JJJJJerome Ellis: Vesper Sparrow review – shape-shifting composer taps the musical potential of their stutter

<p><strong>(Shelter Press)</strong><br>The New York poet and multi-instrumentalist uses granular synthesis alongside their ‘dysfluency’ to craft a moving meditation on listening, identity and freedom</p><p>In JJJJJerome Ellis’s magical compositions, their stutter is a guiding light. Pauses and repetitions spark new life, new ideas, new possibilities, as Vesper Sparrow explores their “dysfluency” in the context of Black musical traditions. The Grenadian-Jamaican-American artist and former Yale lecturer is heady, intellectual company: in the manner of Alvin Lucier, they gently talk the listener through the sonic and political reverberations of their work. “The stutter … (cc)can be a musical instrument,” Ellis announces, before an exhilarating rush of tiny noises – made from hammered dulcimer, flute, piano, voices – fizz into being.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/nov/14/jjjjjerome-ellis-vesper-sparrow-review-shelter-press">Continue reading...</a>