Sonny Rollins (w/ Shelly Manne & Ray Brown)

On this day in 1957 (at 3am!) Sonny Rollins (w/ Shelly Manne & Ray Brown) recorded his album Way Out West. "It was maybe the first time I went out to the West Coast–I’m a New York guy," he told People in 2018. "I had great musicians, it was a joy for me." https://t.co/vcs0v0oZWD

— Sonny Rollins (@sonnyrollins) March 7, 2019

Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown, two giants of jazz

Ray Brown (left), Jeff Hamilton and Oscar Peterson are shown at the 1993 Glenn Gould Prize evening in Toronto. (Photo courtesy of the Glenn Gould Foundation)

by George VargaContact Reporter

Just how important were pianist Oscar Peterson and bassist Ray Brown — two of the most iconic artists in jazz history — to the world of music?

Drum dynamo Jeff Hamilton and bass stalwart John Clayton, who each played with Peterson and Brown, are quick to offer an answer.

“I said this in the ‘Music in the Key of Oscar’ documentary: Oscar will go down as one of the greatest pianists, ever, in any genre,” Hamilton said. “And, to me, Ray is the greatest jazz bassist who ever played.”

Clayton concurs.

On Saturday, Feb. 24, he and Hamilton will headline the orchestra-free San Diego Symphony “Jazz at the Jacobs” concert, “Affinity: A Ray Brown and Oscar Peterson Tribute” at Jacobs Music Center’s Copley Symphony Hall. (Ticket information appears below.) The other musicians in the lineup include pianist Larry Fuller, who was the pianist in Brown’s final band, and — at least for one song — trumpeter and “Jazz at the Jacobs” curator Gilbert Castellanos.

“Oscar and Ray were both phenomenal,” Clayton said of Peterson, who died in 2007, and Brown, who died in 2002.


“When Oscar played the piano, he was the whole orchestra. He could play something as rhythmic and aggressive as Bartok, and yet be as tender and expressive as Debussy or Mozart. In any area of art — whether film, painting, music — there are always people who stand out as pivotal. Ray represents that, because he’s the link between the swing era and the bebop era.

read more at: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/music/sd-et-music-jazz-jacobs-20180218-story.html

Zoot Sims Knew How to Swing

Published on Apr 1, 2017
Zoot Sims - Knew How to Swing featuring Zoot Sims, tenor saxophone, Oscar Peterson, piano, Ray Brown, bass and Bobby Durham, drums.

#RayBrown

"#Jazz #music is something you feel. It's something you have to live" Ray Brown • https://t.co/CfiT1sFK6X • pic.twitter.com/dmAtovUmvT

— A Passion for Jazz!® (@APassion4Jazz) August 11, 2016

Ray Brown

"#Jazz is something you have to feel, something you have to live." - Ray Brown #wednesdaywisdom

— Jazz Standard (@JazzStandardNYC) July 20, 2016

The Ray Brown Trio ....

The Ray Brown Trio recorded live that the Umbria Jazz Festival in 1993. Special guest for the show is the Austrailian trumpeter James Morrison.
Recorded in Perugia, Italy – 17 July 1993.

The Band
Ray Brown – Bass
Benny Green – Piano
Jeff Hamilton – Drums
James Morrison – Trumpet, Flugelhorn & Trombone

The Tracks
01 Milestones 0:00
02 Bass Face 5:44
03 Ellington Medley: Take the A Train – Sophisticated Lady – Do Nothing til You Hear From Me 13:44
04 Cottontail 22:02
05 You Are My Sunshine 25:46
06 Seven Steps To Heaven 34:04
07 Captain Bill 39:06
8 Things Ain’t What They Used to Be 43:18

Ray Brown + the All-Star Big Band

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Ernie Wilkins [above] was busy in 1962. Wilkins, of course, was always busy, but '62 was a crescendo year for the big-band arranger. He worked steadily for the Verve and Riverside labels in the first six months, writing charts for albums by Harry James, Mark Murphy, Illinois Jacquet, Oscar Peterson, Milt Jackson, Cannonball Adderley, Count Basie and Sam Jones. Then the bubble burst as his drug problem spiraled out of control and sent him into rehab until 1969, when he began working again, with Clark Terry.

As his brother Jimmy Wilkins told me yesterday, "Ernie had to get his stuff taken care of—he was so overworked, day and night, trying to please everyone. The pressure was too much. Fortunately he cleaned himself up."

Perhaps Wilkins' finest arrangements of '62 were for Ray Brown With the All-Star Band (Verve), recorded in January of that year. The slam-bang album featured a stellar lineup: Nat Adderley (cnt); Ernie Royal, Joe Newman, Clark Terry (tp); Jimmy Cleveland, Melba Liston, Britt Woodman, Paul Faulise (tb); Cannonball Adderley, Earl Warren (as); Budd Johnson, Seldon Powell (ts); Yusef Lateef (ts,fl); Jerome Richardson (bar,fl); Hank Jones (p); Ray Brown (bass/cello); Sam Jones (b) and Osie Johnson (d).

Brown even plays cello on several tracks (My One and Only Love, Two for the Blues and Baubles, Bangles and Beads). The cello gave Brown a higher solo voice and provided the listener with a chance to hear him distinctly and marvel at his remarkable technique. Meanwhile, Cannonball Adderley handled the reed solos.

Wilkins' charts are first rate (as are a handful by Al Cohn). Dig how Wilkins frames Two for the Blues, Baubles Bangles and Beads and It Happened in Monterey. The beauty of Wilkins is that he gave each section of the band a different personality while holding them together with an intelligent core. The trumpets had enormous power but on top sounded like tinkling chandeliers. The trombones were for punctuation, body and color—often on the bottom. And the reeds hummed along like the engine of a new luxury car weaving in and out of traffic. Wilkins often added a flute or two for chrome effect—a little something extra in the shine department to counter the heft down below. [Photo above of Cannonball Adderley]

Ernie Wilkins [above] was one of the finest big band arrangers in the LP era whose dedication to giving orchestras his very best left him little time to raise his profile. Ultimately, he was a musician's arranger and wouldn't have thought of having other arrangers ghost his projects. Unfortunately, in the LP era of the 1950s and '60s, if you were spectacular, that was the only way to earn a solid living without burning out on the demands. But what you hear on every one of Wilkins' arrangements for this album and others is a tiger giving you everything he has. Wilkins died in 1999.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find this Ray Brown album on Busting Out: Ray Brown and the All Stars, which includes the album Wilkins arranged for Oscar Peterson and a big band in June '62. Go here.

JazzWax clips: Here's Ernie Wilkins' arrangement of It Happened in Monterey with Cannonball Adderley on alto saxophone. Dig how the sections interact and how Brown, Richardson on baritone sax and Faulise on bass trombone anchor the bottom...

Used with permission by Marc Myers

Video: Ray Brown, Germany 2000

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

In the following rare video of the Ulf Wakenius Project in 2000 at the annual Jazz Baltica Festival in Salzau, Germany, the Swedish guitarist Ulf Wakenius was joined by Michael Brecker (tenor sax), Ray Brown (bass), Niels Lan Doky (piano) and Terri Lyne Carrington (drums). If the name Ulf Wakenius doesn't ring a bell, he was a member of the Oscar Peterson Quartet and Ray Brown Trio in the late '90s. A special thanks to my man Jimi Mentis in Athens for sharing this video...

- See more at: http://www.jazzwax.com/2013/09/video-ray-brown-michael-brecker.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Jazzwax+%28JazzWax%29#sthash.3CgeAaDO.dpuf
Used with permission by Marc Myers

Ray Brown: A Jazz Odyssey

[This article was originally published at All About Jazz in June 2002.]

By C. ANDREW HOVAN,

While it seems that things have come to a point in the history of jazz when many of the music's elder statesmen are leaving us and there are fewer and fewer masters left to pass on the proverbial flame, 75-year-old bassist Ray Brown continues to champion the mainstream cause while inflecting his own music with the breath of experiences that have enriched his diversified career. From the early development of bebop to his current trio, which has served as an incubator for such piano talents asBenny Green and Geoffrey Keezer, Brown has seen and done it all and he continues to share his music with appreciative audiences around the world while touring up to seven months out of the year.

Brown's current group includes drummer Karriem Riggins and pianist Larry Fuller, the threesome working regularly now for about two and a half years. His latest Telarc release, Brown's 14th for the label, is due out on June 25th. Some of My Best Friends Are Guitarists continues the "Best Friends" series that has featured the trio with guest pianists, trumpeters, saxophonists, and singers. Such masters as Kenny Burrell and Herb Ellis are on hand to take part in the festivities, while Russell Malone and John Pizzarelli speak for the latest generation of plectrists.

From his home in California, Brown recently sat down to chat about his current activities, past experiences, and thoughts the jazz music's future fortunes.

All About Jazz: Thanks for taking the time to chat this evening, Ray. So tell us about your current trio.

Ray Brown: My current group is Kariem Riggins on drums and Larry Fuller on piano.

AAJ: How long have you been together as a trio?

RB: About two and a half years.

AAJ: Over the past ten years, you fostered some great groups that have been proving grounds for such pianists as Benny Green and Geoff Keezer. How do you scout out new talent for your groups?

RB: Well, you hear these people as you travel around. They're playing at different places and you go out and listen to them and make notes and file that away for future reference.

AAJ: Tell me more about Larry Fuller.

RB: I like the way he plays. He's got good jazz chops, but he can get those blues like Gene Harris sometimes, so it's a nice combination.

AAJ: Why does the piano trio best suit your needs?

RB: We don't call it a piano trio, that's what you guys call it. It's a bass trio.

AAJ: I stand corrected. So why does the bass trio appeal to your musical tastes?

RB: That instrumentation can play all kinds of music and all kinds of tempos, everybody can get solo space, and they can sound like a real soft trio or they can sound like a big band. So you can get all kinds of sounds out of three people like that.

AAJ: So you're on the road quite a lot with your trio. How do you put up with all the trials and tribulations?

RB: For starters, I like it. If you like what you do, you can do it for a long time and enjoy it. I think the problems come when you have a job you don't even enjoy.

AAJ: Let's go back a bit in time. You were fortunate enough to have a long run with Norman Granz's "Jazz at the Philharmonic." Tell me about that experience.

RB: When I first joined that organization it was a thrill of a lifetime. They had all the people that I had records of at home and used to read about- guys like Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Roy Eldridge. When you're young and you're playing you imagine that you're playing with some of these guys so to get there and play with them is the ultimate thrill. It was a big massive jam session, but you had to do your homework and learn all the tunes. They didn't ask you if you knew it, they just said, 'we're going to play such and such,' and if you're good enough to be in that band you ought to know the tunes.

AAJ: Through that work you ultimately hooked up with pianist Oscar Peterson for an extended run. How did that experience differ from those JATP jam sessions?

RB: Oscar wrote arrangements and we rehearsed. It was a very fine tuned organization with a lot of rehearsal and a lot of intricate arrangements to get through.

AAJ: Going back even further to your early experiences with music, I've read that you started out playing piano, but then switched to the bass in high school.

RB: They had so many piano players that you didn't get to play very often. The school provided basses and the class I was in had two bass players and there were three basses. So there was one lying on the floor everyday. So I asked the guy, 'If I were playing that would I get to play everyday?' He said, "Yeah, I need another bassist." That was an open door right there.

AAJ: You've been around long enough to see jazz go through many stylistic changes. Do you have any particular style that you listen to more than others?

RB: I think the music changes about every fifteen to twenty years You get a new wave of musicians and they have different ideas. But the basic core of the music remains the same.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40668

Ray Brown Trio & Regina Carter (violin) - Lady Be Good