By Nils Jacobson
When it comes to music, Guillermo E. Brown is something of an omnivore. Whether it be calypso, out jazz, hip hop, or electronica, Brown is all ears. That makes the 25 year-old New Yorker something of an exception to the rule among the City's free jazz set. And, for what it's worth, it has defined his place in the music.
But first, a bit of background: Brown initially gained broad recognition as the drummer for David S. Ware's quartet, first on Ware's Columbia swan song Surrendered (2000), and then last year's Corridors & Parallels, on AUM Fidelity. Out jazz fans who have followed the Ware quartet through their long series of recordings noted a distinct change of pace and poise when Brown stepped in. He seems to have a unique ability to recognize the needs of the group and fulfill them without drawing attention to himself. And unlike previous esteemed musicians who have occupied the drum chair in that group, he's not at all afraid to keep time, or (dare we mention?) groove. All of this, of course, without engaging in showmanship. Needless to say, he's had an impact on the Ware Quartet's sound and momentum.
This fount of energy comes from a soft-spoken man whose only real goal is "to make my way, and be a positive influence..." Growing up in a tight family with primary influences from the Episcopal church and his mother's ethnomusicology studies, Brown branched out once he got his first drum kit. (Amazingly, with pride and nostalgia) he recalls the first time he could drum all the way through a record: Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet. From there it was on to Roach and Blakey, De La Soul, and Super_Collider. Not content to dwell strictly in the realm of music, Brown acts as music director for a dance company, and he regularly engages in singing, poetry, and various forms of musical theater. It was, in fact, at one of these performances that he was nudged by pianist Cooper-Moore into meeting with David S. Ware for an audition. The rest is history (and future).
Brown launches his solo career this April with Soul at the Hands of the Machine, on Thirsty Ear's Blue Series. The project brings together a full dozen musicians to join him on an unapologetically eclectic adventure which draws from a huge variety of influences--featuring a heavy dose of electronica. (See review elsewhere.) Soul sounds like nothing else--and if it's a harbinger of things to come, we are in for a long and twisted ride.
For a player who got his start in a group led by one of free jazz's biggest icons, Brown's new effort is anything but expected. But if you listen to what he has to say on the matter, the whole idea makes sense. As Brown puts it, "It's a new conception of free--or my conception of free."
See what you think.
I. Roots & Influences
AAJ: Let's get some of the facts out up front. When were you born? Where did you grow up? What kind of music did you listen to?
Guillermo E. Brown: I was born in New Haven, Connecticut. My dad was in divinity school. My mom was on the faculty doing some associate professor work in musicology, ethnomusicology studies.
AAJ: When were you born?
GEB: 1976.
Dwight Andrews and Jay Hoggard and Pheeroan Aklaff were all there. And I guess Henry Louis Gates was active around that time. They were all kind of getting their start with that kind of strong education--education as the basis for improving various situations--based around an Ivy League institution. Which is kind of interesting. The whole Connecticut-New Haven-Yale-Middletown-Wesleyan thing was happening. I'm not really clear on how everything went down. My mom was into ethnomusicology at Wesleyan, and it was one of the first times that jazz was being taught. So you had jazz musicians, and...
AAJ: Was that when Braxton was there?
GEB: No, much later. That's when I was there [at Wesleyan].
So yeah. And then my dad had various posts in Connecticut, and we were in Stamford for a while. I went to this magnet school called Westover Elementary School, which is where I had some of my first experiences in musical theater. It was a performing arts-based magnet elementary school. So it was a very mixed, ethnically and culturally, and it was very specialized for that age group, in terms of identifying skill bases in the students. So I guess I kind of was able to...
I was Humpty Dumpty and Peter Pan, and all these crazy things. And the Tin Man, which definitely has connections to what I'm doing now. The Tin Man--the man-machine kind of thing--kind of resonates. Doing the robot and the Tin Man. And I started studying the drums with a teacher in third grade. But before that, I was always visiting my grandfather, who was a local drummer in DC. I think the story goes that when my mother was born, he had to sell the drums, because that wasn't appropriate in my grandmother's eyes. Additionally, she always wanted me to play the piano. (My mother grew up as a pianist.) And then my mother was kind of running the Ethnic Music Department at Howard, so we would go weekends (or whatever) and I could borrow these West African drums. She would bring these West African drums home. And my grandfather's experience was: "a drum, something with skins on it... we need to apply an American jazz concept to it, and use brushes!" His whole thing was brushes, brushes, brushes. He just loved that. And when I started to come into my own, getting better at drumming, he was always going back to the brushes. And the brushes aren't one of my strongest points. It's a sound that I love, but you know...
AAJ: So he was a jazz musician?
GEB: Yeah, a local DC jazz person.
AAJ: You were really surrounded by this stuff growing up.
GEB: Yeah, and then growing up in the church--not your traditional sort of Baptist thing. It was very different. I grew up in an Episcopal church, which is more...
George Bush is an Episcopalian. As well as Desmond Tutu, as well as Henry Louis Gates and Lionel Ritchie. So it's a wide world.
So I grew up with all these European hymns as well. And then we moved to Portchester, NY in fourth grade. Now really playing the drums. Still doing the musical theater thing, but the drums are coming more and more into play. That's when I started on the drumset, and learned my first street beats, and that kind of stuff. I think I got my first drumset around the time.
On to Part 2-7...
