Marion Brown

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Marion Brown (born September 8, 1931 in Atlanta , Georgia , † October 18, 2010 in Hollywood , Florida ) was an American jazz musician ( alto saxophone , composition ), author and musicologist.

Live and act

Brown, who initially played in a house band, did military service in a military band; In 1957 he played with Johnny Hodges in Atlanta. He first studied saxophone, clarinet and oboe at Clark College in Atlanta, then law at the African American Howard University , as well as music education, politics, economics and history. In 1960 he broke off his studies and went to New York City , where he made friends with the poet Amiri Baraka and through this came into contact with the free jazz scene developing in the city . From 1962 he worked with musicians such as Rashied Ali , Alan Shorter and Archie Shepp , who became his mentor; he also appeared on Shepp's album Fire Music . John Coltrane engaged him in the summer of 1965 for the recording of his album Ascension . During this time, Brown also worked with his own groups, including a. with Stanley Cowell . From 1959 he taught, wrote poetry and music, a. a. wrote a first article about Ornette Coleman , and appeared in Baraka's play The Dutchman .

With a scholarship from the Cité International des Artistes , he spent some time in Europe from 1967, where he played with Karl Berger , Steve McCall , Barre Phillips , Alan Silva , Gunter Hampel and Jeanne Lee and his interest in African music increased. In 1968, the film music for Marcel Camus ' Un été sauvage was created . "In cooperation with Hampel Brown developed a lyrical language with which he finally anchored his own voice in the canon of free jazz." Shortly before his return to the United States in 1970, he took part with Hampel, Lee, Anthony Braxton , Bennie Maupin and Chick Corea released his best-known album Afternoon of a Georgia Faun for ECM , "on which he recorded the mood of Debussy's Afternoon of a Faun with a percussive sound and dynamic collective improvisation".

In the USA he placed linguistics and composition techniques of African music at the center of his research and teaching activities. From 1971 Brown was Assistant Professor of Music at Bowdoin College in Brunswick (Maine) , a position he held until he received his bachelor's degree in 1974. He also had teaching positions at Brandeis University (1971-1974), Colby College (1973/74) and Amherst College (1974-1975), as well as an assistant position at Wesleyan University (1974-1976), where he received his master's degree in 1976 in ethnomusicology . He published his thesis in Faces and Places: The Music and Travels of a Contemporary Jazz Musician. In addition to his teaching activities, he dealt with Indian flute playing and African instruments. His playing and his compositions are characterized by a special calm. He arranged works by Erik Satie and wrote music for Georg Büchner's Woyzeck . He also continued his collaboration with Gunter Hampel. In addition to teaching in Northampton (Massachusetts) , he also performed at universities and worked as a painter.

Due to health problems - one of his feet had to be amputated - Brown has almost never performed since 1992. He also collaborated with composer Harold Budd on his album Pavilion of Dreams . Friends and patrons took Brown out of a New York retirement home and placed him in a Florida nursing home, where he died in October 2010.

Discography (selection)

  • 1965: Marion Brown Quartet (ESP)
  • 1966: Three For Shepp ( Impulse! )
  • 1966: Why Not? (ESP)
  • 1967: Porto Novo (with Han Bennink , Arista)
  • 1969: In Sommerhausen (with Gunter Hampel, Jeanne Lee, Ambrose Jackson , Daniel Laloux, Steve McCall, Calig, 1969)
  • 1970: Afternoon of a Georgia Faun (with Hampel, Lee, Anthony Braxton, Benny Maupin and Chick Corea, ECM)
  • 1973: Geechee Recollections (with Leo Smith , Impulse!)
  • 1974: Sweet Earth Flying (Impulse!)
  • 1975: Vista (impulses!)
  • 1977: La Placita / Live in Willisau (Timeless)
  • 1977: Solo saxophone (Sweet Earth)
  • 1978: Reeds' n Vibes (with Gunter Hampel, Improvising Artists Inc.)
  • 1979: Interface (with John Fischer )
  • 1980: Back To Paris (Freelance)
  • 1983: Gemini (with Gunter Hampel, Birth)
  • 1985: Recollections (Creative Works)
  • 1986: Songs of Love and Regrets (with Mal Waldron )
  • 1988: Much More (with Mal Waldron , Free Lance)
  • 1990: Native Land (ITM)
  • 1992: Offering (Venus)
  • 1993: Gemini + Play Live Sun Ra Compositions (Birth) with Gunter Hampel
  • 1999: Devorah Day : Light of Day featuring Marion Brown (Abaton Book)
  • 2019: Marion Brown & Dave Burrell : Live at the Black Musicians' Conference, 1981 ( NoBusiness Records )

Lexical entries

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. The encyclopedias usually state 1935 as the year of birth. He was born in 1931 after the interview in AllAboutJazz .
  2. Jazz saxophonist Marion Brown Dies
  3. Obituary in New York Times (English)
  4. Kunzler, Jazzlexikon, p. 163.
  5. ^ A b Andrian Kreye : Lyrical Revolution - On the death of the American saxophonist Marion Brown . Süddeutsche Zeitung , No. 243, October 20, 2010, p. 12.
  6. ^ Marion Brown: Recollections. Frankfurt a. Main: JA Schmidt, 1984.