Ari Brown

Ari Brown’s career as a Chicago reed player who sometimes sits at the piano demonstrates equal command of hard bop, post-bop, and avant-garde jazz idioms. Having spent his early years on the South Side of Chicago, he completed high school in the first half of the 1960s and then enrolled at Wilson College in the same city. There he encountered Jack DeJohnette, Henry Threadgill, Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, and other future members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Until 1965 his piano work centered on soul and blues ensembles, after which he switched to saxophone and developed a deep engagement with jazz. Membership in the AACM arrived in 1971, solidifying his commitment to the music as his main pursuit. Saxophone appearances on several recordings by the obscure ensemble the Awakening, whose roster featured bassist Rufus Reid, marked this period. A 1974 car crash that cost him several teeth forced a year-long hiatus from the horn, during which piano became his sole instrument. Upon regaining full capacity he restored the saxophone to its central role and collaborated throughout the 1970s with figures that included McCoy Tyner, Don Patterson, and Sonny Stitt. Activity remained high in the following decade; he recorded alongside Lester Bowie and received calls from Von Freeman, Bobby Watson, and Anthony Braxton for the latter’s Charlie Parker Project. Lucrative involvement with Kahil El'Zabar’s Ritual Trio commenced in 1989. Although his sideman credits had grown extensive, Brown waited until 1995 to issue his debut leader date, the stylistically varied Ultimate Frontier on Delmark.