By Jason West
The following interview with Ray Brown took place in June 2000. Ray was making his annual visit to Dimitriou's Jazz Alley with his trio mates Larry Fuller and Karriem Riggins, and although I had attended Ray's concerts regularly, this was my first face-to-face meeting with the legendary bassist. As a journalist, I remember feeling on the opposite side of the fence from Ray. I think he considered me a suspicious, young media hound, although I recall his warm, deep voice and articulate responses soon put me at ease. One thing's for sure: nothing got past him during our interview. Silly questions ("Can you describe your music?") were immediately exposed as such ("How can one describe the taste of apple pie?"). Afterwards, I imagine I felt the same as thousands of Ray Brown's students have felt over the years: admiration, respect and a great deal wiser.
Do you remember the first time you played in Seattle?
No. Probably in the Fifties sometime with Jazz at the Philharmonic. We played concerts here.
Talk about Jazz at the Philharmonic. What was it like to be in that band?
Well, Jazz at the Philharmonic was comprised of the best musicians of the day. People like Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, Ben Webster. Dizzy Gillespie. Roy Eldridge. You know, people of that ilk. Ella Fitzgerald. I was young when I got in that group and I was delighted to be there. It was a big learning experience for me and it was a great job.
How long were you in that band?
I stayed with it until it dissolved. Once you got the stature to be there, then you stayed there, you know. Jazz fans are different then, say, then pop fans. Pop fans only come to see you if you have a hit. Matter of fact, you can't even go out if you don't have a hit. But jazz fans, they come to see you every time you come to town. You come once a year for 50 years-the same fans come to see you. And that's nice.
This trio that you've got together now with Larry Fuller on piano and Karriem Riggins on drums, talk about those gentleman and what they bring to your trio.
Karriem is a young, 25-year-old drummer and he had played with 3 or 4 jazz groups prior to coming with me. He was with Mulgrew Miller; he was with Roy Hargrove. I've showed him how to play the old music, and then the new music, you know. I have to show him what a 2-beat really feels like, ala Jimmy Lunceford. So he's learning a lot of stuff here. What he brings to the group is all the modern stuff. If we want to do some funk, then he shows us how to do it. So it's a collaboration. And Larry Fuller, of course, he's maybe 10 years older than Karriem so he's been around. He's done a lot of work with vocalists, like Ernestine Anderson. And then he worked with one of my ex-musicians, Jeff Hamilton, in his trio. So he's had a lot of experience-been around the horn quite a few times. He brings a lot of vitality to this band. He swings hard, and I like that. It's something you can use in a band, especially if you have a trio like I have.
I'd like to ask you about one of the greatest jazz piano players that ever lived and a man you played with for many years, Oscar Peterson. Can you give us an insight into his personality?
He's a taskmaster. He works hard and he demands a lot from his musicians; and he rehearses long hours. He wants everything to be precise. He works long and hard and he alwaysÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ
.he would write something for the band and we would play it, and then when everybody got comfortable with it, he would make it go twice as fast. So you'd be scuffling all over again. But, when I reflect back on that, that has helped me maintain myself. You know, I'm getting ready to turn 75 and I'm still playing, and a lot of that has to do with all those years that I put in playing with guys that made you play up to your potential, and beyond it sometimes.
Let me ask you about your role as bass player and also as the leader of the trio. What are your main responsibilities?
Well, my responsibilities are, musically, I write the music. I tell them how I want it played, and then I tell them, once they get a hold of it, to put their own personality into it. But you can't do that until you learn it. I have to set the proper tempo, you know. I used to watch Count Basie, and I always wondered why he started off most of his songs with the just rhythm section. But what he was doing was when the rhythm section got to the right place, if it was too slow, he would raise it a little bit. If it was too fast, he'd slow it down a little bit. And when it got just right, he'd bring the band in. So tempo is very important; an integral part of playing is how you present it. You have to put some thought to it, you know. What's the right tempo for this song?
Talk about you bass that you have with you tonight. How long have you been playing it?
I've been playing this bass for about 7 years.
What do you like about this bass?
Well, it's my road bass. A road bass has to be healthy, not fragile; and a road bass has got to do a lot of things. It's got to have a fat enough sound so that it's a good rhythm instrument, but it's got to have a voice that you can play solos on that's comfortable, and you've got to be able to play arco [with bow] on it also. So it's got to do a lot of things.
One last question: How important do you feel music is in our society?
Try if you can for a moment to think of what it would be like if you woke up one day and you never heard any music for the entire day; and you got up the second day, and there was no music. Try to imagine what it would be like.
Impossible.
All right! So I'm saying there's a lot of people on this earth, there's a lot of different music, and I think that we should enjoy all of it. I don't agree with some of the things that are being done where they stuff some of this music down young people's throats, telling 'em it's their music. 'That's your music'-and so the young people don't go to the ballet and they don't go to the symphony. It all belongs to everybody; everybody should have a hand in all of the music. You should hear it all. Radio stations ought to play one symphony record, and then one Dolly Parton record, and one Count Basie record, and one rap record-it should be mixed up. That's how I feel.
Photo Credit: Murad Sekerli
