Manty Ellis

Grover Edwin “Manty” Ellis (guitarist) was born in Milwaukee’s Bronzeville neighborhood at Fifth and Vine Streets on January 16, 1933. His father, Grover Edwin Ellis Sr., played piano, guitar, and banjo and got Manty started on piano as a child. Manty attended Lincoln High School (which now houses the middle school Lincoln Center for the Arts) alongside classmates Bunky Green and Willie Pickens, who encouraged him to listen to the bebop musicians of the day. While still in high school, Manty subbed on gigs for Pickens, who was a couple of years his senior. As a teenager, he took up the guitar and soon made it his primary instrument, performing throughout Milwaukee for many decades.

In 1971, Manty and pianist Tony King founded an accredited jazz program at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. Unlike other college jazz programs in the country at the time, it focused on small ensemble playing. Manty taught student groups that included young players such as Brian Lynch, Jeff Chambers, Sam Belton, and Charles Small, winning first place at collegiate jazz festivals several years in a row. The program lasted until about 1984 when it was discontinued. Not long after, Manty left the Conservatory.

Some of the countless artists Manty worked with during his long performance career included Sonny Stitt, Eddie Harris, Stanley Turrentine, Melvin Rhyne, Buddy Montgomery, and Charlene Gibson. In the early 1980s, he was part of a group called the Wisconsin Connection, which included Berkeley Fudge, Jessie Hauck, and Carl Allen. In 1999, he recorded a trio album entitled In Your Own Sweet Way, which featured his original compositions “Trane Stop” and “Marlene.”

Manty opened a music store, Ellis Music, in the early 1970s at 1912 West Hampton Avenue. Many artists who came through town to perform at the Jazz Gallery or elsewhere would stop by the store to hang out and jam—including major artists such as Freddie Hubbard, George Benson, and Lou Donaldson. He closed the store in the early 1990s.

In 1997, Manty received the Arts Midwest Jazz Masters Award, and in 2025, he was honored with a Jazz Fellowship Legacy Award by the Jazz Foundation of America.

“Jazz doesn’t need saving. It’s too busy saving us.” – Manty Ellis

Check out Manty performing "Time After Time" with Brian Lynch on trumpet, Mark Davis on piano, Jeff Hamann on bass, and Dave Bayles on drums, recorded in Milwaukee on March 13, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O54QAuGqMRs