Biography
New York City expatriate Ron Brendle has worked as a freelance bassist in the Charlotte, NC, region since 1981 and earned recognition from Charlotte Magazine as Best Bassist. Throughout his career he has shared stages with an array of leading jazz figures who passed through the Queen City, among them Clark Terry, Andrew Hill, Charlie Byrd, Charlie Rouse, and Mose Allison. His most consistent studio partner, however, remains hard bop pianist and North Carolina native Frank Kimbrough. The pair have released the albums Hypermobility, Here, and Autumn, issued primarily on Brendle’s Lo Note imprint. He also assembled the quartet Lost Dogs, featuring saxophonists Doug Henry and John Alexander together with drummer Al Sergel. That ensemble documented its modern-jazz repertoire of original compositions and arrangements on the live recording Lost Dogs Live. Additional sessions have placed Brendle alongside saxophonist Alexander and the late Charlotte resident Loonis McGlohon.
Early exposure to jazz arrived through disparate recordings Brendle encountered while growing up. Discs retrieved from his grandmother’s attic included one-sided Edison 78 RPM pressings that he played on a wind-up phonograph. His father supplied another vein of material drawn from musical comedies, big-band performances, and Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s. Vocalists such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Margaret Whiting, and Jo Stafford further enriched the soundtrack of his youth. These accumulated influences formed the heritage that steered Brendle toward a life in jazz. The breadth of artists with whom he has worked has made him adaptable across jazz idioms, yet the recordings issued under his own leadership reveal a preference for a modern improvisational approach that gives every participant room to explore and realize musical ideas. Brendle stands as proof that sustained recognition in the field does not require residence in a major metropolis. Creative Loafing Magazine has named him Jazz Artist of the Year on three occasions, and he received the North Carolina Arts Council Jazz Composer Fellowship Grant, which supported the making of Hypermobility. In Charlotte’s active jazz community he remains a first-call bassist.
Early exposure to jazz arrived through disparate recordings Brendle encountered while growing up. Discs retrieved from his grandmother’s attic included one-sided Edison 78 RPM pressings that he played on a wind-up phonograph. His father supplied another vein of material drawn from musical comedies, big-band performances, and Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s. Vocalists such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Margaret Whiting, and Jo Stafford further enriched the soundtrack of his youth. These accumulated influences formed the heritage that steered Brendle toward a life in jazz. The breadth of artists with whom he has worked has made him adaptable across jazz idioms, yet the recordings issued under his own leadership reveal a preference for a modern improvisational approach that gives every participant room to explore and realize musical ideas. Brendle stands as proof that sustained recognition in the field does not require residence in a major metropolis. Creative Loafing Magazine has named him Jazz Artist of the Year on three occasions, and he received the North Carolina Arts Council Jazz Composer Fellowship Grant, which supported the making of Hypermobility. In Charlotte’s active jazz community he remains a first-call bassist.
Albums