The likelihood of turning postponed plans for a podcast into a noteworthy album is close to zero. Yet this is how vocalist Ellen Christi's new album with bassist William Parker came about. Invited to Christi’s flat to record a conversation, Parker showed up with a stack of poems. The recording of an impromptu recitation was crispy and badly miked, probably something that should have been scrapped by normal audio standards. Instead, Christi got to work, not to restore or hide flaws, but to create something from what was there. This process, showcasing her sound design skills rather than her vocal work, produced Cereal Music (see track 9 of this playlist), an album that is not the simple documentation of a well-known musician’s side project that some listeners might be wary of.

Finding a path in difficult terrain has been a hallmark of Christi’s career since her first relocation in 1974, aged 17. “Christi hit the New York scene from her native home of Chicago after the jazz avant garde of the 1960s had about officially died,” Roger Riggins wrote to introduce a 1989 Coda interview. “Christi would be one of the few jazz derived vocalists influenced by jazz’s historical avant garde.” Moreover, vocal techniques were among the least developed sections of the free jazz playbook. In Chicago, Christi already knew that she wanted to use the voice as an instrument, improvising lines the way horn players did.

Christi recalled an early turning point in an interview included in William Parker’s Conversations IV book. “I’m in there in the store browsing and I see this album Blasé by Archie Shepp, who I really loved,” Christi said. “I noticed that he had used this singer, Jeanne Lee, on this particular album. By this time I was 17 years old, living on my own. I took the record home and I played it. I was blown away by Jeanne’s tone and improvising. And I thought, ‘Oh my god, this is what I want to sing like.’ So when I started talking to musicians about going to New York, I was told that I would never survive, that there was a vinyl shortage so I would never be able to make a record, that I’d probably be killed in New York, etc. The only musician who encouraged me to go to New York was [drummer and AACM co-founder] Steve McCall. He gave me Jeanne’s number. He said, ‘Contact her.’”

In New York, Christi immediately connected with Lee, whom she asked for lessons, as well as former Pharoah Sanders drummer Jimmy Hopps, who brought her to 501 Canal Street. The building, in Tribeca’s abandoned streets, hosted a first floor performance space. Avant garde musicians from saxophonists David S Ware and Alan Braufman to drummer Tom Bruno and pianist Cooper-Moore occupied the upper floors. Christi joined them. Out of the space’s energy developed The New York City Artists’ Collective, with whom Christi took part in self-production efforts and contributed to the covert story of musician-owned labels (see tracks 2 and 3). In those final days of the loft scene, more work took place with William Parker, Jay Clayton, Lisa Sokolov, Sam Rivers, David Murray and Ed Blackwell. The first track of this playlist, recorded with Jemeel Moondoc in 1981, illustrates how Christi managed to carve space for improvised wordless vocals in a fully fledged free jazz ensemble.

In 1985, riding a bicycle to a rehearsal, Christi was sideswiped by a bus and seriously injured. After learning to walk again, the singer recorded Star Of Destiny (see track 3), the first album under her own name. Longtime collaborator William Parker’s bass work is featured, as it is on many of the selections included here (see tracks 1, 3, 6-9). At the end of the decade, Christi temporarily relocated to Italy, from where she worked and toured (see tracks 4 and 5) and where she learned audio engineering. The singer’s relationship to technology has been another hallmark of her career. When faced with the question of electronics, most avant garde jazz musicians ultimately adopted conservative attitudes. For her part, Christi moved ahead and embraced live sound processing, multitracking and montage, in the process expanding an always unique artistic identity.

“As an artist, I am only concerned with communicating through various creative mediums my truths which are perceptions of a rapidly deteriorating society,” Christi wrote in an article for the New Observations journal in 1989. “This is not stated in a pessimistic or hopeless manner. Out of all this destruction/deterioration surges a new, more aware consciousness. It allows freedom to question and examine past perceptions of reality. The threshold of this freedom is born always through the next generation.”

Ellen Christi will lead a group during New York City’s Arts for Art’s OUT Music Fest, which takes place between 27 February–5 March.

Tracklist

Jemeel Moondoc Sextet
“High Rise”
From Konstanze’s Delight
(Soul Note) 1981

New York City Artists' Collective
“Alexandre At 2”
From Plays Butch Morris
(NYCAC) 1982

Ellen Christi
“Dance Of The Arabesque”
From Star Of Destiny
(NYCAC) 1986

Ellen Christi/Carlo Actis Dato/Enrico Fazio/Fiorenzo Sordini
“Senza Parole”
From Senza Parole
(Splasc(H)) 1989

Ellen Christi Fiorenzo Sordini Quintet
“Betrayal”
From A Piece Of The Rock
(Splasc(H)) 1991

Ellen Christi
“Silence”
From Instant Reality
(Network) 1992

William Parker & Ellen Christi
“Falling Shadows (For Henry Grimes)”
From Song Cycle/Voices Fall From The Sky
(Boxholder/AUM Fidelity) 1991

William Parker/Ellen Christi/Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson
“Sun Song”
From The Music Of William Parker: Migration Of Silence Into And Out Of The Tone World Vol 3: The Majesty Of Jah
(Centering) 2010

William Parker & Ellen Christi
“Do Dreams Sleep”
From Cereal Music
(AUM Fidelity) 2024

Joel Futterman & Ellen Christi
“Now”
(Self-released) 2025