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Marion Brown

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Marion Brown was an American alto saxophonist, composer, writer, visual artist and ethnomusicologist, born in Atlanta in 1931. He grew up with a single mother and was the grandson of an escaped slave from the Sea Islands of Georgia. Charlie Parker inspired him to learn the saxophone. He left school in the tenth grade, joined the army and was stationed, among other places, in Hokkaido. Later he studied music at Clark College and began law school at Howard University in Washington.

Music and breakthrough

In 1962 he moved to New York. There he became friends with poets such as Amiri Baraka and with musicians such as Ornette Coleman and Archie Shepp. Coleman lent him his white plastic saxophone. Brown became a voice of the avant-garde jazz of the 1960s, played with John Coltrane, Archie Shepp and John Tchicai and can be heard on Coltrane's album Ascension from 1965. His own albums in the years that followed include Why Not in 1968, Porto Novo in 1969, Afternoon of a Georgia Faun in 1970 and Sweet Earth Flying in 1974. His music combines free jazz with memories of the American South and of African traditions.

Influence

The AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow called him one of the clearest and most lyrical voices of the avant-garde of the 1960s. Brown died in 2010.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Afternoon of a Georgia Faun and notice the lyrical alto saxophone and the small percussion instruments and bells that evoke the atmosphere of a Southern afternoon.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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See also

Categories: Artists