Bass player Nathan Brown is a rising New York Jazz star and he is very much in demand these days. The people he has worked with, underscore that point nicely. Notable among them are; Wes ‘Warmdaddy’ Anderson, Randy Brecker, Carl Allen, John Faddis, Wycliffe Gorden, Lewis Nash and Paquito D’Rivera. Of interest to us, he has also had a long collaboration with the New Zealand born drummer Mark Lockett. After years of performing with his regular trio at the ‘Cleopatra’s Needle Jazz Club’, he decided that it was time to record some of the material that they had been performing. The synergy between the artists was already great but what upped the ante were their influences. The trio guitarist Felix Lemerie was influenced by Grant Green; his drummer Peter Traunmuller by Philly Joe Jones and Brown by bassist Paul Chambers. These influences although not aligned stylistically, led Brown to ponder; what if all three had played together; what would such a trio sound like?. Out of that idea came the ‘This is the moment’ album and the next step was to take the music on the road. Thanks to Brown’s association with Lockett, New Zealand was included in an Australasian leg of the tour.
Throughout the tour, Brown kept to the original bass, guitar and drums format (with the exception of Auckland, where pianist Kevin Field was substituted). Lockett and Brown were the constants, with local guitarists stepping in along the way.
Just before he started the tour, I sent him a few questions to answer:
Q. Do you see your trio as a groove unit, a blended approach or something quite fresh and different?
- For this particular album, I would have to say groove unit. the entire vibe of this album is heavily steeped in the hard-bop tradition coming out of the Blue note records of the 50’s
Q. I am fascinated in reading through your bio that you initially played Euphonium and Tuba. These have been used extensively for bass lines in the pre-amplification past and that tradition has continued with modern avant-garde units, nonets and Jazz orchestras. Bill Crow (from the Jerry Mulligan bands ) started on brass instruments like the tuba and valve trombone. Then he was encouraged (pushed) into changing to string bass. Do the brass bass lines inform your approach at all?
- So much of the evolution of bass lines is tied directly to the string bass that playing the Tuba doesn’t really affect my approach to bass lines. The idiomatic bass line motions arose out of the technicalities What it does help me with however is a better understanding of brass and wind instruments. This is very useful when writing and arranging music for these instruments
Q. Any move from a sideman to a leader, will inevitably change things from a compositional point of view. I have seen bass player leaders happy to remain well back in the mix – leading from within, but that is less usual. What is your approach.?
- I like to believe that jazz music is a collective effort. everyone involved should get a chance to shine. With my trio, I’m happy to play some in the forefront of the mix at points, but I also think it a necessity to play in the back of the mix at points to let me comrades come through with their musical statements.
Q. What were your thoughts, your aims, when assembling this trio?
- There was no grand plan when I first assembled my trio. I’d been hosting a steady weekly gig at a well-known jazz club in New York City called Cleopatra’s Needle for years. At first, I would rotate my musician friends onto the band every week. I tried dozens of combinations of players over the course of a year. I finally settled upon Felix and Peter, we really communicated well musically. At that point, I started using them exclusively. I then started to take each of our influences (Grant Green for Felix, Philly Joe Jones for Peter, and Paul Chambers for me) and began composing music that channelled this together.
Q. Who among the artists that you have performed with have you enjoyed most.
- I would say my first great mentor and teacher Wess “Warmdaddy” Anderson. Even after two strokes, he still has the ability to lift the musicianship and spirit of everyone performing on stage with him, and in turn, lift the spirit of the audience.
I didn’t get to hear the guitar trios live but with Kevin Field on board the swing and groove feel was maintained with ease. It was a pleasure to experience a gig that was so warm and soulful. The music was transporting, like an old friend; reminding us of a shared experience but then telling the stories in ways that were fresh to our ears. A good example was the groove tune Curly’s revenge. On the album, with guitar, it took you to Montgomery Land and then right to Grant Green’s doorstep. With piano, it had a delicious and unmistakable Bobby Timmons vibe. I love tunes like this; they hint of the familiar, then tell you something else; fragmentary quotes which flashed past before you could grab at them, morphing beautifully into new tunes and always with that deep swing feel.
It was obviously a good time for Brown to emerge as a leader. The right time because his material is superb and his bass playing is burnished by years of gigging and absolutely compelling. His compositions also stood out. While the recorded trio would have been superb, we didn’t miss out. Field is an interesting musician, adaptable to any situation and always at the top of his game. The same goes for Lockett who is open-eared and responsive to nuance. Listening to Lockett is listening to history, but always with quirky asides thrown in to leaven the loaf.
For copies of the album visit nathanbrownmusic.com or Gut String Records. The gig was organised at this end by Mark Lockett of the WJC. His work on these tours is greatly appreciated as it dovetails nicely with the CJC Creative Jazz Club’s programmes and tours. The Venue was the Thirsty Dog in K’Rd Auckland, I November 2017.
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