Lyrics are often things that jazz musicians add as an afterthought, a functional vehicle for melody. But, for the singer, songwriter and pianist Joy Ellis, they are poetic, impressionistic voyages, often told in the third person and often interrogating the very act of making music. The Jazzman reads like a novel (“With every note he builds a tower / Intricate and flawless, sublime / Weaving stories out of space and time”), before an incendiary tenor sax solo by Binker Golding brings the narration to life; on Ellington Said she takes the Duke’s “music is my mistress” quote and transforms it into a Shakespearean sonnet. Elsewhere, there are romantic ballads set to spiky, M-Base-inspired grooves, adventurous chord sequences that borrow from Coltrane’s Giant Steps, and some fiery improvisations from guitarist Rob Luft and from Ellis herself, who provides well-structured hard-bop solos on piano and Fender Rhodes. But crucially, this musicianship rarely overwhelms the songs.
