Guest Bill Barton Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 (edited) 1931-2008 Pianist Patti Bown, born in Seattle, has died at age 76 in a Media, PA nursing home. There's an obituary in today's print edition of The Seattle Times wriiten by Times Jazz Critic Paul de Barros. For some reason it is not available online. Searches of Philadelphia and other PA newspapers online came up with with no notices. She recorded quite prolifically, including sessions with Gene Ammons, Bill Coleman, Illinois Jacquet, Etta Jones, Quincy Jones, Cal Massey, Oliver Nelson, Jimmy Rushing, Cal Tjader and Dinah Washington. All Music lists her album from 1960 on Columbia, Plays Big Piano, as her only date as a leader. R.I.P. Edited March 21, 2008 by Bill Barton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free For All Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 One of the first things that comes to mind when I think of Patti Brown is the great arrangement of "They Say It's Wonderful" where she was featured w/Quincy's band. Tasty player deserving of wider recognition. RIP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christiern Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 Sorry to hear that. I heard Patti perform at the Apollo last May 17th. She was in a wheelchair, but she still had chops and lots of spirit. The occasion was a fundraiser for The Jazz Foundation of America, an organization that does great work in giving support to jazz and blues performers in need. Too many are. My intro to her was a Columbia album, "Patti Bown Plays Big Piano", I was not terribly impressed, but she did some fine work after that, receiving little attention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 Played a date with Jug last week. Sorry to hear of our loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 Yeah, never a "big name", but she was there in lots of places, lots of times. People like her...made a difference, if not necessarily individually, then definitely collectively. And she made the ill-fated 1960 European sojourn w/Quincy Jones' band. That must've been a trip... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 None of this shit could have been easy for a black woman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 None of this shit could have been easy for a black woman. Both she & Melba Liston made that trip with Quincy. Talk about a rare scenario... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chalupa Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 1931-2008 in a Media, PA nursing home. Damn, my mom lives in Media. It's right outside of Philly. I'll ask her if there's any news in her local paper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 She was in great form on Oliver Nelson's "Afro-American Sketches," which is a helluva album. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidewinder Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 Sad news - RIP. Saw her on TV quite recently, being interviewed for a BBC documentary on Dinah Washington. Didn't she also record an album under her own name for Columbia? Have never seen a copy of that one. Certainly, her playing with the Quincy Jones Orchestra (can be seen on that Jazz Icons DVD) was excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christiern Posted March 22, 2008 Report Share Posted March 22, 2008 SW: Didn't she also record an album under her own name for Columbia? "Patti Bown Plays Big Piano" -- Columbia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bill Barton Posted March 22, 2008 Report Share Posted March 22, 2008 She was in great form on Oliver Nelson's "Afro-American Sketches," which is a helluva album. Her playing with Nelson is what turned me on to her talents in the first place. Paul de Barros' piece in the Times noted the irony that she passed away in Pennsylvania around the same time that Q was being feted on his 75th birthday here in Seattle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chas Posted March 22, 2008 Report Share Posted March 22, 2008 (edited) My intro to her was a Columbia album, "Patti Bown Plays Big Piano", I was not terribly impressed, but she did some fine work after that, receiving little attention. I wouldn't venture to say what her finest work was , but I agree with you that the Columbia album was not impressive . I no longer have it and thus can't re-check that impression , but I don't recall her having a truly personal conception , particularly with respect to her blues playing . She was in great form on Oliver Nelson's "Afro-American Sketches," which is a helluva album. A very fine and under-appreciated Nelson record to be sure , but her presence on it has gone unremarked by me all these years . I will listen again with particular attention to her contribution . Edited March 22, 2008 by Chas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted March 22, 2008 Report Share Posted March 22, 2008 Those familiar with the Oliver Nelson Mosaic will have noticed this, which Kenny Berger describes in his note to Fantabulous: Pianist Patti Bown has the first solo, which highlights the album's one major drawback, which has nothing to do with her playing. These sides were recorded in what was presumably a reputable studio (Universal Studios, Chicago), yet the piano sounds as if it has been recently salvaged from the wreckage of the Titanic .... Bown makes the best of it, however, and her work throughout displays her angular, hard-swinging style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bill Barton Posted March 23, 2008 Report Share Posted March 23, 2008 Seattle Times obituary Patti Bown, 76, lit up Seattle's early jazz scene; Obituary Paul de Barros, Seattle Times jazz critic Patti Bown, an idiosyncratic, outspoken, versatile pianist who came up with Quincy Jones on Seattle's Jackson Street jazz scene in the late '40s and became nationally famous, died Sunday from complications from diabetes and kidney failure. She was 76 years old. Ironically, Miss Bown died in Pennsylvania the same day Jones was in Seattle, eulogizing two other musicians of his generation Charlie Taylor and Floyd Standifer at the Northwest African American Museum opening concert. A characteristic quote from Miss Bown is displayed at the museum: "When I walked home from school, I passed the pool parlor and the Mardi Gras and they always had jazz playing. My mother was saying `No!' but the music was sensuous and it said, `Yes!' " Born Patricia Anne Bown in Seattle in 1931, Bown was one of five daughters and two sons raised in the Central District by Augustus and Edith Bown, who moved to Seattle in 1921. Music and culture were central to her upbringing. Her mother took her see Marian Anderson, Katherine Dunham and Arthur Rubenstein, and the Bown household was known for its weekend "at-homes," where people played music, and discussed books and politics. Miss Bown's sister, Edith Mary Valentine, became a concert pianist in an era when it was difficult, if not impossible, for African Americans to enter the classical field. Millie Russell, another sister, recalled Patti at 3 years old astonishing their parents by copying on the piano what she heard Duke Ellington play on the radio. "I was the only one of the five girls who didn't have perfect pitch," said Russell. Miss Bown's sister Augie Walker recalled Edith Mary and Patti fighting over who would get to practice at the family piano. "They'd be pushing on each other, both sitting on the stool and pretty soon the stool would break," she said. "My mother bought three stools in one year." Though Mrs. Bown played blues piano herself, she forbade Patti from patronizing jazz clubs. "She'd tell Mama she was going to visit our neighbor, then go out play in those places," recalled Walker. "Sometimes, if Mama found out, she'd lock the door and leave Patti out there for half an hour." One of Miss Bown's informal jazz tutors was Ray Charles, whom she credited with teaching her how to accompany soloists. In 1949, Miss Bown won a music scholarship to Seattle University, and in 1952 she performed with the Seattle Symphony. She later transferred to the University of Washington, then moved to New York in 1955. Because of her excellent sight-reading and improvising skills, she was soon in demand in recording studios, which led to her extensive discography (sessions with Dinah Washington, Billy Eckstine, Gene Ammons, Oscar Brown Jr., Jimmy Rushing and Jones himself). Miss Bown recorded an album as a leader in 1958, "Patti Bown Plays Big Piano" (Columbia), and the following year formed a trio that included drummer Ed Shaughnessy, of Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" band fame. She later toured Europe for eight months with Jones' big band. A flamboyant, opinionated woman who wore outrageous hats and brooked no contradiction, Miss Bown often found herself at odds with others though she could be charming and funny, as well. "She was overbearing and spoiled," recalled her sister Russell, "but she was brilliant." Miss Bown lived the last 37 years at the Westbeth Artist Housing complex in Greenwich Village, and for many years was a fixture at the Village Gate nightclub. She played in an unpredictable, virtuosic and eclectic style that stretched from Fats Waller stride to avant-garde abstraction. The late Whitney Balliett, jazz critic for The New Yorker, once described a Miss Bown solo as "an eight-minute lesson in how to make a piece of improvisation so tight and complex it would supply a dozen soloists for a week." Miss Bown occasionally returned to Seattle to perform, notably at Jazz Alley, the New Orleans Creole Restaurant and at the Museum of History & Industry, in 1993. According to Pawnee Sills, a close friend who lived in her building, Miss Bown had been "homebound," the last seven or eight years, unable to walk because of her weight and poor circulation. Still, in 2006 she received the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival Award, and last year the Jazz Foundation of America, which assisted Miss Bown the last years of her life, presented her at its annual gala at the Apollo Theatre, where she received a standing ovation. She moved to a New York nursing home last November, then to one in Media, Pa., where she died. Miss Bown never married but had one son, the late Tony Bown. She is survived by sisters Edith Mary Valentine, Augie Walker and Millie Russell, and brother David Bown. Funeral services have not yet been arranged. _____________________________________ This was not available on The Seattle Times website but I found it on LexisNexis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Lightning Posted March 23, 2008 Report Share Posted March 23, 2008 R.I.P. I mostly familiar with her piano playing in several Gene Ammons sessions. She had a very tasteful touch, I think. A good musucuan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Friedman Posted March 23, 2008 Report Share Posted March 23, 2008 Along with those already mentioned, here is another nice recording with Patti Bown on piano that I have on CD: Bill Coleman - The Great Parisian Session - Polydor with: Quentin (Butter) Jackson, Budd Johnson, Les Spann, Buddy Catlett, and Joe Harris. This was recorded in Paris in January 1960. Other than the leader Bill Coleman, the other musicians were all members of the Quincy Jones Band along with Bown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeweil Posted March 23, 2008 Report Share Posted March 23, 2008 Sorry to hear this. Her name popped up on quite a number of sessions, always with good results. My favourite date with her is Ray Crawford's Candid LP. R.I.P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chas Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 Sorry to hear this. Her name popped up on quite a number of sessions, always with good results. My favourite date with her is Ray Crawford's Candid LP. So your favorite date of hers is one on which she doesn't play ! Given their stylistic overlap I can understand someone mistaking Mance for Bown , but how does someone mistake the performance of one artist for the "favorite" performance of another Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swinging Swede Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 So your favorite date of hers is one on which she doesn't play ! I can think of a few artists for whom that holds true... -_- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted March 25, 2008 Report Share Posted March 25, 2008 Tribute from Doug Ramsey up now at Rifftides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted March 25, 2008 Report Share Posted March 25, 2008 Tribute from Doug Ramsey up now at Rifftides. Check out 1959 Phil Woods on those clips there, with that small group from the Quincy Jones Orch. Woods sure could play then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeweil Posted February 12, 2011 Report Share Posted February 12, 2011 Sorry to hear this. Her name popped up on quite a number of sessions, always with good results. My favourite date with her is Ray Crawford's Candid LP. So your favorite date of hers is one on which she doesn't play ! Sorry - I was mistaken and noticed this only now ... I didn't have the LPs at hand and just remembered she was on one of the Candid LPs. Now which one is it? Her playing on the Quincy Jones sessions is so tasty I'd like to hear more of her ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeweil Posted February 12, 2011 Report Share Posted February 12, 2011 After reading the posts above it must the Cal Massey LP on Candid. Has her only LP as a leader ever been reissued? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted February 12, 2011 Report Share Posted February 12, 2011 Has her only LP as a leader ever been reissued? Looks like it still remains reissued! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_forumlogo.png.a607ef20a6e0c299ab2aa6443aa1f32e.png)
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.