Brazzaville

David Brown, the saxophonist from Beck’s band, shaped Brazzaville’s globally flavored indie pop through a combination of his own far-flung travels and the Los Angeles coffeehouse milieu that supplied most of the group’s personnel. A native of Los Angeles, Brown had lived as a teenage runaway and heroin user before travel offered renewed purpose once he recovered. He roamed across Europe, South America, and Asia, absorbing sounds from the Far East, Brazilian bossa nova and Tropicalia, African traditions, and French cabaret pop. Back in California he took up saxophone studies at Los Angeles City College, where he encountered Beck and entered the artistic community centered on the Los Feliz and Silver Lake districts. Once Beck attained widespread success, Brown was enlisted as saxophonist for the touring band and invited to record on Odelay.

During the 1997 world tour behind that album Brown originated the idea for Brazzaville, borrowing the name from the Congolese capital that a recent study had ranked lowest in quality of life among major cities. He added guitar to his instrumental range, which came to encompass piano, trombone, and percussion, and in 1998, after returning to Los Angeles, assembled a varied roster of local musicians and session players that mirrored his broad tastes. Trombonist and saxophonist David Ralicke had worked with Natalie Merchant, Ozomatli, Ben Harper, Macy Gray, and Ziggy Marley before joining the Cambodian rock band Dengue Fever. Guitarist and bassist Kenny Lyon, who spent part of his upbringing in Zaire and Spain, had performed with the Lemonheads, the Divinyls, Mark Curry, Jann Arden, and David Baerwald. Guitarist Smokey Hormel, another Beck regular, also appeared with Cibo Matto, Sam Phillips, John Doe, and Tom Waits. Percussionist Danny Frankel had played alongside Victoria Williams, Luscious Jackson, and bluesman Ted Hawkins. Pianist Mike Boito, likewise a Beck associate, had previously performed with Ralicke in the ska band Jump With Joey.

Joined by turntablist DJ Swamp and several additional players, this incarnation of Brazzaville recorded its self-titled debut and issued it on Brown’s South China Sea label in 1999. Reviewers praised the mixture of indie pop, lounge jazz, world music, and noir atmosphere, most often comparing it to Tom Waits or Morphine. Later that year Engine acquired distribution rights and reissued the album as 2002. The follow-up, Somnambulista, appeared in 2001 on South China Sea and introduced new members including percussionist Joel Virgel Vierset, born in Guadalupe and raised in Paris, who had worked with Nina Hagen, bassist Joe Zimmerman, and trumpeter and accordionist Mick Bolger, known for his Latin leanings. Brazzaville’s third album, Rouge on Pockmarked Cheeks, surfaced in 2002 with largely the same personnel. Brown subsequently moved to Barcelona and formed an alternate European lineup that included guitarist Paco Jordi, keyboardist Richie Alvarez, bassist Brady Arthur Lynch, and drummer Ivan Knight.