Jazz Articles about Marion Brown

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Marion Brown: The Freshness after the Rain

by Nic Jones
April 11, 2012

[Editor's Note: For the inaugural installment of his new column, in which he monkeys around on the margins of jazz and improvised music, Nic Jones takes a look at the often overlooked and undervalued multi-instrumentalist, Marion Brown.]Reed player and percussionist Marion Brown's music is a singular thing. Through his associations in the 1960s--not the least of these being as a sideman on John Coltrane's Ascension (Impulse!, 1965)--he might, in many peoples' minds, be associated with the New Thing ...

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Marion Brown: Why Not?

by AAJ Italy Staff
November 8, 2010

Per una singolare fatalità, di quelle che squarciano il velo dei pensieri, mi è capitato di leggere la notizia della scomparsa di Marion Brown mentre mi accingevo a scrivere della prima ristampa ufficiale di Why Not?, il secondo dei due Esp a nome del sassofonista di Atlanta. Lui, che in punta di piedi ha attraversato la storia del jazz, in punta di piedi se n'è andato il 10 ottobre scorso, dopo aver vissuto in disparte gli anni del tramonto, fiaccato ...

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Marion Brown: Why Not?

by Jerry D'Souza
February 28, 2010

Alto saxophonist Marion Brown came off playing with John Coltrane on Ascension (Impulse!, 1965) when he recorded two albums for ESP Disk. On the first, his eponymous 1966 release, the music was fiery and free-wheeling, underscoring Brown's presence as a potent improviser.

His second, Why Not?, saw him take a more altruistic approach. He moved away from the semantics of the first album, where he used two bassists--Ronnie Boykins and Reggie Johnson--to a conventional quartet with bassist Norris “Sirone" Jones, ...

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Marion Brown: Why Not?

by Raul d'Gama Rose
February 2, 2010

Marion Brown is often referred to as America's greatest unknown musician and this he very well is. His output has been small, but his wonderful alto horn can be heard on some of the finest records made--notably on Archie Shepp's Fire Music (Impulse, 1965) and with John Coltrane on Ascension (Impulse, 1965). And then there have been his own fine recordings for ESP Disk, including Why Not? which is being re-released on the forward-thinking label for the first time since ...

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Marion Brown: Why Not?

by Clifford Allen
January 13, 2010

Marion Brown Why Not? ESP-Disk 2009 (1966)

While the term “fire music" has held sway as a descriptor of the music of post-John Coltrane/Albert Ayler saxophonists from the 1960s onward, it's long been an incomplete summation of the work of most of these musicians. Alto saxophonist Marion Brown appeared on Coltrane's Ascension and tenor man Archie Shepp's Fire Music (both Impulse, 1965) and his playing was early on championed by poet/critic LeRoi ...

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Marion Brown

by AAJ Staff
February 10, 2008

By Michael Hittman It's probably known that since his last recorded gig, Gemini (play Sun Ra Live in Concert) on Birth Records, a 1993 duo with Gunter Hampel in West Germany), serious illnesses--diabetes that led to the loss of a leg followed by additional surgery for a brain tumor--has confined Marion Brown to a nursing facility in Florida. But other things about this arguably underrated alto saxophonist--who played on Coltrane's incomparable Ascension and was an important figure ...

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A Fireside Chat with Marion Brown

by AAJ Staff
April 11, 2003

In recent years, I had heard that Marion Brown was ill. Such vague details were of grave concern since I had first experienced his virtuoso playing on John Coltrane's wicked Ascension opus. It was only a matter of time before Three for Shepp was in my collection and then came Porto Nova, Reed 'n Vibes, and Live in Japan. Through Roadshow friend, Gunter Hampel, I learned of Brown's trials and they are many in number. Brown has undergone brain surgery, ...