Jeri Brown

I love jazz because...it speaks to me and ignites my senses. I was first exposed to jazz...as a young child when my uncle rehearsed with Clark Terry and Miles Davis in the basement of my grandparents home in St. Louis, Missouri. I would hear the live playing and the recordings as they rehearsed riffs and improvised. i wasn't allowed in that basement when they rehearsed, but, even then I was fascinated with what 'sounds' were coming from below. I adored my uncle and I could tell the music made him happy. I would cherish these experiences and the sure, joyful abandonment that such music brought him. I met Leon Thomas at a Jazz Times convention in New Jersey and it was the most refreshing interaction. He s tall, striking with resonant baritone speaking voice. Already having know about his recordings with Pharaoh Sanders... I knew that it was destiny that brought us together into a musical journey. I asked my record producer, Jim West of Justin Time Records to pursue a collaboration with him including the late, great John Hicks on pno, Avery Sharpe on bs, Sangoma Everett on drms, David Murray and Don Braden on horns, and also Curtis Lundy on bs in the form of two CD recordings. The rest was, as they say, musical history! The best show I ever attended was...Al Jarreau at La Villette Festival in Paris. It was one of the several years that I performed at that festival. As it turned out Mr. Jarreau and I were both fond of the work of Amiri Baraka formerly known as LeRoi Jones, the African- American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism, of which there was an exhibit at the festival at that time. He came to my show and I came to his.Our mutual agent arranged for us to spend some time after his concert. We received Amiri Baraka t-shirts and conversed about music creation and touring. I was heading home, but his band was moving forward on their Parisian bus tour. His infectious musical connection with the audience was so inspiring! We had an equal number of encores that evening in our separate shows, but I become more of a fan of his that night than i already was The first jazz record I bought was... Betty Carter on Bet-Car Records at a jazz record shop in Detroit where I performed at Baker's Keyboard Lounge and in Flint often then. At the time I was given one album as a gift from a fan after I performed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at the Bird of Paradise Jazz Club. I was inspired to grab her other album that was available at the store. I am so happy that I did. I think it was called THE AUDIENCE. All I can say is tht I have the complete library from her label and once she and I performed together in Montreal and became friends, I considered her my guru to the end. She used to tell me how much she enjoyed by creativity and that she would love to have the vocal range to play with that I have. Jaw dropping and humbling!! My advice to new listeners...Stay true to your spirit. In these changing times I implore all to reach deep inside and tap into that musical self for strength and wisdom and really express from it. Let it pour from you deeply, truly, truly deeply not minimally... a deep vocal exhalation!