Album of the Week – John Ellis Quartet – Bizet: Carmen in Jazz

• John Ellis – saxophones and bass clarinet
• Reuben Rogers – bass
• Jason Marsalis, drums
• Gary Versace – piano

The idea to do jazz quartet arrangements of the music of Bizet’s Carmen wasn’t initially mine. I was invited to play with my quartet at the St Barts Music Festival in 2020, and the theme for the festival that year was Carmen. The festival directors requested selections from Carmen for our set, and so I took up the challenge of adapting the music for us to play. The first thing I did was reach out to my mentor from my days at The New School, Robert Sadin, and he guided me towards the most important themes to work on. My goal was to keep the songs mostly intact and recognizable, while also making them fun for us to play and improvise over. When we played the show, the audience, mostly french-speaking, went crazy. I was surprised at how well it went over, and it was clear from the response that we should record the music and try to get it out more widely into the world. Thanks for listening!

• John Ellis