Ray Brown
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Ray Brown (* 13. October 1926 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , † 2. July 2002 in Indianapolis , Indiana , actually Raymond Matthews Brown ) was an American jazz - bassist .
In his more than 50-year career he has worked with all well-known jazz musicians and composers and has played in all major concert halls around the world. His music has earned him numerous Grammys and Poll Awards from Down Beat and other magazines. Until his death he was regularly on stage and influenced many new musicians, also beyond his genre . He died during a US tour shortly before his performance in Indianapolis .
biography
Ray Brown first took piano lessons at the age of eight. In high school he switched to the bass because he didn't like intensive piano practice . In addition, he was attracted to the free third place on the double bass in the school orchestra. He learned to play the bass by ear and quickly started making a living doing it.
After high school he joined the Jimmy Hinsley Sextet, with whom he toured for half a year. With the band around Snookum Russell, he went to the big American jazz clubs. It was there that well-known musicians and critics first became aware of him. At 20 he left the band and went to New York.
His reputation quickly brought him into contact with famous musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie , Art Tatum and Charlie Parker . In the following two years he created a new groundbreaking style of music with the Dizzy Gillespie Band, the bebop . During this time he began to write his own music. In 1948 he left Gillespie to start his own trio with Hank Jones and Charlie Smith .
From 1948 to 1952 he was married to Ella Fitzgerald and their "musical director". This was also the beginning of the 18-year collaboration with Norman Granz , whose touring company Jazz at the Philharmonic was successful around the world until the late 1970s. Brown was also seen in the Granz music film Improvisation (1950). At JATP, Ray Brown met the legendary pianist Oscar Peterson . With him he played from 1951 to 1966 in the Oscar Peterson Trio ( The Oscar Peterson Trio at the Stratford Shakepearean Festival , 1956), with whom he a. a. also accompanied Lester Young ( Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson Trio , 1952).
Then he went to Los Angeles to embark on a solo career. Right from the start he composed the Gravy Waltz , for which he received his first Grammy . Many of his self-composed works became the theme tunes of popular American shows. His musical engagement in Hollywood earned him numerous other awards. Besides other Grammys he won regularly Playboy All Stars Poll of Playboy and various Downbeat Reader's Poll Awards and Jazz Critic's Poll Awards .
In the 1970s and 1980s he was also active as an author, teacher, publisher, producer and manager. But his main interest was the further development of the Ray Brown Trio. From the mid-1970s he played with Laurindo Almeida , Jeff Hamilton (musician) and Bud Shank in the band The LA 4 , with which albums such as Watch What Happens (Concord Jazz / 1978) were created.
From the mid-1980s he was touring Europe twice a year with his two trios (including Gerryck King ) alternately on tour. He filled the jazz clubs as well as the large concert halls and played at many festivals. His trios, which changed in line-up during this time, included u. a. Jeff Hamilton, Gene Harris , Benny Green , Ulf Wakenius and Hank Jones.
Some of the newer stars in the jazz scene that he discovered and helped achieve success include: a. Diana Krall and Kristin Korb .
Selected discography
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honors and awards
literature
- Carlo Bohländer , Karl Heinz Holler, Christian Pfarr: Reclam's Jazz Guide . 5th, revised and supplemented edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-15-010464-5 .
- Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz music. 1700 artists and bands from the beginning until today. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584-X .
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . 8th edition. Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-14-102327-9 .
- Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
- Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 1: A – L (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16512). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16512-0 .
Web links
- Ray Brown at The Hard Bop Homepage
- Douglas Martin: Ray Brown, Master Jazz Bassist, Dies at 75 , obituary in The New York Times, July 4, 2002
- Ray Brown at Allmusic (English)
- Ray Brown at Discogs (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Brown, Ray |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Brown, Raymond Matthews (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz bassist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 13, 1926 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 2, 2002 |
| Place of death | Indianapolis , Indiana |