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Rob Brown

ob Brown was born in 1962 in Hampton VA. Rob took up the saxophone at age 12. Early on he was introduced to the music of Charlie Parker and Eric Dolphy by his older brother who also played the saxophone. He played in school concert and jazz bands by age 13 and started playing with a performing/traveling jazz-blues band at age 16. During his first year of college Rob made a serious commitment to developing his music and he moved to Boston in 1981 to study. There he encountered many other young hard working musicians that inspired him and within a couple of years Rob saw the direction he wanted to pursue as an artist, and that Boston was not the best place for him to realise that.

Rob moved to New York in 1984 and established the musical relationships that came to define his career. Immediately he reestablished ties with pianist Matthew Shipp whom he met in Boston in 1982 and continued to develop an improvising language with him. They performed sometimes with a trio or quartet but mainly as a duo and recorded their first album together in 1988 on Cadence. Within a year or two of moving to NYC Rob met William Parker and formed a trio with Denis Charles that explored a slightly more traditional jazz trio improvising language utilizing Rob’s compositions. In 1989 they recorded a cd for Silkheart and Rob’s trio concept continued to evolve, playing with different drummers and bassists producing a number of recordings.

Rob also began working with William Parker’s many ensembles and has continued to be very active with him for almost 30 years, touring Europe and the US and recording at least 18 albums. The most most prolific and steadily working of those groups is Parker’s quartet, formed in 2000 with Lewis Barnes and Hamid Drake. Rob has also been playing with William Parker’s Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra since its inception in the early 1990’s. Rob and drummer Whit Dickey started playing together in the late eighties which led to a trio with guitarist Joe Morris and many other collaborations with Dickey. Rob and Joe also produced many recordings together with different configurations of musicians.

A more recent and ongoing collaboration is with cellist Daniel Levin, which began in 2003. They have produced two trio recordings of Rob’s compositions with percussionist Satoshi Takeshi and a fully improvised duo cd. They’ve toured in Europe and the US and are working on their next cd. Rob has been collaborating with visual artist Jo Wood-Brown since they met in 1996. Often performing live with Jo’s frequent collaborator dancer/choreographer Miriam Parker and/or creating sound for video and other installations.

Karen Borca: Good News Blues

Read "Good News Blues" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
November 11, 2024

Pioneering jazz bassoonist Karen Borca has had to wait a long time for her leadership debut. It arrives courtesy of the adventurous Lithuanian NoBusiness imprint, compiled from archival recordings of two appearances at New York City's fabled Vision Festival. But that is not to say that she does not have a weighty resume. An acolyte of Cecil Taylor, she played in his college ensembles at both Antioch and Wisconsin in the early 1970s. Through the pianist she also met alto ...

Album Review

Rob Brown Quartet: Oblongata

Read "Oblongata" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
July 28, 2024

Although reedman Rob Brown has a string of small group leadership outings to his name, dating back to his first, Breath Rhyme (Silkheart) in 1990, Oblongata may be one of his finest. The 2022 studio session reunites him with some of his most enduring collaborators, the same crew responsible for From Here To Hear (Rogue Art, 2019), as well as an outstanding appearance at the 2019 Vision Festival, namely trombonist Steve Swell, bassist Chris Lightcap and drummer Chad Taylor.

Album Review

Rob Brown: Oceanic

by John Sharpe
May 23, 2024

Solo albums for single-line instruments such as the saxophone always present a challenge. One that many but not all rise to meet. For New York City reedman Rob Brown, Oceanic is only the second such document in a career stretching back some 35 years, following an obscure CDR-only release, Silver Sun Afternoon (Nolabel, 2003). Over that period Brown has never quite received his due, despite being one of the first names on the team sheet for a series of bassist ...

Album Review

Whit Dickey Quartet: Astral Long Form: Staircase In Space

Read "Astral Long Form: Staircase In Space" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
February 3, 2023

Al suo secondo album in veste di leader per i tipi della Tao Forms dopo l'eccellente Village Mothership, in trio con Matthew Shipp e William Parker (estensore delle note di copertina di questo nuovo capitolo, inciso nel febbraio 2021), Whit Dickey coglie altrettanto felicemente (e, diremmo, naturalmente) nel segno alla testa di questo quartetto (tutti suoi i brani in scaletta), estremamente agguerrito e forte di individualità (a cominciare da Mat Maneri, uno che caratterizza sempre massicciamente ogni lavoro a cui ...

Album Review

Rob Brown/ Juan Pablo Carletti: Fertile Garden

Read "Fertile Garden" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
October 30, 2022

Two regular collaborators, alto saxophonist Rob Brown and Argentinean drummer Juan Pablo Carletti, unite in unbridled dialogue on Fertile Garden, a studio date from August 2020. Brown's considerable talents should be well-known, vouchsafed by his tenure in the bands of bassist William Parker over many years and appearances with the likes of drummer Whit Dickey and pianist Matthew Shipp. Since moving to New York City in 2006, Carletti has become a fixture on the Brooklyn scene, where he teamed up ...

Album Review

Rob Brown / Juan Pablo Carletti: Fertile Garden

Read "Fertile Garden" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 24, 2022

Alto saxophonist Rob Brown has always been accompanied by adroit and masterful drummers. Throughout his career he can be heard with the likes of Denis Charles, Jackson Krall, Lou Grassi, Warren Smith, Marc Edwards, Satoshi Takeishi, Whit Dickey, Luther Gray, Andrew Barker, Gerald Cleaver, and Hamid Drake. With the release Fertile Garden, add to that list the Argentine-born, New York resident Juan Pablo Carletti. Carletti can be heard in Rob Brown's quartet, also in duo with cellist Daniel ...

Album Review

Whit Dickey Quartet: Astral Long Form: Staircase In Space

Read "Astral Long Form: Staircase In Space" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 15, 2022

As leader of the Whit Dickey Quartet, the drummer placed total faith in his bandmates for this studio session. The accompanying materials quote Dickey, “I asked them all to not think of time too much; I just wanted them to play, not to follow me or each other." Was that instruction made out of confidence or recklessness? One might say reckless if the lineup were other than the seasoned improvisers the leader assembled. Dickey might be best known ...

Recording

Rob Brown Trio -Unknown Skies (Rogueart, 2011) ****

Source: Free Jazz by Stef Gijssels
September 21, 2011

By Paul Acquaro 'Unknown Skies' possesses an intriguing quality: it seems to be precisely imprecise, the strength of its cohesion built upon the tensions of it coming apart. Song heads could almost be improvisations, they seem so naturally unfolding, yet unison accompaniment belies their composition. Rhythms unfold loosely yet totally in control, and it makes for quite a masterful mix. Rob Brown's alto sax is in command here, it both soars and digs deep, beckoning you to follow but also ...
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199

Recording

Rob Brown - Unexplained Phenomena (Marge, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
March 5, 2011

Recorded live during the fifteenth Vision Festival in June of 2010, this group features Rob Brown on alto saxophone, Matt Moran on vibraphone, Chris Lightcap on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums. They achieve a nice, fresh and appealing free-bop feel, akin to the open ended music recorded by Blue Note Records in the mid 1960's. Opening with “Kite," the music has a fast pace with tart alto saxophone and open accents from the vibes. A nice, fresh sounding vibraphone-bass-drums ...
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237

Interview

Saxophonist Rob Brown Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
August 25, 2008

Alto saxophonist Rob Brown would feature highly on most people's lists of modern purveyors of reed magic. Leading New York avant-garde bassist William Parker has featured Brown for the last fifteen years, and Brown has been associated, both as sideman and leader, with other well-known modern jazz musicians including Matthew Shipp, Joe Morris and Whit Dickey.

A recent example is the group Right Hemisphere. He has also recorded and worked alongside such luminaries as Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, ...
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156

Performance / Tour

Firehouse 12 to Present the Rob Brown Trio November 2nd

Source: Improvised Communications
October 30, 2007

The Rob Brown Trio will return to New Haven's Firehouse 12 on Friday, November 2nd to perform new music commissioned by Chamber Music America as well as selections from its latest CD, Sounds (Clean Feed Records). Led by New York alto saxophonist/ composer Rob Brown, this unusual working ensemble features New Haven-based cellist Daniel Levin (who will appear again with his own group, the Daniel Levin Quartet, on December 7th) and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi.

“Brown is stretching the elastic of ...
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153

Performance / Tour

Vision Club Presents Rob Brown Trio - Stone House 8pm Mat Maneri Trio 10pm

Source: All About Jazz
October 27, 2004

The Vision Club On The Move November 6th, 2004 THE BRUNSTEIN SHOWROOM 13 Stanton St. btwn Bowery & Christie Rob Brown Trio - Stone House 8pm Mat Maneri Trio 10pm $10 per set or $15 for the night Rob Brown Trio - Stone House Rob Brown - Alto Saxophone “Alto-saxophonist Rob Brown (is) one of the most consistently musical and compelling of the new free-jazz players." ...
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