What We Live, LISLE ELLIS

What We Live Fo(u)r is an early record by What We Live, the San Francisco trio that bassist Lisle Ellis formed in 1994 with saxophonist Larry Ochs and drummer Donald Robinson. According to the group's page on Ochs's site, it grew out of the three men's work together in the Glenn Spearman Double Trio. Ellis wanted to explore swing, song form and modes in a less explicit way than the mainstream, and the trio made a habit of adding one guest to become a quartet. This album, released by Black Saint in 1996, is built on that idea, which the bracketed letter in the title points to.

The music was recorded live on June 3, 1994 at Mobius Studio in San Francisco by Oliver DiCicco, produced by Don Paul and edited by John Baker with Ochs and Ellis, who also wrote the notes. Ellis plays double bass, Ochs tenor and sopranino saxophones, Robinson drums. The guests come in turn: tenor saxophonist Glenn Spearman, koto player Miya Masaoka, pianist Paul Plimley, a long-time duo partner of Ellis, and others on violin, clarinet and vibraphone. Ed Hazell, in an essay on the trio published on Ochs's site, sums the album up as quartet tracks with Spearman, Masaoka, violinist India Cooke and several others. The seven pieces range from the three-minute Addressing The Ancestors that opens the disc to the twelve minutes of Parima Among The Mountains, with Plus One, Slice and Yo(u) in between and The Sought to close.

This is the Black Saint CD 120156-2, first released in 1996, seven tracks running about 54 minutes.