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145 Marion Brown Alto saxophonist Marion Brown quickly became one of the bright young voices of the new music in the five years that he lived in New York during the mid-1960s. At the end of 1964, he performed both with Bill Dixon and Archie Shepp in the Jazz Composers Guild–sponsored series at Judson Hall, Four Days in December. Through 1965 he recorded with Shepp and on John Coltrane’s Ascension, before recording his own first date as a leader for ESP (Marion Brown Quartet) in November; a month after, he played on Burton Greene’s debut for the label. The following year he made his second album for ESP, Why Not? (recorded October 23, 1966), which was quickly followed by dates for Fontana and Impulse. Early in 1967 he played on Jacques Coursil’s date for ESP (unissued), before leaving for Paris; in Europe he began his long association with Gunter Hampel. During the 1970s he taught music at colleges in New England. In the ’80s, often in Europe, he began to focus as well on painting, a longtime interest (in recent years, Marc Albert-Levin mounted a show in Paris of thirty-eight paintings by Brown: all of them sold). In the ’90s a series of illnesses entailed the partial amputation of his leg and also brain surgery, and he lived for some years in a nursing home in Brooklyn, before moving to an assisted living facility in Hollywood, Florida, where he lived near his son Djinji, also a musician. In October 2010 he passed away there, a year and seven months after this interview. You moved to New York in 1962, and the first person you met was LeRoi Jones. That led to Archie Shepp, Ornette, and Coltrane. But you also knew other writers there, such as A. B. Spellman and Ishmael Reed. What did that bring to you, being friendly with writers? The writers who listened to me and liked my playing, they inspired me to be better, and I inspired them to keep listening. LeRoi Jones opened the door for me; he in troduced me t o the world. He was a v ery beautiful and very smart person. I’ve been reading some of his latest books. 146 esp-disk’ as lived and witnessed We used to practice at 27 Cooper Square, and he lived in that building on the top floor. Archie Shepp lived on the second floor. So he knew what we were doing all along, because he was upstairs listening. And you know what, he was taking trumpet lessons. One day I was up to his house and he picked his trumpet up. I s aid, “Man, you sound like Don Cherry.” He smiled, “That’s who is teaching me.” How did you become aware of the ESP label? What records and musicians did you know? I found out about them through working with Pharoah Sanders in S un Ra’s band. See, when Bernard Stollman came on the scene, he made an impression on everybody because he was really sharp minded. He knew there was a fortune in new music and new musicians playing away from the way they played in the past. And that’s where he set his goal. He very seldom came to my gigs, but he had people coming there listening and telling him w hat they thought. Th ey must have given good reports because he recorded me first. How did Bernard Stollman hear about you? Through his informers. Then he started coming out and listening, to see if what they said was right. Coltrane was the same way. He used to come to the gig, and I’d see him out there. I’d say, What is Trane doing here? He was listening to me. Because I had started out at a place where he was going. He was very interested in me. He treated me like a kid brother; he loved me. Before ESP produced your first date as a leader, you had already recorded with Coltrane. You’d worked with Bill Dixon, plus Sun Ra, plus Archie Shepp. What do you recall about that first ESP session? There was a F renchman I kne w named Marc Albert. He loved that music. He couldn’t speak any English, but in two months time he was speaking it perfectly. He was t here checking out the new music, because he st arted writing about music and translating books. He was sitting...

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