[Dixielandjazz] Steve Brown

[Katie Cavera]

> On 05/11/2009, ROBERT R. CALDER <serapion at btinternet.com> wrote:
>> Yes, Marek, and Steve Brown was around for long enough that there  
>> might be reasonable hypotheses about his having influenced players  
>> who weren't white, quite apart from his merits as a bassist and a  
>> musician.

I just wanted to chime in on the Steve Brown thread since he is one of my heroes.

I was always under the impression that Steve Brown was a huge influence on all jazz bass players no matter if they were white, black, male or female (Thelma Terry anyone?).  Here's a couple quotes that might be of interest:

"If you listen to the record of "There'll Be Some Changes Made" with Ory's band, on that record I was using the beat that Steve Brown used." - Wellman Braud

"Steve Brown was the one everybody listened to...what a beat that man had! He was doing things, cross-rhythms and stuff, that I've never *yet* heard anyone else do.  He was the best, and we all knew it.  Don't let anybody tell you different." - Milt Hinton
 
And here's one more:

"Steve was even better known to more people at the time than Bix was.  In a way, he was the star of the Goldkette band.  At that time, all the bands were using tuba.  But when they heard Steve they all switched to string bass. None of them could equal him, though, he had a really distinctive style and an uncanny sense of rhythm." - Stanley "Doc" Ryker, quoted by Richard Sudhalter in "Bix: the Definitive Biography Of A Jazz Legend".

If you haven't heard Steve's unique style follow this link to the Jean Goldkette page on Red Hot Jazz.com and click on "My Pretty Girl" (I like take 1 a little better):

http://www.redhotjazz.com/goldo.html

Steve bows a verse and a chorus and then things get really hot.  And the ending still throws me for a loop.
Enjoy!

- Katie
 http://www.katiecavera.com
http://www.youtube.com/kcavera