Ted Brown's Freewheeling Sextet:

Ted Brown - tenor saxophone
Brad Linde - tenor saxophone
Sarah Hughes - alto saxophone*
Dan Roberts - piano
Michael Kramer - guitar*
Gavin Fallow - bass
Dave McDonald - drums

*some selections

The sextet will be playing music by Lennie Tristano, Warne Marsh, Lee Konitz, Ted Brown, and Lester Young. Tickets: $15/$10 students

Ted Brown, tenor saxophonist, was born in Rochester, New York, on December 1, 1927. He comes from a musical family. His father led a jazz band, playing banjo. His uncle and grandfather played saxophones in the band. The family moved to Southern California in 1942 because Ted's father was stationed there during World War II as a pilot in the Navy Air Corp. Ted's father encouraged him to improvise on the melodies of standard tunes while he accompanied him on tenor guitar (four-string). He also taught him to transcribe a few jazz solos from records including Coleman Hawkins' Body and Soul.

In September of 1948 Ted made it back to New York. The week he arrived in town the famous Miles Davis Nonet was playing its only engagement at the Royal Roost. Lee Konitz, the alto saxophone player in that band, made an immediate impact on Ted who recognized that Lee was taking a new direction different from Bird's. A few weeks later, having heard Lee and Warne play together at a private session with Lennie Tristano, Ted decided to study with Lennie and continued to do so for some seven years.

Ted's first recording experience occurred in March of 1956 at Rudy Van Gelder's studio. The Savoy album titled "All About Ronnie" included Ronnie Ball piano, Willie Dennis trombone, Ted Brown tenor sax, Wendell Marshall bass and Kenny Clarke drums.

In September of 1956, Ted became a member of the Warne Marsh Quintet, which included former Tristano students Ronnie Ball and Jeff Morton plus bass player Ben Tucker. The group worked weekends at a club in Hollywood and did three recording dates within three months…two under Warne's name, "Jazz of Two Cities" and "Modern Jazz Gallery" and one under Ted's name, "Free Wheeling" with the same personnel plus Art Pepper. Marshmallow Records has also released a tape which Ted had from the time he worked with Warne Marsh back in the fifties. That is called “Warne Marsh/Ted Brown Live In Hollywood 1957” and includes Ronnie Ball, Jeff Morton and Ben Tucker…recorded at Whistling’s Hawaii, 6507 Sunset Blvd.

In November of 2002, Ted recorded an album for SteepleChase under his own name with Harold Danko, Dennis Irwin and Jeff Hirshfield. It was titled "Preservation" as a tribute to Lester Young. In January of 2007, Ted recorded another album for SteepleChase. This was a trio setting with Steve LaMattina and Dennis Irwin titled “Shades of Brown”.

In October 2011, Ted was invited to record as a sideman on another album for SteepleChase. It was a quartet album under the leadership of cornet player Kirk Knuffke. It included John Hebert on bass and Matt Wilson on drums and is titled: Kirk Knuffke & Ted Brown “Pound Cake”. It is scheduled for release in the fall of 2012.