This week as my special guest from the arts I’m pleased to be interviewing Ray Brown – composer, arranger, flugelhornist, jazz educator, and band leader. Ray started writing for big bands at the age of twelve in New York after hearing the creative and witty arrangements of Willie Maiden and Slide Hampton. After graduating from Ithaca College in 1968 Ray spent spent 18 months on the road with the Stan Kenton Band in the early seventies, playing the Jazz trumpet chair. In 1975 he moved to the San Francisco area and played with numerous groups, including Bill Berry’s LA Band, Nat Pierce and Frankie Capp’s Juggernaut, and the Full Faith and Credit Big Band, for which he wrote and conducted three albums. A Fulbright Guest Professorship to Germany in 1990 led to work with the Frankfurt Rundfunk Big Band and other groups in Europe. Once back in the US, Ray started the Great Big Band, which made its recording debut on Impressions of Point Lobos in 1994. The band’s book, creatively written by Ray, gives all the players ample time to solo. Standing room only audiences from the Monterey Jazz Festival to the Stanford Jazz Festival to the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz to the Lake Tahoe Music Festival are evidence of the band’s popularity. The band’s latest CD, “Kayak,” has enjoyed airplay throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Europe. Ray has also spent many years as a jazz educator, recently retiring from Cabrillo College where he taught Jazz improvisation, arranging, and Jazz ensembles for nearly 40 years. Ray’s Great Big Band plays at Cabrillo on 24 November.
Join me Saturday 9-10 PM to find out more about the life and art of Ray Brown. For more info and to hear previous shows visit www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
