Ari Brown

Craig Taborn emailed me:

So I read on DTM that you had not previously been exposed to Ari Brown. I have had the pleasure of playing with Mr. Brown in Chicago. He’s a wonderful saxophonist in the Ken McIntyre/Sam Rivers/Dolphy inside/out mold, but I also played duo piano in with him Roscoe Mitchell's Note Factory (he is quite an accomplished hard bop pianist). He played in that Chicago hard bop style (even with Roscoe's abstract compositions/improvisations!) and was quite pleasant to play with in that capacity.

Ari also played (saxophone) with Elvin Jones for a couple of years in the late 70’s-early 80’s, and I actually saw him with Elvin in Europe (Paris?) in 1996 (when I was out with James Carter), and he was really happening in that context.

He’s another unsung midwestern master. Chicago seems to be teeming with them.