Jazz Articles about Ari Brown

Natural Information Society: Since Time is Gravity

by Danen Jobe
May 11, 2023

The concept of trance is one of the oldest in the world. Many older music forms embraced trance for their rituals. One is the Gnawa musical tradition originating in Kano, Nigeria and Morocco, which uses double and triple notes repeated sometimes for hours to induce a religious state while the singer sings stories of spirits. It is played on a gimbri (aka sintir or hajhuj), a three stringed instrument featuring one short and two long goat gut strings over a ...

Joshua Abrams’ Cloud Script: Cloud Script

by Mark Corroto
March 16, 2021

You can take bassist Joshua Abrams out of his Natural Information Society, but you can't take the Natural Information Society out of Abrams. His long- lived ensemble, which traffics in long-form psychedelic environmental music, has made a permanent imprint on just about everything Abrams does. In bands led by Nicole Mitchell, Hamid Drake, Dave Rempis, and Rob Mazurek, Abrams' acoustic bass sound is hypnotic and mesmerizing. The same can be said for this one-off Cloud Script quartet. The ...

Ari Brown: Groove Awakening

by Angelo Leonardi
January 20, 2015

Erede della grande tradizione sassofonistica di Chicago, il settantenne Ari Brown pubblica il suo quarto album da leader confermando gli aspetti chiave del suo stile: timbro magniloquente e ricco di sfumature, fraseggio fluente, marcato senso del blues, viva energia con cui sostiene lunghi e rapsodici assoli. Nel suo strumento si rinnova lo spirito ecumenico, già condiviso con Fred Anderson e Von Freeman, che fonde l'hard bop degli anni cinquanta con le forme della black popular music, terreno di ...

Ari Brown: Groove Awakening

by Hrayr Attarian
February 6, 2014

It is easy to think of saxophonist Ari Brown as the heir to the late, great Chicago tenorists Von Freeman and Fred Anderson but that would not be a fair assessment. Far more than a successor, Brown is the youngest and remaining member of a powerfully unique musical triumvirate. His idiosyncratic style is equally appropriate to both provocative avant-garde explorations and the laid back swagger of hard bop. On his fourth release as a leader, Groove Awakening Brown ...

Live At The Green Mill

by Nic Jones
April 27, 2008

Ari Brown Live At The Green Mill Delmark 2007

Ari Brown has deep-running roots and, though in the past he's been associated with the likes of Lester Bowie, the music on this DVD is more straight ahead than his association with Bowie and the AACM might imply. His band has all the hallmarks of a working unit, and Delmark's usual careful attention to both the sound and the visuals lends to the overall package ...

Ari Brown: Live at the Green Mill

by AAJ Italy Staff
April 2, 2008

Storico esponente dell AACM di Chicago, il sassofonista Ari Brown ha inciso pochissimo in veste di leader (l'ultimo suo disco, Venus, risale a dieci anni fa) ma ha collaborato con nomi di primo piano della musica afroamericana (da Elvin Jones e Braxton fino a B.B.King e Chuck Berry) e sul finire degli anni ottanta è entrato nel Ritual Trio di Kahil El'Zabar. E' un musicista di alte doti espressive che potremmo definire enciclopedico: i molti riferimenti del suo stile (John ...

Ari Brown: Live at the Green Mill

by Jerry D'Souza
January 31, 2008

Ari Brown Live At The Green Mill Delmark 2007

Mention the name of Ari Brown and up comes a picture of a saxophonist who is comfortable in several settings and on more than one instrument (he also plays flute and piano). He is as much at home in a free jazz mode as he is in bop and post-bop. And if there is to be a bit of soul or rhythm and ...