Eli Jones Article

Here's an article I wrote about Eli Jones, a Chicago pop/soul band that utilizes a lot of NIU talent (including me, but don't tell my editor that). I wanted to make the article more in-depth to cover the many areas of the band's sound and history as well as its NIU connection and comments about their CD release party to take place on Thursday, Nov. 8.

However, much of the article ended up on the cutting room floor, and it now reads kind of clumsily and doesn't even make much of a case for the whole aspect of the NIU connection, which is supposed to be the focus of the whole story.

I especially like how we find out that an NIU trombone player met the Eli Jones bassist in a grocery store just before an abrupt ending. The fact that the trombone player is now part of an all-NIU horn section that has had a big impact on the band's overall sound got left out. But, he ran in to the bassist at the grocery store, which, I guess, is important.