Under his own name, Ellis led several sessions with small groups between 1960 and 1962, which featured, among others, Jaki Byard, Paul Bley, Gary Peacock, Ron Carter, Charlie Persip, and Steve Swallow.

[3] In October 1962, Ellis traveled to Poland to take part in the 1962 Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw; his quartet performance was partially documented on a Polish-only 10-inch EP.

Ellis chronicled his experience in an article called Warsaw Diary, which was printed in the January 3rd, 1963 issue of DownBeat magazine.

[4] In December, Ellis participated in the NDR Jazz Workshop in Hamburg, Germany,[5] and in early 1963, traveled to Stockholm, Sweden.

[9] 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 SUNY Buffalo for a year.

The Sextet centered on Ellis and his mentor Harihar Rao, who played sitar and tabla, but also featured vibraphonist Emil Richards, drummer Steve Bohannon, bassists Chuck Domanico and Ray Neapolitan, and pianist Dave Mackay.

The band performed mainly original compositions which had titles like "Sweet Nineteen", "Turks Works", and "Bombay Bossa Nova".

Perhaps the greatest exposure the group had was "Synthesis", a composition by Ellis in which the Sextet performed alongside Stan Kenton's Neophonic Orchestra.

On July 14 of that year, the Sextet performed at Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium, opening for the Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company.

[12] This is the last known activity of the Sextet, until 1971, when the group (with Milcho Leviev, Ralph Humphrey and Dennis Parker forming the rhythm section) played several gigs at Donte's in North Hollywood.

[14] The group started making money by charging a small admission fee to the rehearsals, and began a letter-writing campaign to get the band a spot at the 1966 Monterey Jazz Festival.

"Open Beauty" featured Ellis in an echoplex trumpet solo, an innovative combination of acoustic instruments and electronic technology.

In June 1970, the Orchestra performed for three nights at Bill Graham's Fillmore West auditorium, opening for the Quicksilver Messenger Service and Leon Russell.

"Live at Fillmore" was a happy return to original material, and even included one Beatles cover, a highly experimental rendition of "Hey Jude", as well as another version of "Pussy Wiggle Stomp".

[19][20][21][22][23][24][25] The Exotic Rhythms of Don Ellis (May 2002), a dissertation submitted to The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts.

[26][27][28] The album featured a composition called "Strawberry Soup" that has been the subject of several doctoral dissertations due to its metric intricacy, its simple theme and complex variations, and the sheer timbral spectrum that it covers.

Ellis later won a Grammy for this project ("Best Instrumental Arrangement"), and was asked to write the music to the film's sequel, French Connection II in 1975.

The album featured "The Theme from 'The French Connection'", an abbreviated version of Ellis's movie score, and "Chain Reaction", a 13/8 tour de force by longtime contributor Hank Levy.

The record, featuring Milcho Leviev, bassist Ray Brown, drummer John Guerin, and a large string orchestra, is made up of ten songs, each based on a Japanese haiku poem.

These pursuits were postponed when Ellis started having health problems, feeling "out of breath after [walking] up a single flight of stairs".

He checked himself into a hospital in New York City where a doctor diagnosed him with mitral stenosis, a condition which caused his heart to beat in odd rhythms.

[30] Ellis later described being on the verge of death, as doctors struggled to save his life: "It sounds weird, I know, but it was a remarkably beautiful experience, maybe the ultimate high.

The album was thrown together and released as Music from Other Galaxies and Planets; all the songs were retitled with novelty space-related names such as "Orion's Sword" and "Crypton".

On December 17, 1978, after seeing a Jon Hendricks concert, Ellis suffered a fatal heart attack at his North Hollywood home where his parents were staying with him.

Today, thanks to labels like Koch Jazz, Wounded Bird and Mighty Quinn Productions, almost all of his albums have been reissued on CD and are readily available.

The Sleepy Night record company in the UK has recently released a number of CDs of live performances from Don Ellis' private collection.

[11] Ellis's interest in expanding the possibilities within big band instrumentation is obvious on even his first Orchestra release, 1966's Live at Monterey.

Inspired by his experiences with Latin bands,[13] Ellis expanded his rhythm section to two drum sets, three double-basses, at least two auxiliary percussionists, piano, and organ.

The first appearance of this innovation is on "Open Beauty" from 1967's Electric Bath, in which Ellis takes an extended solo with his trumpet being processed through an echoplex.

As he explained, "People spend whole evenings listening to a brass quintet, a woodwind or string quartet, so I reasoned that having ALL of these in the context of a big band should give us a fantastic variety of colors from which to draw.