Keith Brown

Keith Brown knows jazz. In his role as adjunct associate professor of music at the University of Tennessee, he teaches jazz history, analysis of jazz styles, drums and vibraphone, and Brown also directs UT's Jazz Big Band and small jazz combos. As a drummer, Brown stays very busy around town, too, performing in local ensembles Boling, Brown and Holloway and The Downtowners, alongside Donald Brown and the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra. He has also performed with such jazz notables as Tommy Flanagan, Mose Alison and Jerry Coker.

An encyclopedia of anecdotal jazz lore, Brown has a contagious enthusiasm for the music and the men and women of jazz's storied tradition. Knoxville Voice recently sat down with the man to talk a little jazz.

Sonny Rollins
“Tune Up”
From Newk's Time (1957)

KB: I'm pretty sure the saxophone player is Sonny Rollins. And the drummer, I'm almost positive, is Philly Joe Jones. It's very evident from just how crisp his time playing is. His cymbal sound to me is real indicative of that, and also just kind of the way he comps. For a second, I was just waiting to make sure it wasn't Shadow Wilson, who was one of his heroes. But it's evident that's Sonny Rollins; nobody can play those kinds of rhythms like Sonny, and it's a great, great pairing, those two.

Gary Bartz
“Bloomdido”
From Libra (1967)

KB: I know that's not Charlie Parker, but that's a Parker tune. It's too modern of a recording sound and too many other kinds of things going on. I'm trying to guess who the drummer is; I'm not really hearing the cymbal as clearly as I'd like. (listens) I'm thinking Billy Higgins on drums.

KV: Yes.

KB: Billy Higgins was such a musical soloist, too. Somewhat underrated because his solos are not as flashy or as technically exciting as a lot of guys.

Buddy Rich and Max Roach
“Sing, Sing, Sing”
From Rich Versus Roach (1959)

KB: (listens until the first drum solo begins) That's Buddy Rich. The tune is “Sing, Sing, Sing,” and I'm guessing this is from the Rich Versus Roach record. To make a record with Buddy Rich during this time period was pretty ballsy. Max was about the only person who could stand up to him.

KV: Who wins this battle?

KB: Oh…(laughs) Well, Max has phenomenal technique, but you don't win many battles against Buddy Rich technically. On this particular tune, I don't think Buddy outplays anybody, honestly.

Ornette Coleman
“Open To The Public”
From Love Call (1968)

KB: That's obviously Elvin Jones.

KV: Do you still have a picture of Elvin in your wallet?

KB: It finally fell apart. See those two roses there in that glass? (Points to a vase on his desk) Elvin sent me those roses. Actually, a friend of mine wrote to Elvin on my 40th birthday and asked if he'd send me an autograph. He sent me a poster, an autograph and three roses — I've got another one at home. Is that Albert Ayler [playing saxophone]?

KV: No, but that's close.

KB: Well, for a minute, it's got shades of Ornette Coleman, but I wouldn't…

KV: It's Ornette – his album Love Call.

KB: Most people hear music like this, and they think that there's a lot of anger, and they hear Coltrane, and they always thought it was angry and stuff, and you talk to Elvin or hear him talk or read about him — he talked about the love and the joy and the honor of being involved in playing music like that. So it's real different than most people think. I make sure I show videos of these musicians to my class so they can see sometimes the love that's being played there more than the angst.

Andrew Hill
“Refuge”
From Point of Departure (1964)

KB: Sounds like Andrew Hill on piano with Tony Williams. Is this Point of Departure?

KV: Yeah.

KB: Tony's dad was a musician, and he'd invite people over when he was five and six years old, and he'd come in and say “Hey, you guys want to hear me play like Max Roach?” and he'd tune his drums, and then he'd play Max Roach solos, and then he would tune them down and play like Art Blakey. As a kid, he had the ear, so you hear all that kind of mélange of tradition, and somebody who's thinking like a young modern player — odd meter shifts, playing free, but yet playing in time rubato and staccato, legato and staccato — and he had all those things happening. Most drummers tend to be going one way or the other.

Chick Corea
“Matrix”
From Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (1968)

KB: This is Roy Haynes; it's the Now He Sings, Now He Sobs record with Chick Corea and Miroslav Vitous. This is “Matrix” I believe. This recording really brought, in some ways, Roy Haynes' clarity of sound to the fore; he's been playing that way forever. The reason that Chick Corea loved playing with Roy Haynes, I would think, is that Chick Corea has such a crisp, bell-like tone on the piano, and it's reflected so much in the way that Roy Haynes drums.

Booker Ervin
“Gant's Stand”
From Freedom Book (1963)

KB: The drummer reminds me of Frankie Dunlop. Somebody's obviously coming from a bit more modern approach, being able to break time up and float. He's got a sense of where he's playing time and playing swing really strong. I'm thinking it's like a Joe Chambers, or Louis Hayes.

KV: No, it's Alan Dawson.

KB: Is that Alan Dawson? Wow! You know what, it makes sense, how clean it is. I was thinking of Alan, but I've never heard Alan play with that much broken time. Yeah, I ought to have myself ran out of business for missing that one! Man, he sounds great on that!

KV: Didn't he teach Tony Williams?

KB: He did, and I studied with him some, too. It's real easy to see why Tony Williams was excited about studying with Alan, and of course, as far as playing melodically and all kinds of stuff, I'm not surprised. You don't hear him very much. The man was amazing in terms of musicality, and what he can do, and he often got sort of maligned by being over-technical, and, man, he didn't play over-technical on that. He plays beautiful.

Miles Davis
“Directions”
From The Cellar Door Sessions (1970)

KB: This is Jack DeJohnette. I think that he, in some ways, was kind of the Herbie Hancock of the drum world — so many projects, so many different things, real honesty in his playing. I saw him when he was here with Bill Frisell, and there was some things that he was doing with electronic percussion, which wasn't my cup of tea, but you know what? After I thought about it and listened to it and kind of let it sit in, I started thinking, you know, just what you want from somebody. Instead of just playing what they're good at doing and showing up and doing that, they're always trying to find something new, and along the way, a lot of great things will happen.