miles Davis in 1989.
William has since worked with many of the world’s leading musicians.
His work is exhibited extensively at international level: it is held in private collections worldwide and those of major institutions including the National Portrait Gallery London, the Archive of Contemporary Music in New York and the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City MO. William’s photographs have been used in the JAM (Jazz Appreciation Month) Outreach program in the United States initiated by the Smithsonian Institute. They also appear regularly in print/online publications, and are used by record companies in artist promotion. One LP is featured on the leading website allaboutjazz.com
Commission One LP
The OneLP Project is available as a bespoke art event and can be integrated into existing programmes or operated as a stand-alone event. The latter is usually based on an exhibition that can complemented with a range of optional activities, including for example, individual OneLP portrait and interview sessions, presentations, seminars, methodology and practitioner workshops, and discussions relating to technical aspects of portrait and music photography.
Visit onelp.org/experience email info@william-ellis.com
“Beautiful images.” - Herman Leonard
“One LP is a marvellous idea, superbly executed. The range of subjects (human and musical) is wide indeed, often surprising, sometimes touching, always interesting. May it go on and on.” - Dan Morgenstern, Director Emeritus, Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies, NEA Jazz Master
![{quote}It is so special because, as many people know, that Abbey Lincoln passed away earlier this year [August 2010] and I have always been really inspired by her. From a very early age, she was one of the – you know, after Ella Fitzgerald – she was the next person I really got into. So I am a massive fan of her and I’ve got all her albums. The reason I chose this is because I think this is one of the lesser-known ones but there’s beautiful tracks on here and the one that I really love is “Exactly Like You” because I listened to another version of this by Carmen McRae, which I love, and when I heard this version I loved this equally. You know, it’s the way her sentiment, the way she gets the lyrics across, are so different to a lot of other singers. She is very deep when she sings and you can really hear a lot of emotion. Not in the same way that you can with Billie Holiday but you know it’s coming from a real spiritual sort of place, when she plays and that’s why I love her.{quote}Anita Wardell: The Spa, Scarborough, 26th September 2010Abbey Lincoln: It's Magic - released 1958Anita Wardell](http://cdn.lightgalleries.net/4c866b5ee9717/images/Anita_Wardelw__WEllis_thumb-1.jpg)
![Brad Stubbs: At home, West Hollywood CA, 12th May, 2013{quote}I chose Getz/Gilberto with Stan Getz and João Gilberto, which was my entry into jazz - I didn’t even know it was jazz - and I loved it so much and it’s just an album that I have just bought over and over and over again and I listen to it all the time. I listen to it when I’m kissing my wife, when I’m making love. Everything was built on this album, after I heard this, then I fell in love with Sting, I fell in love with Michael Franks, I fell in love with Sade. I’m a writer and I write stuff like that, that sort of same beautiful…it’s jazz, but it’s beautiful. And jazz isn’t always beautiful to some people when you listen to Coltrane or something when he’s gettin’ all crazy in the 60s, but this is beautiful, you know. And I loved it so much and anyway that’s why I picked this album. But I have so many copies of it and I just keep buying it. If I saw it today at [???] I’d probably pick it up again and I’d go, Oh wait a second, I already have this. I don’t care! So that’s my story on that. Stan Getz though, something interesting about him, he got a lot of flak for this album, you know, and it’s happened to a lot of artists since then. You know, that’s not real jazz, it’s beautiful but if you look at this album it’s still in the top ten of jazz songs. This, Miles Davis Kind of Blue, Take Five – those are the top ten songs. And I look at people like Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys, he got a lot of flak and it hurt him and it drove him crazy and he neglected his music. It happened to Sly Stone from Sly and the Family Stone. The black community gave him a hard time because he was writing these positive songs and Norah Jones, another one – I love Norah Jones – but she got a lot of flak for this music but you know what? Those are the records that are going to last and last and last and it was almost a tragedy that Stan Getz couldn’t embrace this, you know, for longer because you know his peers were judging him – it “wasn’t real jazz” but to me it was the best stuff that Stan Getz ever did. And of course Jobim, oh what a great writer! One of the greatest writers since Beethoven, in my mind. You know, he does such interesting things with music, that I can spend years just analysing his songs and the way he writes, because he’s otherworldly. And anyway, that’s why I love Getz/Gilberto.{quote} [laughs]Brad Stubbs: At home, West Hollywood CA, 12th May, 2013Stan Getz, Joåo Gilberto: Getz/Gilberto released 1964Featuring Antonio Carlos Jobim and Astrud GilbertoBrad Stubbs](http://cdn.lightgalleries.net/4c866b5ee9717/images/BRAD_STUBBS_OLPW__WELLIS_thumb-1.jpg)
![{quote}Well, that record is the world-famous Kind of Blue album by Miles Davis, which was the most-sold jazz record in history. The reason it’s dear to my heart is because Miles Davis was staying at my parents’ house when he made that album. I was in high school and my stepfather was his doctor and I was playing trumpet and going to the conservatory and Miles gave my stepfather the test pressing – you know with no grooves on one side – and so I became enthralled with Miles Davis and then just the music on there is just so classic, you know, with Coltrane on it, you know, and Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb…Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans.Yeah, Bill Evans and Cannonball. It was just like the quintessential music of that era, almost of all time. I mean, it really changed the face of quote-unquote jazz music and really changed my life, because seeing him in person - and he took me to a gig when I was 17, 18 years. He stayed at the house. So that album and just that experience is dear to my heart, you know.WE: Beautiful. Beautiful. That is so special. Thank you.EH: Yeah. Yeah. You know, I could go on and on for hours.WE: I’ll bet. EH: But, you know, I think everybody... with that album and that music.WE: Your experience of Miles staying at your house is so unique.EH: Absolutely….and me playing the trumpet too. It made it ever so much more significant to me.WE: When you were very young at that time, did you talk to Miles about the trumpet, and did he talk to you?EH: Well, he wouldn’t just come by like a normal person and say this is this and this is that, it’s just by observation. In fact I may have played one of his records, you know, and he just smiled and said - 'you sound good but that’s me' [laughs] That was an eye-opener right there, you know.{quote}Eddie Henderson: Universal Rehearsal Studios, New York City, April 2013Miles Davis: Kind of Blue released 1959Eddie Henderson](http://cdn.lightgalleries.net/4c866b5ee9717/images/EDDIE-HENDERSONwb_William-Ellis_thumb-1.jpg)
![{quote}It’s the best playing of Duke Ellington I ever heard in my life. It’s really beautiful. You can hear him humming on “Sophisticated Lady” in the background and it’s heart wrenching - it’s so beautiful. On something like “I’ve Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good” he starts off with some real slow playing of it in free time just by himself and then the band pulls it in after he plays the first verse and it feels like somebody’s just taking a romp through the park on a warm summer day. And then “Caravan”, which has that Latin beat to it, he just really grooves on it and leaves a couple of measures out and then comes back in. And those measures he leaves out are so important and so strong – he just did the right thing all the time – he was totally intuitive. He’s a real hero. You see, I don’t play that kind of music; I come from the slow blues of Jimmy Yancey . I accompanied Jimmy’s wife, Mama Yancey, after he died. I learned on the streets first and then I took a couple of degrees in music later. I love classical music but it kicks my ass in so badly when I try to play it so I memorise stuff. So I am more wired to play improvised music so this is the kind of stuff I play- but I don’t play like Monk but I just love what he plays. Most of the stuff I love is what I can’t do!{quote} [laughs].Erwin Helfer: Katerina's, Chicago, 14th May, 2013Thelonious Monk: Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington released 1955Erwin Helfer](http://cdn.lightgalleries.net/4c866b5ee9717/images/ERWIN_HELFERwb__WELLIS_thumb-1.jpg)
![“I have done many live recordings but I have never done a live recording of my own as a band leader and this is on my label which is entitled Sound Reason and that emblem has a significance. As you can see, it’s kind of a play on words because when you look at it, it’s a sun in the background with gold bars in front of it, so - Sonny Fortune [laughs]- the boy ought to be ashamed of himself but I’m not! So, you know, it’s all my compositions and it’s with a band that I feel very, very good about. That was the reason why I recorded it. And it’s, like I said, my first live recording as a band leader.I tell you what - there’s a tune on there that I wrote for someone that I have the highest regard for, is Elvin Jones . There is a tune on there called “The Joneses” and the tune consists of…it’s dedicated - and there were some reviews and people thought that I was talking about the family of Joneses, Thad and Mel, but actually I’m talking about Elvin and his wife Keiko, and she was Japanese and so the composition consists of a Japanese acknowledgement as well as an Elvin Jones acknowledgement and I feel very good about that.Coltrane told me that if I ever got the opportunity to play with Elvin Jones to take it, so I was working with Elvin the night Coltrane died.So I’m kind of locked into where I’m at because of a whole history of events and I should add that my two favourite drummers - last year when the Four Generations of Miles got together I told Jimmy Cobb - I said you ask anybody that’s known me for years and they’ll tell you I tell them that I developed my rhythmical concept from Jimmy Cobb and Elvin Jones, those were the two guys that influenced me the most.So to be working with Jimmy Cobb now is a continuation of when I was working with Elvin Jones.”Sonny Fortune: Harlem, New York City, April, 2013Sonny Fortune](http://cdn.lightgalleries.net/4c866b5ee9717/images/Sonny_FortuneWB__William_Ellis__thumb-1.jpg)
