Early life Brown was born in
Atlanta in 1931 He was the grandson of an escaped slave from Georgia's
Sea Islands. He began studying the saxophone at an early age, inspired by
Charlie Parker. During his three-year enlistment, he played alto saxophone, clarinet, and baritone saxophone, and was stationed in
Hokkaido for some time. and
A. B. Spellman, a Howard graduate. According to Brown, "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 introduced me to the world. He was a very beautiful and very smart person." He also met
Ornette Coleman and
Archie Shepp, and introduced Shepp to Baraka. Brown later played a minor acting role in the original production of Baraka's
Dutchman. Regarding the recording session, he recalled: "We did two takes, and they both had that kind of thing in them that makes people scream. The people who were in the studio were screaming. I don't know how the engineers kept the screams out of the record. Spontaneity was the thing. Trane had obviously thought a lot about what he wanted to do, but he wrote most of it out in the studio. Then he told everybody what he wanted: he played this line and he said that everybody would play that line in the ensembles. Then he said he wanted crescendi until we were together, and then we got into it." During the mid-1960s, Brown began recording under his own name:
Marion Brown Quartet, recorded in 1965 and released on ESP the following year;
Why Not?, recorded in 1966 and released on ESP in 1968;
Juba-Lee, recorded in 1966 and released on Fontana in 1967; and
Three for Shepp, recorded and released in 1966 on
Impulse!. Coltrane had used his influence at Impulse! to secure Brown his own recording date with the label. Brown also performed with
Sun Ra and recorded with
Burton Greene on the album
Burton Greene Quartet.
In Europe In 1967, Brown moved to Europe, where he continued performing and recording, and where he developed an interest in architecture,
Impressionistic art,
African music and the music of
Erik Satie. He was an American Fellow in Music Composition and Performance at the
Cité internationale des arts in Paris. On a show on French television, he played a version of Sound Structure with drummer
Eddy Gaumont. Late that year, while in Holland, he recorded
Porto Novo with
Han Bennink and
Maarten Altena. While in Europe, Brown met and befriended
Gunter Hampel, and in 1968 they recorded the soundtrack for
Marcel Camus' film
Le temps fou, with a band featuring
Steve McCall,
Barre Phillips, and Ambrose Jackson. Brown and Hampel recorded two more albums,
Gesprächsfetzen (in 1968) and
Marion Brown In Sommerhausen (in 1969). While in Europe, Brown also performed in duos with
Leo Smith, recording
Creative Improvisation Ensemble.
Return to U.S. In 1970, Brown returned to the United States, settling in
Connecticut, where he at first worked in elementary schools, "teaching children how to make instruments and create their own music," His master's thesis was entitled "Faces and Places: The Music and Travels of a Contemporary Jazz Musician". During this time, he also studied South Indian flute with P. Vishwanathan. In the early 1970s, Brown also recorded a trilogy of albums influenced by poet
Jean Toomer, reflecting on his southern upbringing, in which "images of the Georgia countryside, many of them drawn from Toomer's poetry, and improvisational techniques of African, AfroAmerican, and European provenance enrich and revivify one another:",
ECM),
Geechee Recollections (1973,
Impulse!), which featured
Leo Smith and
Steve McCall among others;
Sweet Earth Flying (1974,
Impulse!, named after a line in a Toomer poem), which featured
Muhal Richard Abrams and
Steve McCall among others and November Cotton Flower ( 1979 Baystate Japan ) with Hilton Ruiz. Reviewer
Robert Palmer wrote: "The trilogy as a whole is an exemplary demonstration of how... a thoughtful artist can explore a 'subject' through a variety of techniques, processes, and formal disciplines. The shifting of perspective and approach from work to work is reminiscent of Durrell's
Alexandria Quartet and indeed Brown's examination of the emotional, intellectual, and aesthetic ramifications of his origins is the sort of thing one finds frequently in literature and rarely in improvisional music. was included in an art show called ''Jus' Jass'' at Kenkeleba Gallery in New York City, which also included works by artists such as
Romare Bearden,
Charles Searles and
Joe Overstreet. In 1984, he published an autobiography titled "Recollections". He is survived by his son Djinji Brown and his two daughters,
Anais St. John and Paloma Soria Brown. In September 2010,
Deval Patrick, then governor of
Massachusetts, issued a proclamation naming September 15 "Marion Brown Day." ==Influence==