What People Are Saying About Maurice Brown & "Hip to Bop"...
"From King Oliver to Louis Armstrong, Fats Navarro to Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis to Freddie Hubbard, Roy Hargrove to Nicholas Payton, it seems that all great jazz trumpeters, regardless of generation or stylistic inclination, are drawn to the funk. Each of those aforementioned artists - and there are many more - have steered jazz significantly by incorporating those sweaty, syncopated rhythms, edgy riffs and blues-based melodies we call funk.
You can now add Maurice Brown to that illustrious list of jazz trumpeters. His debut disc, Hip to Bop sublimely integrates the intricate improvisational burn of bebop with the pulsating rhythms of hip hop and R&B." -- John Murph, BETJazz.com
"Brown is one of the most exciting young trumpeters in jazz--be it New Orleans or New York. His improvisations are fresh, his chops dynamic and he's writing what could very well become a new generation of hard-bop-meets-new-grooves standards." -- Jason Koransky, Editor, DownBeat Magazine
"Give the younger generation its due, but do it when they deserve it. Maurice Brown is a New Orleans (via Chicago) trumpet wunderkind who's keeping the hard bop tradition alive with an exciting set of originals covering all the moods and tempos." -- Jazz Society of Oregon
In one of the most startling debuts of the year, 23-year-old trumpeter Brown -- a Chicagoan now based in New Orleans -- announced himself as a triple-threat artist, equally effective as virtuoso trumpeter, versatile composer and supremely confident bandleader. That a musician of Brown's young vintage could conceive a work as harmonically bold and structurally intricate as "Rapture," the recording's explosive opening track, suggests that this talent runs deep. So does "It's a New Day," with its unforgettably catchy main riff; "Mi Amor," a ballad of remarkable melodic beauty and poise; and the hard-charging, bebop-inspired "Look Ma No Hands." -- Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune Arts Critic
BIOGRAPHY...
One of the brightest stars on the contemporary jazz scene, Maurice Brown was born on January 6, 1981, in Harvey, IL. Showing a remarkable affinity for the trumpet, Brown performed with Ramsey Lewis at ~the Symphony Center in Chicago while still a student at Hillcrest High School. Following graduation, he received a full scholarship to attend Northern Illinois University, and later continued his studies at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA, where he worked with famed clarinetist Alvin Batiste. Brown relocated to New Orleans shortly thereafter, working with numerous jazz veterans, including Clark Terry, Johnny Griffin, Ellis Marsalis, and Lonnie Plaxico, as well as recording as a sideman with Curtis Fuller, Fred Anderson, Roy Hargrove, Michelle Carr, and Ernest Dawkins, among others. In 2001 he won first place in the National Miles Davis Trumpet Competition and in 2003 he released his first album as a bandleader, heading his Maurice Brown Quintet for Hip to Bop, which showed an amazing affinity for bop-inflected jazz, along with a willingness to expand the genre's lexicon through innovative techniques like playing trumpet solos through a wah-wah pedal. Brown continues to live in New Orleans, playing both with his quintet and hip-hop/funk group called Soul'd U Out.~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
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