An Atlanta fixture, the Elgin Wells Group has performed since the mid-seventies, has won The New South Music Award ("Best Jazz Band"), has been nominated for NARAS' "Best Jazz Album," and has contributed to "The Best of Jazz Flavours" volumes I and III. Elgin's ten albums are available online, and represent twenty years' work. Samples of music from these recordings are downloadable from ElginWells.com, including some entire arrangements. These albums are dominated by original compositions, but selected albums contain arrangements of songs written by other writers. Elgin, himself, has won six Billboard Songwriting Contest Awards.

Elgin Wells, a native of Atlanta, has been performing since the age of fourteen. State high school vocal champion and member of the Georgia All-State Chorus, he maintained a rock 'n roll band throughout his 'teens. In college, he soloed with the University of North Carolina's Varsity Men's Glee Club, while earning his degree in Psychology and English and performing with "Thursday Grief," a heavy rock ensemble.

The Seventies saw Elgin touring with a number of rock and show bands, along with performances with road companies of rock operas. In 1976, he toured Australia as featured vocalist with the Daly-Wilson Big Band. During this time, he began crafting his own guitars and violins.

By the Eighties, Elgin had built his own recording studio, and, along with club dates and concerts at Jazz Festivals and benefit concerts for The Council for Children, Easter Seals, The American Cancer Society and The Martin Luther King Center, he increased his repertoire of instruments to nineteen. He first performed at Ray's on the River in 1984, and recently concluded his sixteen-year stand there. His recording company, Earth Records, includes "Electric Noodles," a digital video production division, and Laurel Brooke Music (BMI), publishing division, in addition to a complete digital recording facility.

The Elgin Wells Group currently features Bill Wilson (keyboards) and Deshone Williams (percussion). Please visit the photo gallery for a nostalgic look at the band as it evolved over three decades and featured Atlanta's finest musicians. On extended engagements, the band presents a multimedia show, integrating live, digitally mixed and enhanced video with videotape and effects, while performing music that ranges from Jazz to Blues, Rock and Swing to New Age. With a flair for humor and remarkable range and energy, Elgin's recordings have received airplay on a number of Atlanta radio stations, including WJZF ("Jazz Flavours,") WREK, WRAS, Z-93, 96 Rock and even on WSB's Neal Boortz Show, while his music is heard on syndicated jazz programs.