Greg Ellis

Greg Ellis was born in Los Gatos, California. He began playing the drum set at age 13. Ellis is completely self-taught. He studied classical percussion at San Jose State University but quickly felt stifled by the rudimentary approach to percussion. He decided to put all of his energy into playing drum set and moved to Los Angeles in 1984. He shifted his focus to percussion once again, but this time to the percussion of India, the Middle East, and Africa. He became consumed with collecting instruments and music from around the world. As his exploration of the interplay between percussion instruments from various cultures deepened, Ellis discovered how important it was to record these instruments in ‘real time’, meaning no looping or sequencing. He realized that was the only way to truly tap into the pure devotional spirit of music that so many of his influences – Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ravi Shankar, Zakir Hussain – had long been aware of.

In November 1995, Ellis happened to meet Azam Ali at a concert of the Master Musicians of Jajouka at UCLA. At a party afterwards, Greg heard Azam sing for the first time. “I had always imagined a voice in my compositions. Azam was that voice I had been hearing in my head for years.” Ellis and Ali began creating music together the very next day and world music group, Vas was born. “Once the rhythms were complete, I brought in the other musicians who helped to reveal the natural form of each piece. The musicians who took part in this project all have a deep respect for rhythm, which is exhibited in the interplay of the melodic instruments with the percussion. ”