Ray-Brown-2001-05-03-32-Internationale-Jazzwoche-Burghausen-Germany.mp3
Ray Brown this weekend - in concert at the 2001 International Jazz Week in Berghausen, Germany on May 3, 2001 - Brown is joined by Nicholas Payton on trumpet - Holly Hofmann on flute - Regina Carter on violin, Kevin Mahogany - vocals, Larry Fuller on piano and George Fludas on drums.
Known for his longtime association with pianist Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown also was recognized for his prodigious work in Los Angeles music studios, where he was the bassist of choice for several generations of the top names in music. In addition to his own vast catalog of recordings, he recorded on hundreds of dates for a wide variety of artists.
"He was without question one of the great bassists in jazz history," said Dan Morgenstern, director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University. "He had a remarkable command of the instrument, great intonations, wonderful sound, terrific beat."
Jazz critic Nat Hentoff said Brown "had everything going for him, a full sound and the sense of time and the melodic imagination.
"And unlike some bass players, he never forgot that time was the basis of everything in jazz. He had the full scope of the instrument and everything that it could do in jazz." His musical influences then were Jimmy Blanton, the pioneering member of Duke Ellington's orchestra who helped move the bass from a rhythm instrument to one with its own distinct voice. Brown also was influenced by Oscar Pettiford, a prime mover of a modern approach to the jazz bass.
Brown's big break came shortly after he moved to New York City in 1945. He encountered pianist Hank Jones, who introduced him to Dizzy Gillespie, one of the leaders of the emerging bebop movement. Gillespie hired him without an audition.
The other members of Gillespie's group, Brown found out at his first rehearsal, were saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker, pianist Bud Powell and drummer Max Roach, the founding fathers of the new music called bebop.
"If I had known these guys any better, I would have probably never gone to the rehearsal," Brown told an interviewer for Jazz Journal International some years later.
But Gillespie later said that Brown had nothing to worry about.
"Ray Brown, on bass, played the strongest, most fluid and imaginative bass lines in modern jazz at the time, with the exception of Oscar Pettiford," Gillespie wrote in his memoir, "To Bop Or Not to Bop."
Brown played for a time with the "Quartet" with Monty Alexander, Milt Jackson, and Mickey Roker. After that he toured again with his own trio, with several young pianists such as Benny Green, Geoffrey Keezer, and Larry Fuller. The last edition of the Ray Brown Trio included pianist Larry Fuller and drummer Karriem Riggins. With that trio, Brown continued to perform until his death. Brown died in his sleep on July 2, 2002, after having played golf, before a show in Indianapolis.
Enjoy the gig.
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