MARION BROWN — Marion Brown Quartet (review)

MARION BROWN — Marion Brown Quartet album cover Album · 1966 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
snobb
"Marion Brown Quartet" is the debut album for the American free jazz alto sax player, recorded in 1965 - the same year when Brown participated on one of John Coltrane's most noticeable avant-garde albums, "Ascension".

The album contains just three longish compositions, all played very much in a fashion of the time and the ESP Disk label aesthetics. Still, different from the noisy, aggressive and chaotic free jazz, which is almost a trademark of the mid-60s, Marion's music is quite well organized and is spiritual and even lyrical in moments. Playing with such strong collaborates as bassist Reggie Johnson, drummer Rashied Ali and sax player Benny Maupin among others, Marion is an obvious leader of this session. His free and lyrically-colored sax soloing is in formation period, but one can hear a lot of Brown's future characteristic sound.

Of the three album songs, one is recorded with bassist Ronnie Boykins (two with Reggie Johnson on bass), and on one more, sax player Benny Maupin replaces trumpeter Alan Shorter. Generally, the different players don't make a big difference in the quite relaxed and acoustically warm album's sound. With an obvious leader, there is enough space for each participant in the album's music.

It's interesting to note, that on many later album reissues, the track "Exhibition" was replaced by "Mephistopheles", recorded at the same session with Alan Shorter, but without Bennie Maupin. Covers of many of these reissues use the original track listing, which can be confusing. The 2005 CD reissue contains all the tracks(four songs in all).

Very much a characteristic evidence of its time, this album preserves the spirit of early free jazz era quite well and can be recommended for everyone interested in better examples of late 60s free jazz as well as fans of Marion Brown's music, he sounds good here.
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