Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ari Brown was born on February 1, 1944. Growing up in Chicago he learned to play the piano and saxophone. He attended Wilson College where he met Jack DeJohnette, Henry Threadgill, Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman.

Brown played piano in R&B and soul bands in the 1960s, then switched to saxophone in 1965. By  1971 he was a member of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) and was also playing with The Awakening in the early 1970s. In 1974 Ari lost several teeth in a car crash, and temporarily switched to piano again until he recovered.

By the late 1970s he was playing sax once more with McCoy Tyner, Don Patterson and Sonny Stitt. In the 1980s, Brown worked with Lester Bowie, Von Freeman, Bobby Watson and Anthony Braxton. He would later become a member of Kahil El’Zabar’s trio.

As a leader he recorded three albums for Delmark and as a sideman has recorded thirteen sessions with The Awakening, the Ritual Trio, Orbert Davis, the Juba Collective and the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic. Saxophonist and pianist Ari Brown continues to perform and record.