Don Ellis: 'Live at Montreux,' 1977

The album is one of the finest big-band concert LPs of the 1970s

Trumpeter and flugelhornist Don Ellis is a fascinating but little-known jazz figure today. The music he composed, arranged and recorded, starting in 1960, was ambitious, largely experimental and nearly always scored for a large orchestra. By the start of the 1970s, he was perfectly positioned for the fusion movement. A ruggedly handsome young guy who lo…