Local Unsung Heroes: Ari Brown

This is the first post in what I hope will be a long series that will shine a spotlight on local musicians here on the Chicago scene who are not as well known on the national and international scenes. Another main criteria for the series is that it has to profile musicians who do something active to help foster the local scene. I'm sure you all know musicians that fit this description in your own local scene.

The first musician I'd like to write about is Ari Brown, a local tenor saxophonist and pianist.

He was actually mentioned over at Do the Math, both in relation to a Muhal Richard Abrams album and in a follow up email by Craig Taborn singing his praises, the latter of which is particularly noteworthy for highlighting the fact that Chicago is "teeming" with unsung music masters. I agree wholeheartedly.

Ari Brown is probably best known for his extensive involvement in the AACM, appearing with Muhal Richard Abrams, Lester Bowie, an ongoing chair in Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio, also making a guest appearance with the Art Ensemble of Chicago on occasion. He's soft spoken in person with a monster tone on the tenor and a deft touch on the piano, displaying a mastery of both instruments that makes you wish he'd left a little talent for the rest of us.

He has two Delmark titles in his own name, Ultimate Frontier and Venus, featuring his quartet and his own compositions. Brown has an impeccable sense of history on his saxophone, encapsulating the entire tradition with an ease that is rarely heard while retaining an individuality. To me, he exemplifies the ethic of inside/outside playing, utilizing the vocabulary of bebop and Coltrane era harmonic understandings with post-Coltrane extended techniques and emotional expression. One listen to his tenor and you know he comes from Chicago, following in the great tradition of Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Clifford Jordan, Von Freeman, and John Gilmore, amongst others.

Perhaps more importantly, Ari has and continues to teach private lessons to young budding musicians here in the city on both saxophone and piano, regularly teaches in the public schools through a local program placing musicians in classrooms, and retains an ease of personality and conviviality that makes you wish he was your uncle. Just knowing that he's out there teaching makes me feel good about the future of music.

I wish there was some seminal recording that he's featured on that I could recommend to you - certainly the Muhal recording mentioned earlier deserves a listen (but then again I believe all Muhal Richard Abrams recordings deserve a listen, so I'm biased), and of his two quartet recordings I prefer the latter, Venus. He recently appeared with his Quintet at the Banlieues Blues festival in Paris, continuing a long standing relationship between the AACM and that festival, and last year he appeared in Poland leading his own group. It's a shame he doesn't get to lead in his own name more often, but I understand why it doesn't happen: he's so in demand as a sideman, and it seems to agree so well with his personality.

I have a dream that someday there will be a festival here in Chicago where Ari Brown will be the artist in residence and sit in with every band on the bill. There's no doubt in my mind that he could pull it off with ease - he's at home in any variation of jazz, as long as he has a horn or a piano to play.