Jazz Articles about Deborah Brown

Deborah Brown: Kansas City Here I Come

by Victor L. Schermer
February 10, 2017

Jazz vocalists occupy a wide swath of styles from those who mercilessly belt out a tune to those who use the ever evolving vocabulary of the jazz idiom with care and precision. Deborah Brown is one of the most sophisticated of the latter genre. She is a true artist. She never wastes a note, inflection, or dynamic. She meticulously treats the nuances of every song with the care of a concert and opera singer. Such precision only makes her more ...

Deborah Brown: For The Love Of Ivie: A Tribute to Ivie Anderson

by Victor L. Schermer
March 6, 2011

Ivie Anderson was Duke Ellington's mainstay singer from 1931 to 1942, melding the depth of Billie Holiday with the sophisticated attitude of Lena Horne. Deborah Brown is one of the finest modern jazz vocalists ever to grace live venues and recording studios. In common with Anderson, she is a musician's vocalist, having played with the likes of Slide Hampton, Cedar Walton, Clark Terry, Johnny Griffin, Michel Le Grand, “Toots" Thielemans and Roy Hargrove, amply showing the respect in which she ...

Deborah Brown Sings a Tribute to Duke Ellington Vocalist Ivie Anderson, Amsterdam

by Guy Zinger
January 1, 2010

Bimhuis Amsterdam, Netherlands December 17th, 2009

Remembering her father's trombone, Deborah Brown used her dark and somewhat husky voice as a perfect musical instrument with brass-like gestures to paint a beautiful picture. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Brown has made a name for herself with appearances around the world and many albums. This concert was full of admiration and respect for the incomparable bluesy voice of Ivie Anderson who, though forgotten by many, is ...

Deborah Brown: Jazz Diva Extraordinaire

by Victor L. Schermer
May 26, 2009

Deborah Brown is one of the finest jazz vocalists in the business, a “singer's singer" with a magnificent voice and mind-boggling technique. Vocalist J.D. Walter mentioned her as an inspirational teacher and mentor in a recent AAJ interview but, despite being very possibly one of the greatest jazz singers of all time, due to her own travel preferences she is less well known in the U.S. than in Europe and internationally.

Perhaps the reason for her ...

Deborah Brown: International Incident

by C. Michael Bailey
July 25, 2003

Kansas City-reared jazz singer Deborah Brown employs an international, multicultural little big band to make progressive American vocal jazz, managing the logistics brilliantly to produce one of the best vocal recitals of the year. This fearless repertoire maven is not afraid of even the stickiest subjects.On International Incident,, Brown takes on two Johnny Griffin compositions ("Take My Hand" and “Make Up You Mind"), Thad Jones' “A Child is Born," and Pat Metheny's “Always and Forever." These are certainly ...