Versatility has characterized the career of Ari Brown, a
Chicago-based reedman and occasional pianist who plays hard bop
and post-bop as convincingly as he plays avant-garde jazz. After
growing up on the city's South Side and graduating from high
school in the early '60s, Brown attended Chicago's Wilson
College, where he met Jack DeJohnette, Henry Threadgill, Roscoe
Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, and others who would later become
members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative
Musicians (AACM). Brown played piano in mostly soul and blues
bands until 1965, when he took up the sax and starting becoming
seriously interested in jazz. In 1971, he joined AACM and made
jazz his primary focus. Brown played sax on a few albums by a
little-known group called the Awakening (who included bassist
Rufus Reid), but after losing some teeth in a 1974 auto
accident, he gave up playing the sax for about a year and played
the piano exclusively. Brown made a full recovery, made the sax
his main instrument once again and went on to work with players
ranging from McCoy Tyner and Don Patterson to Sonny Stitt in the
1970s. The Chicagoan also kept busy during the 1980s, recording
with Lester Bowie before being hired by Von Freeman, Bobby
Watson, and Anthony Braxton (who hired him for his Charlie
Parker Project). It was in 1989 that Brown began his lucrative
membership in Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio. But as long a resum�
as Brown had as a sideman, he didn't record as a leader until
1995, when he provided the diverse Ultimate Frontier for Delmark.
~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide
