Don Ellis - Strawberry Soup

From Tears of Joy - Strawberry Soup by Don Ellis

[@sanchoproudfoot2]

Saw Strawberry Soup performed live by the Don Ellis Orchestra at the University of Missouri around 1973. It is just as unbelievable live as it sounds here. At the climax where you hear the yelling, the entire band except for the rhythm section ran off the stage and up the aisles into the audience. Everyone was on their feet at that point. The brass, saxes and strings set up as quintets and quartets in the aisles for the musical callback while Don jumped on top of a stool on stage and directed the whole thing. It was one of the most unforgettable performances I was fortunate enough to witness.

[@TripleBerg]

I was there at UMC and saw that amazing performance. Didn’t that go on for about 3 hours? He was using a echoplex I believe for Open Beauty. Was so glad I was able to watch him perform with his orchestra.

[@sanchoproudfoot2]

@@TripleBerg Great to hear from a fellow Ellis fan from Mizzou. As glad you caught this performance as I am to have seen it!

[@markbrownfield7545]

Did UofM record that performance perhaps???

[@sanchoproudfoot2]

@@markbrownfield7545 Not that I know of. That would have been great!

[@markbrownfield7545]

@@sanchoproudfoot2 So unfortunate. 😞

[@VariationsOfThings]

I'm glad this has reached a good number of people. I hope it continues to reach more!

[@bdfan4ever]

1993 “A Don Ellis Portrait.” BD ROCKS!!!

[@earlviney5212]

Great hornline

[@KerryLorah]

83 Madison.

[@cornelbebie7400]

What a piece, what a musician and composer.... This song haunted me for over 40 years... It's a treat and a painfully subtle ache in the heart to rediscover it today. As flamboyant, fascinating and overwhelming as it was back in the days !

[@jamesf1525]

One of the greatest concerts I ever saw was Don Ellis and the orchestra, in Central Park, about 1971 or 1972. The vibe created by the night, the band and the music with the electronic attachments used by Don and the flutes was so memorable. I eventually bought about 4 albums of the band. Wish Don had lived longer to see how the sound would have evolved.

[@channelonesuite]

Thank you; Kirt Moret, and your uncle; for taking me to this "Live Performance" on my Birthday in 1971. I still have the napkin that Don Ellis autographed.

[@Snavels]

Is it framed?

[@nosajdrewz9345]

The most incredible feature of this piece is the number of variations on the theme. It’s a simplistic complexity…well written and composed. We will never hear anything like this ever again in music…

[@prestonrcasey]

We might. Music has to reach a certain point before a reset happens. Hell, not even just music but with culture in general. When people aren't pinching pennies to survive, maybe great care will go into things like music again

[@nosajdrewz9345]

@@prestonrcasey while I agree, I was thinking the musical mind more so than the music itself. Don Ellis was a one of a kind composer of music.

[@bimbomcgee]

found this in my fathers collection when i was 12...... never was i the same.. cool man.

[@TheReinStudio]

I discovered Don Ellis when I was what could refer to as a "Starving Artist" in an attic of a old silver baron's castle in Denver, listening to the then KDEN. I created one of pieces based on his rendition of Freedom Dance. It was later bought by the noted author, Leon Uris. Wow, just to hear Don Ellis again bring back so many memories . . . and I wasn't into drunks. What Don Ellis was doing as an orchestra, was what Dave Brubeck was doing with a quintet.

[@JoCS11152]

Maybe the best song ever

[@prestonrcasey]

Definitely my favorite for sure

[@s.leslie7230]

Holly smokes!!! This music is freakin awesome!! I shall keep on listening to more and more Don Ellis.

[@williamrabon8839]

Don Ellis is a truly great composer, not to mention one of the finest trumpet players ever, and that’s saying a lot! Do yourself a big favor: Check out Ellis’s modern jazz “masterpiece”: The Soundtrack to the film “The French Connection I.” Many of the tracks are indescribable (I won’t bother.) “French Connection II” OST is pretty wild also. Popeye Doyle hooked on heroin. Very hallucinogenic sound effects. ps. Don’t bother trying to buy the CD unless you have plenty of money, but it’s free here on KZbin, thank goodness!

[@brianrich6]

Don Ellis reached me with Opus 5 off their Shock Treatment album. I saw them at UC Irvine in 1972. Cal Tjader opened. The Ellis orchestra was and will always be phenominal!

[@martinbaum5354]

have been listening to this since my teens and - now in my 50s - love it as much as ever! The band is on fire

[@oldbandguy]

Thank you Madison Scouts for leading me to Don Ellis!

[@mjmil27]

+IamBetter ThanYou try trolling harder brah

[@knightflyte]

+IamBetter ThanYou says the child whose commentary doesn't rise above the level of a 14 year old sophomore trying to impress his friends. Adding a homophobic slur cemented the deal. Sad part is you think your comment mattered. Talk about sad and pathetic.

[@knightflyte]

***** Dude, Forget league, you're not even playing the same game. I come back for the entertainment. It's fun seeing how foolish you look with your pedantic monologue of teen angst. OWNED? Really? Who says that except a cellar dweller, but hey, I shouldn't denigrate you for where you live. It's not your fault. I only hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I truly hope you're some lonely teen expressing anger and who also who may be maybe fighting his homosexual urges. I'd hate to think you're an adult.

[@luvspaiste]

+oldbandguy ...and Blue Devils and the 27th Lancers.

[@majormushroom2392]

Anyone scrolling past this particular thread, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, press "view more replies." Trolls and cancer lurk within. I scarcely escaped with my life.

[@xsk8rat]

The build up, tension, and release in this piece is magnificent. A real piece of art - the product of a master at his peak. We used to shake the entire building when playing this record - it is glorious when played far too loud.

[@lyverbird1973]

Too loud? There is such a thing? I don't understand...

[@Garflotic]

It's kinda like using leftover wine in a recipe......no such thing as leftover wine.

[@stretch54]

Great record and one of the hippest and most technically proficient big bands to ever exist. They were at their peak with Tears of Joy and Live At The Fillmore.

[@jared0111]

love this song in its own right, and the vast majority of don ellis' incredible and unpredictable catalog, but shoutout drum corps (madison, blue devils, crossmen, and more) for introducing me to this amazing piece of music.

[@jared0111]

that rush of energy leading up to 12:21 is incredible. tears of joy is a great album, i highly recommend checking the whole thing out.

[@bgrimes05218]

This has to be one of my 2 favourite jazz pieces, the other being Channel one suite.

[@dougrobinson5973]

I would have said the exact same thing!

[@MegaBanne]

Man I think my second, after this, would be Little Pixie II with Thad Jones Mell Lewis Orchestra.

[@td1138]

Arguably Don’s greatest composition and, for me, the perfect musical description of him.

[@donniesgurl125]

The 93 Blue Devils brought me hear.

[@sporluck]

what a great show. I remember watching it a few times while on tour!

[@nathanclaflin4352]

@@sporluck 83 madison was better

[@donaldmattia1491]

This song tells a story,and that is just how great this band and Don Ellis truly is.

[@thedude9001]

Some of the best music ever written.

[@comm56ful]

Don Ellis stands head and shoulders over Contemporary Jazz Artists of Today as a Trumpet Player, Composer, and Arranger. Truly Brilliant Work by Him and his Band.

[@davekerr6758]

Finally! So great to hear the original again. I burned through my cassette tape of this 20 years ago.

[@paulpettengill7203]

love this every time i hear it...one of the greatest big band arrangements ever! remember when it came out...

[@AM-ut1gb]

2:06 - 2:56 is what I consider the true gem of the album. I cannot go back to regular jazz without comparing it to those heavenly 50 seconds.

[@prestonrcasey]

I wish I could hear this for the first time again. I was 15 and a freshman in high school, and we were told by our band director that we would be playing this as our marching band show.

[@jonboyd3785]

Great to hear this. I've still got the album downstairs from the 70's but it has been probably 20 years since I've played it. Guess I should pull it out again! Thanks for posting it!

[@izcalliguadarrama]

Can’t believe this is still not on Spotify 😔

[@VariationsOfThings]

That's quite unfortunate, Don Ellis has too little tunes on anything. But it may be a good thing as far as money is concerned

[@EarthWorms77]

They just put it up

[@madpistol]

Definitely not for the faint of heart. Such an amazing piece!

[@ianjones6w]

The sax soli around the 10 minute mark never gets old

[@Eckhout]

Stunning.

[@paulpettengill5882]

I remember when this first came out (dating myself)...it never gets old....saw him live in Boston =AWESOME....still get goose bumps!,...tremendous arrangement!

[@td1138]

First album with Milcho Leviev, the Bulgarian pianist/composer, if my memory serves. I believe the story was he got off the plane from Bulgaria and went directly to the concert where this album was recorded.

[@VasilBelezhkov]

The plane wasn't directly from Bulgaria but from the well known Frankfurt Airport. He was a political refugee from the Comunist regime in Bulgaria so nobody would allow him on a plain. However, he really had to play in USA almost immediately after the flight. I'm proud and happy to share with M.Leviev the same birthplace and the same music education institutions in Plovdiv & Sofia.

[@DurielMoore]

It's tragic!No one should go their whole life without hearing this song!

[@MegaBanne]

Truly his magnum opus haha.

[@bt10ant]

i saw this live several times and during the bars that start about 16:23 in, the brass came out into the audience and finished with the music coming all around you. It was a great experience.

[@hansvanwagensveld1141]

YOU LUCKY B#STERD>>>>>>HAHA

[@VariationsOfThings]

I bet that was such a surreal experience.

[@Snavels]

That's actually notated in the sheet music. It instructs the band to scream and run into the audience

[@erroldmoody4827]

One of his best. But it appears that few have heard his Variation for Trumpet. One of his best charts that could only be played by his band.

[@DurielMoore]

Well finally somebody upped this piece!Thank you sir!

[@josephhowarth9070]

Perfection.

[@patrickwinslow]

I was at this live concert. Front seat with a friend, for my birthday. Have pics of me with Don and Milcho. Got Don's autograph on Basin Street West napkin.

[@tonyjeffries1252]

WOW!! Good for you! THAT's HARD to beat....

[@Rockster1997]

Thanks for this video, I've been looking for. Recording everywhere

[@KubaNowakYossarian]

This goddamn song is the most brillian piece of music I heard since discovering Supertramp, and that was goddamn 15 years ago!

[@JazzyJonas]

+Kuba Nowak Supertramp? Damn. You have good taste in music!

[@KubaNowakYossarian]

Jonas Butler back to u sir! courtesy of my dad :)

[@ndiscala]

It's available for purchase from UNC Jazz Press.

[@dayolddoughnuts4031]

Lots of people forget that this style was not just innovative but he had help. I mean he was in Glenn Millers Orchestra. But him and Bill Chase would have been a dream come true to see play together.

[@michaelbutler8592]

incredible

[@BlumChoi]

Superb!

[@prim4681]

"Woah" @12:41 perfect timing.

[@MegaBanne]

Then you should listen to invincible with don ellis. The transition from the sax solo to the soli haha.

[@AvianSavara]

This is maddeningly good. Oh, the places link-hopping will take you when browsing the web.

[@myn1959]

descubrí a Don Ellis, genial!!!

[@SonicRave1]

Ben Davis Marching Band used this as their closer in 1995!

[@lucaspool7964]

Gold.

[@alanwitton5039]

Wonderful! Pure class

[@Dec24th]

Thank you so much for this video!

[@crymeslv.1893]

This is great

[@sebastiangalvez5743]

simplemente hermosa

[@reearean]

thnx for upload!!!

[@MoroSdz]

great!!

[@liamjeffries8309]

Go to 12:51 for one of the best pieces of musical buildup you'll ever hear

[@jpdemers44]

thank you so much

[@pwstomper223]

You can purchase it through UNC Jazz Press.

[@mangasadie]

The band I am in this year for marching season plays this song, it is such a wonderful piece!

[@hagokoma1630]

Sadie AAAAAAA HI SADIE

[@mangasadie]

spooky jim hello there my guy

[@trumpetg1]

This is a masterpiece!

[@Wisko]

"Tears Of Joy", the double live CD, is available through Wounded Bird Records.www.woundedbird.com/

[@Rasarack0200]

That one sharp trumpet note at 2:32 always bothered me, but I feel like I would miss it if it wasn't there.

[@MegaBanne]

It would sound weird to take away the trumpet lead and not have the melody as the highest part in the arrangement.

[@Rasarack0200]

Electro-Cute i wasnt saying the trumpet is sharp as in bright or ear piercing. I meant that one of the notes being played is a semitone above the other pitches. Great song tho.

[@MegaBanne]

@@Rasarack0200 Oh, you mean that haha! Maybe it is an intentional part of the arrangement. I mean this a Don Ellis arrangement after alla. In Sweden we talk about a tones being high or low instead of sharp and flat. So it doesn't come very naturally to me, well unless I am practicing with people who don't speak Swedish.

[@andirichards7149]

@@Rasarack0200 The trumpet sounds "a semitone above the other pitches" because it overshot the partial.This is because the higher brass players go in pitch, the closer all the notes get to each other. I've done this lots as a brass player.

[@dougrobinson5973]

@@andirichards7149 Yeah, it was just a little glitch in that part, and it always bothered me too but I got over it. :)

[@LynnBakerJazzMan]

Paul, do you remember hearing Don's playing this at Willamette? What a great experience!

[@DPaulLeDesma]

genius stuff

[@ishidakeifu]

Four people did not have their Strawberry Soup. How sad.

[@myn1959]

muy bueno, no lo conocía

[@vnusfmtv]

That’s crazy how Madlib can sample such a little part of a 17 min song and make it into a beat, true 🐐

[@VariationsOfThings]

Which song did he sample this from?

[@vnusfmtv]

@@VariationsOfThings @ 14:24 he used this sample in “Fatbacks” by Quasimoto

[@connorbaldwin9872]

Insane sampling from Madlib in the song, "Fatbacks"

[@sxejima1463]

MADLIB

[@VariationsOfThings]

What's the madlib song?

[@sxejima1463]

@@VariationsOfThings fatbacks by quasimoto, sample starts at 14:24

[@donaldfrazier3894]

Fond memories of recreating this with the hihg school jazz band...trumpeter blew out his lip on that conclusive phrase.

[@raitisvein]

I doubt I'll ever count it.

[@nickmalone3143]

Had a don ellis album where he played a trumpet with 4 valves and quarter tones

[@bimbomcgee]

wasn't this the first quadraphonic album, just remember stumbling across this in my dad's albums, and was never the same,.... cool man. oh shit just got it, frank zappa tried to copy the a vanguard style and texture only with rock. i'm so obtuse.

[@Civilizashum]

"frank zappa tried to copy..." is pretty obtuse, definitely.

[@pwstomper223]

Here's another recording of the band playing this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/banUYo2mpsymmrs. Unfortunately, it's incomplete. (It ends during the bass solo.) Fortunately, it's more stretched out and looser than this version. Milcho Leviev likes this performance better.

[@lancedildine]

and we had a version in Drum Corps back in the 80s...

[@rodneywyatt9441]

14:25 - 16:25😊

[@jasond.kennedy4643]

Anyone know how to get a copy of this? Not on spotify. CD not available..

[@VariationsOfThings]

Unfortunately I'm not sure, I figured there would've been some sort of album or at least a vinyl available

[@dmajor050]

JSU Marching Southerners performed this as their closer to the 2000 show. The full performance is on youtube.

[@DurielMoore]

You'll see other videos of this LP like "bulgarian bulge" or "euphoric acid" instead of this!

[@EuphoniaPooch]

Personnel?

[@parkerflemmings]

Madlib

[@cliffworks748]

polytonal poly meter master fantastic

[@miXtapeD]

Quasimoto the ill loop digga brought me here.

[@eljanio]

Why do I keep hearing Chuck Mangione styling?

[@ethangrubb8318]

I hate how this isn’t on iTunes

[@scvanguard1]

G/than Works Too long. From what I understand, they don’t sell any songs over 10 minutes long. Not sure why.

[@chadlyblomme]

11:04

[@bradmills2113]

uh...hello...Blue Devils did it the same year and rocked it as well 😋

[@istompconservativeass2029]

ummmm no they didnt... Scouts did it in 83.... Dev's didnt do it until a decade later, when scouts brought it back the same year.

[@bradmills2113]

Scouts & BD both played Strawberry Soup in 1993

[@JazzyJonas]

Check out the Madison Scouts' version of this. Sick.

[@earlviney5212]

BD 93 is better

[@agogobell28]

Yay Madison Scouts....

[@nicklaus4444]

1983 blue devils did it. 1982 madison scouts did it. And in 1978 cadets did it. been done a couple times.

[@tomshea8382]

BD played it on 1993.

[@rylandcook5237]

2002 Scouts too

[@TheReinStudio]

that should be drugs, not drunks . . . I do tip a few . . . LOL

[@jayblummer146]

14:21