Raymond Matthews Brown (October 13, 1926 – July 2, 2002) was an American jazz musician who played the double bass. He worked a lot with famous musicians Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald. He was also one of the first members of a group that later became known as the Modern Jazz Quartet.

Early life

Ray Brown was born on October 13, 1926, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and learned to play the piano as a child. After seeing many pianists at his high school, he considered learning the trombone, but his father could not afford one. Because there was an opening in the high school jazz orchestra, he chose to play the upright bass instead.

A significant early influence on Brown's bass playing was Jimmy Blanton, the bassist in the Duke Ellington band. His high school music teacher believed he was a hardworking student because he took the bass home on weekends. However, Brown was already using the school bass for performances. When this was discovered, the bass had to be returned, and Brown's father purchased one for him. Brown graduated from high school in 1944.

Later life and career

When Ray Brown was young, he became well known in the Pittsburgh jazz scene. He first played in bands with the Jimmy Hinsley Sextet and the Snookum Russell band. Later, after hearing about the growing jazz scene on 52nd Street in New York City, he bought a one-way ticket to New York. He arrived in New York at age 20, met Hank Jones, a musician he had worked with before, and was introduced to Dizzy Gillespie, who needed a bass player. Gillespie hired Brown immediately, and he soon played with famous musicians like Art Tatum and Charlie Parker. In 1948, Brown left Dizzy's band to start a trio with Hank Jones and Charlie Smith.

From 1946 to 1951, Brown was part of Dizzy Gillespie's band. He, along with vibraphonist Milt Jackson, drummer Kenny Clarke, and pianist John Lewis, formed the rhythm section of the Gillespie band. Lewis, Clarke, and Jackson later created the Modern Jazz Quartet. Brown met singer Ella Fitzgerald when she joined the Gillespie band for a tour of the southern United States in 1947. They married that year and adopted a child born to Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances, naming him Ray Brown, Jr. Fitzgerald and Brown divorced in 1953 due to career pressures, though they continued to perform together.

From 1951 to 1965, Brown was a member of the Oscar Peterson Trio. The trio included a guitarist until 1958 (first Barney Kessel, then Herb Ellis). After Ellis left, Peterson continued the trio with Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen. Brown recorded many songs as a session musician for producer Norman Granz during the 1950s (for Granz's Clef, Norgran, and Verve labels), often with Peterson. After leaving the Oscar Peterson Trio, Brown focused on studio work in Los Angeles.

In the early 1960s, Brown began teaching at the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto.

Brown played bass on "Razor Boy," the second track on Steely Dan's second album, Countdown to Ecstasy, released in 1973.

From 1974 to 1982, Brown performed and recorded albums with guitarist Laurindo Almeida, saxophonist and flutist Bud Shank, and drummer Shelly Manne (replaced by Jeff Hamilton after 1977) as part of The L.A. Four.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Brown led his own trios and continued improving his bass playing style. In his later years, he recorded and toured with pianist Gene Harris. In the early 1980s, Brown met Diana Krall in a restaurant in Nanaimo, British Columbia. Jeff Hamilton, in an interview on the Diana Krall Live in Rio DVD, said he first heard Krall play at a workshop and introduced her to bassist John Clayton. Hamilton and Clayton encouraged Krall to move to Los Angeles to study with Brown and others. In 1986, Brown played bass on the song "Poisoned Rose" from Elvis Costello's King of America album. In 1990, he worked with pianist Bobby Enriquez and drummer Foster on Enriquez's album, The Wildman Returns.

Around the same time, Brown made seven albums with pianist André Previn after Previn returned to jazz in 1989. These included After Hours (1989, with guitarist Joe Pass), Uptown (1990, with guitarist Mundell Lowe), Old Friends (1992, live recording, with Mundell Lowe), Kiri Sidetracks. The Jazz Album (1992, with singer Kiri Te Kanawa and guitarist Mundell Lowe), What Headphones? (1992, with Mundell Lowe, Jim Pugh on trombone, Warren Vache on cornet, Richard Todd on horn, Grady Tate on drums, and The Antioch Baptist Choir), André Previn and Friends Play Show Boat (1995, with Mundell Lowe and Grady Tate), and Jazz at the Musikverein (1997, live recording, with Mundell Lowe). Brown and Previn had previously recorded together in the 1960s on 4 To Go! (1963, with guitarist Herb Ellis and drummer Shelly Manne) and Right as the Rain (1967, with singer Leontyne Price). A film titled Together on Broadway. The Making of Sidetracks documents the work on the album Kiri Sidetracks. The Jazz Album.

Brown played with the "Quartet" featuring Monty Alexander, Milt Jackson, and Mickey Roker. Later, he toured with his own trio, working with young pianists like Benny Green, Geoffrey Keezer, and Larry Fuller. The final version of the Ray Brown Trio included pianist Larry Fuller and drummer Karriem Riggins. With that trio, Brown continued performing until his death. He died in his sleep on July 2, 2002, after playing golf before a show in Indianapolis.

Awards and honors

In 1995, Brown received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music. In 2001, he was given the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class. In 2003, he was added to the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame.

He received his first Grammy for composing "Gravy Waltz," a song that later became the theme music for The Steve Allen Show.