It Don't Mean a Thing

Ellen Powell has been teaching bass lessons for students

There is a saying in the Jazz world that goes, "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing." Ellen Powell, bass player and adjunct lecturer of SUNY Plattsburgh has long applied this rule to her life, keeping it soulfully jazzy to this day.

"Jazz has always been a comfortable place for me," Powell says happily. Powell started piano in the sixth grade and studied it for the next fifteen years. Her major musical influence was her older brother who played standard jazz tunes such as Cole Porter and Gershwin.

In addition, Powell grew up listening to Motown music. While Powell was teenager, she began playing guitar. She had joined a church choir during her high school years, and sang with her chorus at a symphony hall in Boston. Ellen enjoys the music of Dave Frishberg, who became known for his works with jazz masters Ben Webster, Gene Crupa and Zoot Smith.

"I really wanted to play jazz and wanted to be an instrumentalist."

In the 1970s, Powell became a professional singer. Her repertoire consisted of standard jass tunes; mostly ballads. "I like to sing a song that tells a story," Powell says. One particular song, "Guess Who I Saw Today," is one of Powell's favorite ballads. In the song, a wife who is out shopping gets hungry and decides to go to a restaurant. As she looks around in the restaurant, she notices her husband with another woman. 

In 1974, Powell played guitar with Little Joyce and the Sensations, a rhythm & blues band. Powell explains that Little Joyce had a sound like Aretha Franklin and emulated the style of a motwon singer. In 1975, Powell took a jazz guitar lessons, "I really wanted to play jazz and wanted to be an instrumentalist," Powell says. In 1989, Powell had a chance to take a lesson with jazz bassist Cecil McBee in New York City after she was given a grant from National Endowment for the Arts.

Powell remembers days of lessons, "I played for him and he showed me techniques like how to improvise."Powell says He taught her a lot of jazz rules. After becoming a jazz bassist, Powell began to play upright and electric bass. Powell says, "When I just play jazz, I am free."Powell plays many styles of jazz such as Bebop, Hardbop, and Avant-garde. She explains that Free Jazz enables her to interact and create with other musicians. "They want to break the rules [of jazz],"Powell says.

Free Jazz, which was led by an alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman,never follows musical rules. Powell says, "If you play scales, chord changes, and melodies, like most modes of jazz, you are playing by the rules; if you play outside the rules, like Free Jazz, you can play anything.”

Although Powell continues to play the bass, she no longer plays the upright bass. After she broke her ankle, she was no longer able to carry it. During her down time, she drifted from the upright bass. "I lost all my chops and technique," Powell explains. Powell, who basically stays away from swing jazz, says she tries to expand her expressions with the electric bass. "I tend to play world music, not Duke Ellington and Count Basie. "She does not play swing with the electric bass because of the different sound it makes."

"I was extremely impressed with how clean she played."

These days, Powell is playing world music such as Brazilian music at Leunigs Bistro, in Burlington every Thursday, and teaching lessons for SUNY Plattsburgh students. Powell says, "Once students learn how to play jazz, the first thing I do is to teach them how to improvise using walking bass lines."

"I played with her in a recital at Plattsburgh State University two years ago," Harm Matlock says, a trumpeter and adjunct lecturer at SUNY Plattsburgh. "I was extremely impressed with how clean she played," Matlock says. Matlock recalls playing music with Powell, "She is a great soloist and played smooth chord changes with ease."

Rick Davies, chairperson of the music department, has seen Powell perform in jam sessions at Burlington. At the time, Powell was playing a couple of jazz standard songs on bass and piano at a restaurant. "She is very experienced and I liked her playing," Davies says.  Davies also added that he respects Powell because she has had such a successful career playing jazz music.

As for Powell, she plans to keep on playing music. "I just love learning, teaching, creating, improvising, and playing with people to create music," Powell says.  "I love all that."

Do you like Jazz music?