Offbeat August 2004
Written by Geraldine Wycoff

Trumpeter Maurice Brown is undeniable. He can blow. Consider this-the only names to appear weekly on Snug Harbor's schedule are Marsalis and Neville (Ellis and Charmaine, respectively) and Maurice Brown. That says a lot in this musical town.

On a national level, the 23-year-old Chicago transplant has already racked up impressive credentials playing and recording with legendary jazz veterans such trombonist Curtis Fuller and fellow hotshot trumpeter Roy Hargrove. Last year's live recording with saxophonist Fred Anderson, Back at the Velvet Lounge, ignited further recognition of his ferocious talent.

Brown has now released his debut as leader with the very impressive and expressive, Hip to Bop. It's a real deal of an album that showcases with verve Brown's holistic approach and versatility as a musician, composer, producer and leader. He and his band with saxophonist Derek Douget, pianist Doug Bickel, drummer Adonis Rose and bassist Jason Stewart, have spent several years on bandstands fine-tuning Brown's challenging, yet audience-friendly, originals. Once in the studio, the tight ensemble was ready to roar.

Brown credits Wynton Marsalis for initially deepening his commitment to music. "Wynton got me so serious," states Brown, who was in the eighth grade when he met the renowned trumpeter at a workshop. Marsalis singled out the young trumpeter, asking him to play beyond the requested chorus and then took him aside to offer advice and encouragement. "I wasn't really practicing-I could play a little bit," confesses Brown, who vividly remembers Marsalis telling him that he had "it" and to practice, practice, practice. "It was a really big deal for me," the trumpeter admits with a laugh. From then on, blowing his horn took precedence over other activities enjoyed by his peers.

Recognition came early to the trumpeter who grew up in a musical and music-loving family. As a teenager, Brown won NARAS' all state high school talent competition that resulted in a performance with the National Grammy Band at the organization's award ceremonies. Pianist Ramsey Lewis was in attendance and was so impressed that he invited the 17-year-old trumpeter to play with him at Chicago's Orchestra Hall. Ovations and rave reviews followed-the first of many to come.

Before landing in New Orleans two-and-a-half years ago, Brown attended Northern Illinois and Columbia universities. In both cases the opportunity to tour interrupted his studies. Understandably, he opted to travel to Europe with renowned trumpeter Clark Terry and later headed out with guitarist Bobby Broom. Always eager to play, Brown was all over the Chicago jazz scene at noted spots like the Jazz Showcase, Green Mill and the Velvet Lounge. He blew side-by-side and soaked up the experience of greats like saxophonists Anderson and Von Freeman and trumpeter Lester Bowie.

Many people have been waiting for you to put out an album as leader and wondered what you were waiting for. Were you shopping around for a label? Why now?

No not all. The pressure was on me to get it done now because Doug was leaving. [Pianist Doug Bickel recently left New Orleans to teach at the University of Miami.] I've been rehearsing the band, getting it tight so when we went in the studio we basically just knocked everything out. Steve [Ultrasonic Studio's Steve Reynolds] was amazed how smooth the session went. We did it in one day.

A lot of bands record sort of the opposite way. New material, the band goes into the studio and then tour. I've heard artists regret that because the music is tighter following a tour.

I don't believe in that. When I wrote the tunes, I was writing them for the members of the band. In order to do that, I had to get to know everybody and get to know what their strong points and weak points were and then put my conception over that to have everybody have the same view. That's the problem with a lot of albums-it sounds good but everybody's not on the same page. I've never been real quick to want to rush anything because I know everything's coming. I'm not out to prove anything. I'm just out to share my music with the world. And that's exactly what I think I accomplished and we accomplished on this album.

So why didn't you shop the album? You didn't even look at major labels?

I wanted to have total control over the music, how it's presented and everything. If a label wants to pick it up once it's out… It's going to sell. I have two guest books filled with people that want CDs on my web site. I've got thousands of people who've hit it since Howard (The Chicago Tribune critic Howard Reich] did the article on me.
I think it's good to be with a major label, but it's not really my concern. They help promote you and get you more gigs and as far as you get to say, "I'm with a major label." But I don't think people care about that; I think people care about the music. I'd rather keep it honest and real. It's not like you get on a major label and your playing goes to another level. I'm pretty sure any label would pick the CD up-it's great quality, great studio, great mastering, the band is all-star, the compositions are good, there's a good balance of the different kinds of styles. It's Hip to Bop - that's what it is. I think they'll hear about it. They'll hear I'm selling all these CDs and they'll want to get into the action.

You wrote all of the material on the album. I was a little surprised you didn't include a standard, maybe like "Misty," as you play that tune on your gigs.

I wanted to hit everybody with originals on my first album. When you put standards on your album it's cool and the people can relate to them but that's really the record company approach. When I listen to this album, it's like, man, this is the way I wanted it to come out. In that way I'm happy already even if I only sell two CDs. I did it-I went ahead, I financed it, I got the music together, I produced it.

Audiences, particularly at your Snug Harbor dates, are pretty familiar with many of the tunes on the disc. Many already have favorites like the danceable title cut and the burn of "Look Ma, No Hands." Over what time period were they written?

All these tunes were written in the last two-and-a-half years. I have so many tunes; I have tunes for about 50 albums but I don't dish them all out. We have to really get to know the tunes and play them different every night - bring life to the tunes. That's the challenge.

As a trumpeter, how do you write? Do you write on piano or in your head?

I don't try to write tunes. My tunes come to me from like a simple melody in my head. Like "It's a New Day"-that was just a melody I was hummin' [Maurice starts humming and swaying.] Then I have to sit down to the piano and write the changes to them and counter melodies. We have [percussionist] Bill Summers on that one. I can be out being busy and hear a melody and I'll call my voice mail and leave it on there and deal with it when I get home. I hear music all day long.

It probably hit you in the head when Doug Bickel told you he was leaving town. When I listened to the CD, I thought oh, man, Bickel…

Oh… did it, does it. He's missed dearly. That was a big loss for New Orleans. He got a good gig though. He's going to be doing a lot of dates for us out-of-town and possibly come back for the CD release party. I'm happy for him. Jesse McBride is playing piano right now.

You're hooked up with a lot of nationally-known artists with whom you go out to play or bring into town. Did your affiliation with some of them happen when you were still in Chicago?

You could kind of say that, but also from word of mouth too. A lot of these cats call me and I know who they are and they say, "Hey, man I got your number from Ramsey Lewis," because Ramsey gave me my first gig.

I'm trying to bring a lot of the world to New Orleans and expose New Orleans to the world. In Chicago, every week you've got cats comin' in at the Jazz Showcase-Sonny Rollins this week, next week it could be like McCoy [pianist McCoy Tyner]. And I used to hook up with them-every last one of them. Every time they were coming to town, I knew where they were staying and I'd call and say, "I'm Maurice Brown, a young trumpet player. I was wondering if we could hook up, go to lunch." They'd be curious like, "This cat has a lot of initiative. I wonder if he can play." So they'd invite me to play. Almost every week, I was playing at the Showcase.

That's my thing too. When I wanted to play with somebody like when they came to Chicago, I would get their album and learn all their tunes. I'll never forget. I was playing with [drummer] Jeff "Tain" Watts in Chicago. He asked me, "What do you want to play?" I said, "Oh, it doesn't matter-whatever." He kind of looked at me said, "Oh yeah? All right then, 'The Impaler.' "It's one of his harder tunes. I started playing it and he said, "How do you know that?"

Do you find that you draw different audiences for your two groups-the quintet and Soul'd You Out?

It's strange because the benefit of having two bands is that the people who check out my funk/hip-hop band, come check Snug [with the acoustic jazz quintet] and vice versa. I think it has a lot to do with the way I'm presenting the music. I'm not playing different for each band. I'm just playing me. My influences begin with Louis Armstrong up to like Sly & the Family Stone and James Brown and Herbie Hancock. I don't think I could have named this album any better-Hip to Bop.

Since you mentioned Armstrong and we're celebrating Satchmo SummerFest, what did he bring to the music that is most significant to you personally?

One thing about Louis Armstrong that I admire so much was when he played it was honest. It was straight there. You don't have to try to figure it out. You don't have to say, "What is he trying to do? Is he trying to make it a little more wild? Is he trying to entertain the people?" He's just playing. It's real. He touched the masses.

Though you were all over this year's Jazz Fest as a sideman [he played about six or seven gigs including those with Zigaboo Modeliste, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and Ellis Marsalis] your quintet, which works regularly around town, didn't play the event. Why?

I don't want to burn no bridges but… I have a band. There aren't too many people that have a band-they put a band together. I need to pay my band. They're not hired musicians or sidemen. It's our band. We're tight and we're together and they need to be compensated for their talents and all the time they put into learning the music and usurping the conceptions that I've been throwing at them. Man, they've been doing such a great job. I don't feel like I want to disrespect them by not paying them the right way. That's why I didn't do Jazz Fest this year. They [Jazz Fest producers] need to show more love to the people that are here because without them, there is no Jazz Fest. And I apologize to all the fans who were looking forward to seeing the band.

How has living in New Orleans affected your playing?

Chicago people are real, I want to say, open. Playing free and avant-garde is really big in Chicago. There's a big following for that more so than just playing straight-ahead. Down here it's more traditional. I just try to bring that free element to the music but within all the rules of jazz-you know, real deep into the harmony. I'm playing what I'm hearing and New Orleans has definitely got me hearing a different type of melody.

Is there anybody you check out or does this come from like an overall vibe?

It's a big vibe, a big vibe. You know, join a brass band second lining. A lot of cats in New Orleans have strong chops from doing that-blowing outside. I was doing that in Chicago. I'd practice outside by the Sears Tower. People would be walking by and be like, "Wow. You want some money?" "Sure I'll take some money." [He laughs.]

Were you readily accepted on the scene when you first came to New Orleans?

I got vibed when I came down here-so bad. A cat that can play, not from here… I never did anything but treat everybody with love and respect and after a while everybody was just like, "Oh man, Maurice is cool." It didn't take that long. One thing you can't deny is reality. The reality is that if you can play you can play. It doesn't matter what you think about a cat or if he isn't from here. A lot of people think I'm from New Orleans now. I feel like I'm from here. I love New Orleans. I'm comfortable here. I think I can create here better than anywhere else. It's less stressful. Everything is at a slower pace. You don't have to try to keep up. You can just work on your craft. You can just relax and shed.