The Barra Brown Trio and Quintet play The 1905 on our PJCE Records Presents series!
Barra Brown had this to say about the show: “Barra Brown Trio is a synthesis of musical worlds I’ve spent time in: classical, improvisation, and singer/songwriter. To me it sounds like singable melodies with impressionist harmony. I wrote this music with Mike Gamble and Jon Lakey in mind. We have an album that’s in the can, but nothing released yet. (Except these YouTube vids)”
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV1M8Se0FrSEhgBMNptsmagKI2K8aHHQ3
Personnel:
Barra Brown Quintet
Thomas Barber-trumpet
Machado Mijiga-tenor
Jack Radsliff-guitar
Arcellus Sykes-bass
Barr’s Brown-drums/compositions
We will he playing selections from my two PJCE releases “Songs for a Young Heart” and “Dreaming Awake”.
About Barra Brown
A truly eclectic musician, Barra Brown studied classical flute performance at Lewis & Clark College where he graduated with honors while studying drums on the side through the prestigious Alan Jones Academy of Music (AJAM). Barra has toured the continental United States and Alaska with Shook Twins, Ages and Ages, Alameda, Morning Ritual and has performed at The Fillmore West and Red Rocks Amphitheater. A leader of many bands, He has two releases of original compositions with the Barra Brown Quintet (BBQ) on Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble Records (PJCE) who, in Fall of 2017, commissioned him to write a piece for their twelve-person large ensemble. “Down at Buckskin Lake” was premiered at the PJCE Ten Year Anniversary Celebration. Barra has worked with Cavity Search Records (Elliott Smith, Wayne Horvitz, Helio Sequence) since 2014 when he released an EP with The Wishermen, a collective of young jazz heavyweights dedicated to exploring genre boundaries and creating a new amalgam of many styles and influences. He is currently writing, recording, and performing with his new project Korgy & Bass, a creative beat-making exploration with several releases out on Cavity Search Records including 26000=4:2500Side-A & 2500=4:26000 Side-B and their new album Remote: a sonic journey from industrialization to the modern-day tech industry. Remote was collaboratively written with NOLA trumpeter Cyrus Nabipoor and released in 2019.
In Spring of 2017, Brown released his collaborative album Poem Project on Cavity Search Records. Poem Project captures the beauty of interpretation through the unique story each musician is moved to tell when interpreting the same song. After writing the song “Poem” (derived from Claude Debussy’s “Girl with the Flaxen Hair”) Brown asked eight different musicians from around the country to write lyrics to and arrange their own version of the song Poem. Brown’s collaborative project spanned several years between Winter 2014 and Spring 2017 and includes members from Radiation City and The Shins (Patti King), Ages and Ages (Colin Jenkins), The Westerlies (Zubin Hensler), and musicians from L.A, New York City, Austin, and Brown’s hometown of Portland, OR.
Barra has shared the stage with Makaya McCraven, Masego, Robert Glasper, Kneebody, Gregory Alan Isakov, Lake Street Dive, and Ani DiFranco. He has worked with Michael Curry, OMSI PNCA, Alan Jones, Radiation City, Ages and Ages, Shook Twins, Morning Ritual, Old Wave, and the Portland Jazz Composer’s Ensemble.
