Anita Brown: Press

Nyack-style jazz sits in for a week
BY EMILY KRATZER
THE JOURNAL NEWS • JULY 14, 2008

There's jazz all over the Lower Hudson Valley this month - from a village green in New Rochelle to an international festival at Katonah's Caramoor - but from July 20 to 27, jazz fans know to go to Nyack.

Pianist-composer Mike Holober put together the selections for the Westchester Jazz Orchestra, which performs Tuesday [7/22/08] at Nyack's Memorial Park. That concert features arrangements commissioned by the orchestra over the past two years. The arrangers featured are Haviland, Sussman, Mark Patterson, Scott Reeves and Anita Brown.

"I arranged 'Sabiá' by Antonio Carlos Jobim, who wrote 'The Girl from Ipanema,' and did it for Jason Rigby, who is also my tenor sax player," Brown said. "He's a beautiful player and I knew he could handle the chord structure."

She describes her arrangement as having a tiny fragment that repeats in a changed way, to remind the listener that a new segment is starting.

"The gist of 'Sabiá' is that it's reflective and melancholy, a little dark - regarding love - and then optimistic, because it's like: 'I did this journey to learn more about myself,'" she said.

Brown teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and leads the Anita Brown Jazz Orchestra. In its first performance in two years, the orchestra will do two sets July 28 at Cachaça Jazz and Samba Club in Greenwich Village.

The following has just been brought to my attention. It is an excerpt from a discussion of Maria Schneider's recent release, "Sky Blue," by one of my strongest supporters, Chicago jazz journalist and author, Larry Kart:

August 8, 2007
"Not to play one woman off against another (which I don't think I'm doing), but one of the most impressive big band albums I've heard in recent years is this 2003 effort from Anita Brown, "27 East":

http://www.anitabrownmusic.com/

First, Brown (who happens to be the daughter of vaunted Tristano-ite tenor saxophonist Ted Brown and Phyllis Brown, also a onetime Tristano student) draws on the some of the same pool of NYC freelancers that Schneider does. Second, Brown's music is also fairly programmatic at times, though IMO she's one those rare composers whose language gifts are spurred by programmatic setups (references to the sea, lighthouses, etc.) rather than being illustrative of them. Finally, (again IMO) she has a much more adventurous, sharp-edged musical mind than does Schneider, plus a wider range of colors and moods. And her band plays its collective ass off for her.

Check out the clips from the album (and elsewhere) on Brown's site -- the most effective in excerpt probably being "The Lighthouse" (written for Greg Gisbert) and "The Touch of You." Be sure too to click on the links in which Brown gives some background for each piece. Also, while these performances were done in the studio, they were, out of economic necessity, all complete unedited takes."

"In 27 EAST, Ms. Brown has created a dense, gorgeous pallette of sounds. Each piece is not just a 'riff, solo, solo, riff and close,' but a musical trip through the places, people and events that have meaning in her life. By listening to thismusic you are getting a small introduction to what it is that makes this woman tick. She has clearly chosen her musicians carefully, using those that are not just top drawer New York session men and women (which they all are), but those who also have meaning in her life and therefore can understand what she wants to convey at certain points in the music; and convey it they do..."

Anita’s "27 East" is one of the best large ensemble jazz recordings I've heard in a long while. She has her own pallete and brushstrokes. To put it another way, to really write for an orchestra, one needs to have genuine orchestral thoughts, and Anita has them. She is a composer who's bursting with stories to tell. Urgent stories, and lots of different kinds of stories too. She has a unique ear for dissonance, [and] seems to me less beholden to some of [the] models. She has swallowed and legitimately incorporated her influences and sounds only like herself.

Anita Brown's debut recording makes a resounding statement of the wholesomely vital values of big band writing and performance. [Her] giftedness is channeled into her soulful music with strongly perceptible values... Carving out new growth paths...she smoothly weds substance with inspiration and passion, thus fashioning beautiful music. Anita Brown serves serious notice with her maiden voyage orchestra...[and] her unquestioned position of firm strength and resonant originality."

“Disarming charts... reveal myriad details of subtle wit and flexible spirit...using brass with the acumen and majesty of Johnny Richards...and wave-like riffs that break into Mingus-like backbeat.”

Anita Brown’s terrific first CD, ‘27 EAST’ [was] produced without interference or compromise. Watching her conduct her ABJO performing her own music is to witness joy in its purest form...a journey full of power, depth and imagination."

“This superior album should be treated as a major event within the big band firmament... This is a major work that will transcend any doubts one may have about contemporary big band writing and performance.”

"This CD is so good! I'm enjoying it and hear new things every day."

“[Anita] is better than she thinks she is. I would like to help her in any way I can.”

“Anita’s compositions are marvelous tone poems...and the band brought them off beautifully. Serious, beautiful writing and a wonderful group. [This] band is in the same category [as] the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and Maria Schneider.”

"This new recording by Anita Brown has been a long time in coming and it is truly worth the wait!! Anita has the ability to write music from the soul and for the soul. Get this CD, you'll love it! Guaranteed!"
--

“[Anita] couldn’t have arranged a more impressive coming-out party... aided and abetted on 27 EAST by a blue-chip New York-based ensemble...”

“Inventive big band writing by the leader and a solid band from NY area.”

“Anita Brown, may not be as familiar to the average modern jazz aficionado. But her album, 27 EAST, was one of the most engaging new discs released in 2003.”
--

"The debut CD of the Anita Brown Jazz Orchestra fills me with hope and lifts my spirit. Her skills as an arranger and bandleader convince me that the future for big bands is in good hands!!”
--

“Anita put an enormous amount of energy into this project, and it
really paid off! The atmosphere in the studio was intensely focused,
yet full of the joy which comes when really talented people are doing
really good work, and loving every minute of it. I was very glad to be a part of this recording."

"Everything about '27 EAST' is so great. [Anita] seems to have captured every feeling [she] was inspired by."

"Wonderful. A beautifully evocative record! I love it. Gorgeous textures, color, and tones."

“Innovative, original jazz...”

Others to come along over the next three decades included the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band, Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass, the Bob Florence Orchestra and the Bob Mintzer Big Band. Recently emerging bands on the scene today include Boston’s Greg Hopkins Jazz Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band, the Anita Brown Jazz Orchestra and the Jazz Heritage Orchestra of the Mid-West. Brown is a graduate of UNH who has been developing her band in New York over the past several years.

"Brown received the 'most musical' superlative for her graduating class, and also plucked the lone music scholarship. Now she can only sigh when told of music program cutbacks."

Arts Council of Rockland Grant Announcements "Hillcrest Elementary and Anita Brown for "Let's Compose!"...