Album Notes

At the age of 5, Robert Ellis taught himself to improvise by staring at the piano keys for an hour. Then he began to play, and he's been improvising ever since. At age seven he began his classical piano training. In college, he studied classical and jazz performance, composition, and orchestration at the University of Washington.
His inclination away from traditional "correctness" led him always to play beyond the written notes of classical music into uncharted territory.

With one foot in the classical world and one in the jazz world, Robert spent years accompanying ballet and modern dance companies, choirs, vocal teachers, playing clubs and concerts, writing songs, ensemble pieces and six symphonies. For the last five years he has been performing, as a trio leader, solo pianist, pianist/vocalist entertainer on cruise ships. He feels this a somewhat limited venue for sharing the breadth and height of his musical gifts, and so has embarked on a series of improvisational concerts and producing his music for CDs.
Highlights of his career include appearances on the tv shows "Boston Today" and the Seattle Morning Show."

...a departure for Robert James....here he is afforded a wonderful and new opportunity to play upon a Kurzweil synthesizer and responds gratefully with an exploration of some quite serious ideas as well as his usual peppering of humor throughout this electronic extravaganza.

©2003