Ari Brown Quartet & Pete Cosey Delmark DVD

Ari Brown

Just had this press release through from Delmark:

Local unsung heroes of Chicago jazz and blues unite for a special Green Mill engagement for future Delmark DVD/CD!! JUNE 22, 23, 2007 ARI BROWN Quartet with very special guest, PETE COSEY (June 23rd only) Live at the Green Mill, Friday, June 22nd and Saturday, June 23rd (Cosey only on 23rd)

Some exciting news just confirmed, Delmark’s next recording for future DVD/CD will be the Ari Brown Quartet - Kirk Brown (piano), Yosef Ben Israel (Bass), and Avreeyal Ra (drums). with Pete Cosey on guitar at the Green Mill. Special guest Pete Cosey on “electric mud” guitar will be performing with Ari Brown on Saturday the 23rd only.

ARI BROWN is a composer, arranger and educator whose principle instrument is the saxophone. He has performed with many music greats including: Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams, Lou Rawls, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Elvin Jones, Andrew White, Della Reese, Billy Eckstein. Mr. Brown has also performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the Chicago premier of the Anthony Davis opera, "Malcom X". He has also performed a clarinet solo on the score in Universal Studio's motion picture, The Babe . He has toured all over the world including Japan, Europe, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Singapore. He received his BA of Music Education from Vandercook College of Music, and has made numerous recordings, including 1998’s Venus (Delmark 504) and Ari’s debut as a leader, 1996’s Ultimate Frontier . (Delmark 486) - from AACM website

Ari Brown is one of the busiest and most versatile musicians in Chicago though his highest profile gigs have often involved working or recording as sideman to Lester Bowie, Elvin Jones, Anthony Braxton, and Kahil El’ Zabar’s Ritual Trio to name a few. Ari blends two traditions; the Chicago tough tenor and the AACM. He melds them into one voice. And no matter how far out he takes the music it still remains accessible and enjoyable. In the Chicago Reader Neil Tesser described Ari's debut album, Ultimate Frontier (Delmark 486), as a "flavorful tour de force sustained by a soulful spirituality". Venus maintains that spirituality but also showcases Ari's live performance feel.

Pete Cosey

PETE COSEY is an underground legend of the electric guitar, best known to blues fans as one of the in house Chess Records guitarists in the late 60’s and early 70s’s psychedelic era (Muddy Waters’ Elecric Mud and Howlin Wolf’s ‘69 “psych album”, and to jazz fans as the wild guitarist with Miles Davis in the mid 70’s on Dark Magus, Agharta, and Pangaea.

“Cosey’s searing, wah-wahing psychedelic leads sound like the bastard spawn of Funkadelic’s Eddie Hazel and free-jazz string mangler Sonny Sharrock. A partial list of the blues, soul, rock, and jazz heavies he played with includes Chuck Berry, Billy Stewart, Fontella Bass, the Soul Stirrers, Jerry Butler, the Dells, Etta James, and the Rotary Connection. He can be heard on popular recordings by Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Herbie Hancock. He helped found both the Pharaohs and Earth, Wind and Fire and was an early member of the AACM, playing in a trio with organist Amina Claudine Myers and drummer Ajaramu and in Group For, a quartet with saxophonist Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre and Art Ensemble of Chicago drummer and bassist Don Moye and Malachi Favors. He spent several years as the guitarist in the Gene Ammons Trio, and was a longtime member of Phil Cohran's Artistic Heritage Ensemble. At one point, he was jobbing in Chess Records' house band by day and jamming with Muhal Richard Abrams's Experimental Big Band by night.” - from Chicago Reader’s Peter Margasak