Cameron Brown
Encyclopedia
Cameron Brown is an American
jazz
double bassist born in Detroit, Michigan
.
, Aldo Romano
, Booker Ervin
, and Donald Byrd
. In 1966 he returned to graduate at Columbia College resp. Columbia University
(1969, B.A. in Sociology).
In 1974, Brown met Sheila Jordan
, gigged with free jazz pioneers Roswell Rudd
and Beaver Harris
, joined Archie Shepp
's quintet in 1975, and recorded with Harris' and The 360 Degree Music Experience
around that time.
The famous Don Pullen
/George Adams
Quartet, with him and drummer Dannie Richmond
, developed into an intense and rewarding partnership which lasted during the 1980s. In addition to this quartet, Brown played with Art Blakey
's Jazz Messengers, and various groups led be Shepp, Cherry, Rudd, and Richmond. He has also performed and recorded with Ted Curson
, Lee Konitz
, Chet Baker
, Joe Lovano
, Mal Waldron
, Ricky Ford
, Steve Grossman, Betty Carter
and the John Hicks
Trio, Etta Jones
and Jane Ira Bloom
.
Brown has appeared on more than 80 recordings. His first recording as a leader, after nearly 40 years of performing, was published in 2003 with his group The Hear and Now featuring Dewey Redman
.
In addition to playing gigs and touring nationally and internationally, Brown is currently teaching jazz double bass at Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge, New York, as well as offering private lessons. The musician also substitute teaches music theory classes at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City.
& Don Pullen
With Joe Lovano
With Dewey Redman
With George Russell
With Mal Waldron
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
double bassist born in Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
.
Biography
Cameron started studying music at age 10, first on piano, later on clarinet. But, drawn to the bass, he found himself playing a tin bass in a student dance band. As an exchange student in Europe, he worked with George Russell's Sextet and Big Band for one year and played with Don CherryDon Cherry (jazz)
Donald Eugene Cherry was an innovative African-American jazz cornetist whose career began with a long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. He went on to live in many parts of the world and work with a wide variety of musicians.-Biography:Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and...
, Aldo Romano
Aldo Romano
Aldo Romano is a jazz drummer. He also started a rock group in 1971.-Biography:He moved to France as a child and by the 1950s he was playing guitar and drums professionally in Paris, but his career gained notice when he started working with Don Cherry in 1963. He recorded with Steve Lacy and...
, Booker Ervin
Booker Ervin
Booker Telleferro Ervin II was an American tenor saxophone player. He was perhaps best known for his association with bassist Charles Mingus....
, and Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
. In 1966 he returned to graduate at Columbia College resp. Columbia University
Columbia College of Columbia University
Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the Church of England as King's College, receiving a Royal Charter from King George II...
(1969, B.A. in Sociology).
In 1974, Brown met Sheila Jordan
Sheila Jordan
Sheila Jordan is an American jazz singer and songwriter. Jordan has recorded as a session musician with an array of critically acclaimed artists in addition to a notable solo career....
, gigged with free jazz pioneers Roswell Rudd
Roswell Rudd
Roswell Rudd is a Grammy Award-nominated American jazz trombonist and composer....
and Beaver Harris
Beaver Harris
William Godvin "Beaver" Harris was an American jazz drummer, who worked extensively with Archie Shepp.-Biography:...
, joined Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp is a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African-Americans, as well as for his work with the New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and...
's quintet in 1975, and recorded with Harris' and The 360 Degree Music Experience
The 360 Degree Music Experience
The 360 Degree Music Experience was an Ameican band that performed both traditional and experimental jazz. Active during the 1970s and 1980s, the group was initially co-led by drummer Beaver Harris and the pianist Dave Burrell. After Burrell left the group, pianist Don Pullen replaced him...
around that time.
The famous Don Pullen
Don Pullen
Don Pullen was an American jazz pianist and organist. Pullen developed a strikingly individual style throughout his career. He composed masterworks ranging from blues to bebop and modern jazz...
/George Adams
George Adams (musician)
George Rufus Adams was an American jazz musician who played tenor saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. He is best known for his work with Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Roy Haynes and in the quartet he co-led with pianist Don Pullen, featuring bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Dannie Richmond...
Quartet, with him and drummer Dannie Richmond
Dannie Richmond
Dannie Richmond was an American drummer who was best known among jazz fans for his work with Charles Mingus, and among pop fans for his work with Joe Cocker, Elton John and Mark-Almond....
, developed into an intense and rewarding partnership which lasted during the 1980s. In addition to this quartet, Brown played with Art Blakey
Art Blakey
Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....
's Jazz Messengers, and various groups led be Shepp, Cherry, Rudd, and Richmond. He has also performed and recorded with Ted Curson
Ted Curson
Theodore "Ted" Curson is a jazz trumpeter. He is perhaps best-known for recording and performing with Charles Mingus....
, Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz is an American jazz composer and alto saxophonist born in Chicago, Illinois.Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings...
, Chet Baker
Chet Baker
Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...
, Joe Lovano
Joe Lovano
Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls...
, Mal Waldron
Mal Waldron
Malcolm Earl Waldron was an American jazz and world music pianist and composer, born in New York City.Like his contemporaries, Waldron's roots lie chiefly in the hard bop and post-bop genres of the New York club scene of the 1950s; but with time, he gravitated more towards free jazz and composition...
, Ricky Ford
Ricky Ford
Ricky Ford is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Ford was born in Boston and studied at the New England Conservatory. In 1974 he recorded with Gunther Schuller and then played in the Duke Ellington Orchestra under Mercer Ellington from 1974 to 1976...
, Steve Grossman, Betty Carter
Betty Carter
Betty Carter was an American jazz singer renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style...
and the John Hicks
John Hicks (jazz pianist)
John Josephus Hicks, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and composer, active in the New York and the international jazz scene from the mid-1960s.-Biography:...
Trio, Etta Jones
Etta Jones
Etta Jones was an American jazz singer. She is not to be confused with the more popular singer Etta James nor her namesake, a member of the Dandridge Sisters, who recorded with Jimmy Lunceford and was Gerald Wilson's first wife. Her best known recordings were "Don't Go To Strangers" and "Save...
and Jane Ira Bloom
Jane Ira Bloom
Jane Ira Bloom is an American jazz soprano saxophonist and composer.-Biography:Bloom was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She began as a pianist and drummer, later switching to the alto saxophone, and eventually settling on the soprano saxophone as her primary instrument...
.
Brown has appeared on more than 80 recordings. His first recording as a leader, after nearly 40 years of performing, was published in 2003 with his group The Hear and Now featuring Dewey Redman
Dewey Redman
Dewey Redman was an American jazz saxophonist, known for performing free jazz as a bandleader, and with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett....
.
In addition to playing gigs and touring nationally and internationally, Brown is currently teaching jazz double bass at Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge, New York, as well as offering private lessons. The musician also substitute teaches music theory classes at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City.
As sideman
With George AdamsGeorge Adams (musician)
George Rufus Adams was an American jazz musician who played tenor saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. He is best known for his work with Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Roy Haynes and in the quartet he co-led with pianist Don Pullen, featuring bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Dannie Richmond...
& Don Pullen
Don Pullen
Don Pullen was an American jazz pianist and organist. Pullen developed a strikingly individual style throughout his career. He composed masterworks ranging from blues to bebop and modern jazz...
- All That FunkAll That FunkAll That Funk is a live album by American jazz pianist Don Pullen and saxophonist George Adams recorded in 1979 for the Italian Palcoscenico label.-Track listing:# "Dee Arr" - 7:15# "Alfie" - 6:35...
(Palcoscenico, 1979) - More FunkMore FunkMore Funk is a live album by American jazz pianist Don Pullen and saxophonist George Adams recorded in 1979 for the Italian Palcoscenico label.-Track listing:# "Metamorphosis for Charles Mingus" - 15:12...
(Palcoscenico, 1979) - Don't Lose ControlDon't Lose Control-Track listing:# "Autumn Song" - 8:57# "Don't Lose Control" - 5:33# "Remember?" - 5:00# "Double Arc Jake" - 15:47# "Places & Faces" - 3:30*Recorded at Theatro Ciak in Milano, Italy on November 2 & 3, 1979-Personnel:...
(Soul Note, 1979) - Earth BeamsEarth BeamsEarth Beams is a studio album recorded by noted jazz performers George Adams and Don Pullen as the George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet. Adams and Pullen had met through their work with composer and double-bassist Charles Mingus, who had died the year the Adams/Pullen Quartet began in 1979...
(Timeless, 1981) - Life LineLife Line (album)-Track listing:# "The Great Escape or Run John Henry Run" – 4:42# "Seriously Speaking" – 8:02# "Soft Seas" – 7:20# "Nature's Children" – 9:48# "Protection" – 1:35# "Newcomer; Seven Years Later" – 9:34...
(Timeless, 1981) - City GatesCity Gates-Track listing:# "Mingus Metamorphosis" 13:20# "Samba For Now" – 8:31# "Thank You Very Much Mr. Monk" – 7:57# "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" – 5:18# "City Gates" – 7:56...
(Timeless, 1983) - Live at the Village VanguardLive at the Village Vanguard (George Adams & Don Pullen album)Live at the Village Vanguard is a live album by the George Adams-Don Pullen Quartet recorded in 1979 and released on the Italian Soul Note label.-Reception:...
(Soul Note, 1983) - Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. 2Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. 2-Track listing:# "Saturday Night in the Cosmos" – 11:25# "City Gates" – 17:40# "The Great Escape" – 11:15# "Big Alice" – 17:44*Recorded at the Village Vanguard in New York City on August 19, 1983-Personnel:*Don Pullen – piano...
(Soul Note, 1983) - DecisionsDecisions (album)-Track listing:# "Trees and Grass and Things" - 9:07# "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" - 4:28# "Message Urgent" - 8:16# "Decisions" - 7:11# "Triple Over Time" - 8:19# "I Could Really for You" - 7:00...
(Timeless, 1984) - Live at MontmartreLive at Montmartre-Track listing:# "I.J." - 8:07# "Flame Games" - 11:30# "Well, I Guess We'll Never Know" - 8:27# "Forever Lovers" - 10:53# "Song Everlasting" - 11:23*Recorded at the Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen on April 4 & 5, 1985...
(Timeless, 1985) - BreakthroughBreakthrough (George Adams & Don Pullen album)-Track listing:# "Mr. Smoothie" - 6:07# "Just Foolin' Around" - 6:20# "Song From the Old Country" - 8:13# "We've Been Here All the Time" - 9:09# "A Time for Sobriety" - 9:43...
(Blue Note, 1986) - Song EverlastingSong Everlasting-Track listing:# "Sun Watchers" 5:43# "Serenade for Sariah 7:35# "1529 Gunn Street" - 6:14# "Warm Up" - 9:50# "Sing Me a Song Everlasting" - 10:30# "Another Reason to Celebrate" - 8:44 Bonus track on CD only...
(Blue Note, 1987)
With Joe Lovano
Joe Lovano
Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls...
- Friendly FireFriendly Fire (Joe Lovano & Greg Osby album)Friendly Fire is an album by the American jazz saxophonists Joe Lovano and Greg Osby recorded in 1998 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:...
with Greg OsbyGreg OsbyGreg Osby is an American jazz saxophonist who plays mainly in the free jazz, free funk and M-Base idioms.-Biography:Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Osby studied at Howard University, where he majored in Jazz Studies, and then at the Berklee College of Music, with Andy McGhee...
(Blue Note, 1998) - Flights of Fancy: Trio Fascination Edition TwoFlights of Fancy: Trio Fascination Edition TwoFLights of Fancy: Trio Fascination: Edition Two is an album by the American jazz saxophonist Joe Lovano recorded in 2000 and released on the Blue Note label. The album is a sequel to Lovano's Trio Fascination: Edition One .-Reception:...
(Blue Note, 2000)
With Dewey Redman
Dewey Redman
Dewey Redman was an American jazz saxophonist, known for performing free jazz as a bandleader, and with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett....
- Living on the EdgeLiving on the Edge (Dewey Redman album)Living on the Edge is an album by American jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman featuring performances recorded in 1989 for the Italian Black Saint label.-Reception:...
(Black Saint, 1989) - ChoicesChoices (Dewey Redman album)Choices is an album by American jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman featuring performances recorded in 1992 for the Enja label. The album features the recording debut of Redman's son Joshua Redman.-Reception:...
(Enja, 1992) - In LondonIn London (Dewey Redman album)In London is a live album by American jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman featuring performances recorded in 1996 for the BBC and released on the Palmetto label.-Reception:...
(Palmetto, 1996)
With George Russell
- George Russell Sextet at Beethoven HallGeorge Russell Sextet at Beethoven HallGeorge Russell Sextet at Beethoven Hall is a 1965 live album by George Russell originally released in two volumes on the MPS label and featuring a performance by Russell with Don Cherry, Bertil Lövgren, Brian Trentham, Ray Pitts, Cameron Brown, and Albert Heath...
(1965)
With Mal Waldron
Mal Waldron
Malcolm Earl Waldron was an American jazz and world music pianist and composer, born in New York City.Like his contemporaries, Waldron's roots lie chiefly in the hard bop and post-bop genres of the New York club scene of the 1950s; but with time, he gravitated more towards free jazz and composition...
- MoodsMoods (Mal Waldron album)Moods is an album by American jazz pianist Mal Waldron recorded in 1978 and released by the Enja label. Originally released as a double LP the CD reissue omitted three of the piano solos Moods is an album by American jazz pianist Mal Waldron recorded in 1978 and released by the Enja label....
(Enja, 1978)