Jon-Erik Kellso is one of the overlooked greats holding down traditional jazz today. Overlooked not because he is unknown, nearly all of our subscribers will have heard of him, but because he escapes the star treatment that many of his peers enjoy. Perhaps it is his personality or his willingness to play support roles most of the time.
In a year in which we have lost so many of the New York players from a generation ahead of his we need to learn to appreciate our good fortune in having workhorses like Jon-Erik Kellso keeping the flame. At only 56 he's become an involuntary elder statesman of the New York City scene, having moved there to play under Vince Giordano in 1988, and leading the band at the Ear Inn since 2007.Sweet Fruits Salty Roots is Kellso's first album as leader in five years and only his eighth overall. It finds him recording for Jazzology in New Orleans with his frequent on stage partner clarinetist Evan Christopher, guitarist Don Vappie, and bassist Peter Harris.
The setting allows him to focus on the New Orleans roots of his trumpet style.His liner notes guide you through his choice of compositions, with an emerging theme being titles that could be confused with other titles. "Heah Me Talkin' To You" is the Armstrong's Savoy Ballroom Five version, spelled just that way, rather than the number of similarly named tunes. Another is "Shake It And Break It", not the
