Where Y'at Magazine • August 2004
One to Watch: Maurice Brown

There is a new cat in town and he’s burning it up, causing all the Greats to turn their heads and watch. Hailed as an adventurous player that writes adventurous music, Maurice Brown has exploded into jazz scenes across the country and has been racking up praise wherever he goes since he started playing Chicago jazz clubs in high school. With solos described as “tonally brilliant and stylistically unorthodox,” Brown has leapt off the shoulders of jazz giants such as former teacher Wynton Marsalis with a vision for a new voice for the jazz of his generation. Since coming to New Orleans from Chicago, Brown has been helping to develop the small, tucked away modern jazz scene, culminating in his latest album Hip to Bop, set to be released this month, comprised entirely of his own original compositions and featuring Bill Summers, Doug Bickel, Derek Douget, Adonis Rose and Jason Stewert. Ellis Marsalis adds to the liner notes, “He is paying homage to the past with elements of the present serving as the foundation for future concepts.” With a history that includes playing with Elvin Jones at the Blue Note jazz club in New York and a fresh line-up of new tracks, we’re lucky to have him play every Tuesday night at our own Snug Harbor with our own greats, such as Aaron Neville and George Porter, Jr. At a career point that seems like it couldn’t get much higher, Brown states that he “just wants to get better every day.”

You took some pretty big strides early on in your career in Chicago. Is that unusual, starting to play around town when you were just 16 and 17?

Yeah, definitely. I started plying with Ramsey Lewis when I was sixteen. That was a pretty big deal, because I was still in high school.

Are there stories you still tell about the first time you got up on stage with some of the big players?

With Ramsey, it was just pretty much a great experience playing with him. I played with Alvin Jones – I’d been listening to him all my life – getting onstage with him and actually having someone playing behind you, you get like, “Wow, it’s Alvin Jones!” That was a real highlight. Now, McCoy Tyner came and played too. He sat in on that gig that we were playing at the Blue Note in New York.

Chicago has a very vibrant Jazz scene. What’s the difference between Chicago and New Orleans?

Chicago has more of a blues and avant garde feel. New Orleans has a more traditional outlook on the music. The way that they groom people, I admire that a lot. The way that they start the kids off young: you walk down the streets and hear kids playing. I think that’s real cool. I wish we had that in Chicago – I could have been playing horns when I was six years old.

Did that make it more difficult for you to get started in Chicago?

Not really, because I didn’t know life existed like that. I was just doing my thing. I’ve always been really self-motivated. Wynton [Marsalis] told me one day, at his house, that Ellis [Marsalis] was telling him that if you want to be better than the average person, and you want to do great things, you have to go beyond expectations and you have to go beyond what the average person does. So if the average person practices eight hours a day, you gotta practice nine. That was totally my motivation: while everyone else was playing, I was practicing. When Wynton told me that I had it I was like, “Oh, it’s not a game anymore. This is serious business.”

How have you been received locally?

Often in this town there’s an anti-outsider vibe.
When I first got here that happened a lot, but now a lot of people think I’m from here. Even when I’m out of town, I’m looking at advertisements that promise Maurice Brown from New Orleans! I feel really at home here now, and the people have really embraced me, as well as the community itself, and the musicians, too. The one thing that I can say about New Orleans musicians is that they do have that kind of vibe that you were talking about – but if you can play, then they really don’t have much to say about it! I think one thing about New Orleans is that you can come down here and have the people feel that what you’re doing can be successful anywhere because people know music here.

You’ve made a name for yourself in town as a bandleader. What does it take to lead a band versus being a player?

First of all, I think in order to be a great leader, you have to be an even better sideman. Being able to deal with a bunch of different personalities, especially when you’re dealing with good musicians, because good musicians have egos. It’s understandable why – they put a lot of practice and time into what they’re doing, and they have a lot to say musically. You’ve got to somehow make everybody happy and still get your vision across. That’s the challenge of being a leader.

This is your first album as a leader. What do you think of the release?

When the quintet went into the studio, we’re so tight because we’ve been playing for so long that we could basically just lay it down. The one thing I think people will hear on this album is that it doesn’t sound uptight. We’re having fun just like we were doing a gig. We had confidence in the direction that we were going. We weren’t trying to find our direction in the studio. We came to the studio with the direction. It was actually really pleasant! It’s usually really stressful, but we just laid it down, took care of business, and it was a lot of fun. The album is called Hip to Bop. I think it kind of describes my plan and what the group is about. We’re playing hip, and we’re still up here true to the tradition and the foundation of the music. It could be a movement almost. They have the Hip Hop movement, and you can have the Hip Bop movement. It’s what I think we need for the younger generation to keep them excited. There’s one thing about this album that I’m really proud of. It’s a word I hope people think about when they think about my plan. I believe it’s really honest. We’re not out to prove anything (laughs). I just want to share my music with the world. I want to make sure everyone knows about this album.