Artist: Herb Ellis

Mitchell Herbert Ellis was an American jazz  guitarist.

Born in Farmersville, Texas, Ellis was proficient on the instrument by the time he entered North Texas State University. He majored in music, but because they did not have a guitar program, he studied the bass. He dropped out of college and toured for six months with a band from the University of Kansas. From 1943–45 he joined Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra. 

Ellis remained with Dorsey through 1947, traveling and recording extensively, and playing in dance halls and movie palaces. Then came a turnabout that would change Ellis's career, when he, Robert Dupuis and john Frigo formed the group the Soft Winds, which was fashioned after the Nat King Cole Trio. They stayed together until 1952. Ellis then joined the Oscar Peterson Trio (replacing Barney Kessel) in 1953, forming what Scott Yanow would later on refer to as "one of the most memorable of all the piano, guitar, and bass trios in jazz history". 

Ellis became prominent after performing with the  Oscar Peterson Trio from 1953 to 1958, along with pianist Peterson and bassist Ray Brown. In addition to their live and recorded work as the Oscar Peterson Trio, this unit, usually with the addition of a drummer, served as the virtual "house rhythm section" for  Norman Granz's Verve Records, supporting the likes of tenormen Ben Webster and Stan Getz, as well as trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, and Sweets Edison and other jazz stalwarts. Ellis was part of the rhythm section but did not solo on every track. With drummer Buddy Rich, they were also the backing band for popular "comeback" albums by the duet of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. 

The trio were one of the mainstays of Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts as they swept the jazz world, almost constantly touring the United States and Europe. From 1957 to 1960, Ellis toured with Ella Fitzgerald.