Forget the non-stop shilling for a second. Close your eyes and picture yourself in a quaint townhouse smack dab in he middle of Baltimore on the open floor second storey. You are sitting in a chair among 100 or so other people on a Friday or Saturday night in mid-January 2018. There is beautiful music playing and two of the most purely musical spirits playing that music. Now open your eyes.
WATCH AND LISTEN – BROWN BROTHERS ’17
AVAILABLE NOW – EVERYWHERE MUSIC IS STREAMED…
The CO-OP :
“…a beautiful, diverse, perfect session of jazz.”
– Jazz Times November ’17
Read more HERE
“This is among the most three-dimensional, warm and transparent digital recordings I’ve ever heard.”
– Analog Planet January ’17
Read more Here
available now at these world-class retailers across the world:
Canada:
Sonic Boom – Toronto http://sonicboommusic.com
June Records – Toronto https://junerecords.com/
California:
Amoeba Records – San Francisco https://www.amoeba.com
The Audio Salon – Santa Monica http://www.audiosalon.com/contact-us/map-directions/
Dimple Records – Sacramento https://www.dimple.com
Salzers Records – Ventura http://www.salzers.com
Soundsations- Los Angeles http://www.soundsationsrecords.com
Florida:
Donut Shoppe Records – Orlando http://www.eldonutshoppe.com
Sweat Records – Miami http://sweatrecordsmiami.com
Yesterday and Today Records – Miami http://www.vintagerecords.com
Radioactive Records – Fort Lauderdale http://radio-active-records.tumblr.com
Georgia:
Wax n Facts – Atlanta http://www.waxnfacts.com
Idaho:
Record Exchange – Boise http://www.therecordexchange.com
Illinois:
Dusty Groove – Chicago https://www.dustygroove.com/
Sugah Records – Chicago https://www.shugarecords.com/
Reckless Records – Chicago https://reckless.com/
Record Breakers – Chicago http://www.reggieslive.com/photos/record-breakers/
Indiana:
Vinyl Rescue Project – Greenwood http://www.vinyl-rescue-project.com
Kentucky:
Cd Central – Lexington http://www.cdcentralmusic.com
Maryland:
El Suprimo Records – Baltimore http://www.elsuprimo.com/
Celebrated Summer Records – Baltimore https://www.facebook.com/Celebrated-Summer-Records-102268616492594/
True Vine Records – Baltimore http://www.thetruevinerecordshop.com/
Massachusetts:
Newbury Comics – Cambridge, Newbury St. and Northampton stores (for now, expanding imminently) https://www.newburycomics.com/pages/locations/
New York:
The Jazz Center Records – NYC http://jazzrecordcenter.com
Academy Records – NYC http://academy-records.com
Human Head Brooklyn – http://humanheadnyc.com/
Infinity Records – Massapequa Park www.infinityRecordsusa.com
High Fidelity CDs and Records – Amityville http://www.highfidelitycds.com
Rough Trade Records Brooklyn http://www.roughtradenyc.com/
A1 Records NYC http://www.a1recordshop.com
The Strand Bookstore 8 miles of books http://www.strandbooks.com
North Carolina:
Lunchbox Records – Charlotte http://www.lunchboxrecords.com
Ohio:
Records Per Minute, Columbus https://www.facebook.com/RecordsPerMinute/
Norway:
Big Dipper – Oslo http://bigdipper.no/
Pennsylvania:
Main Street Music – Manayunk https://www.facebook.com/MainStreetMusicPA-109854695706800/
Repo Records – Philadelphia http://www.reporecords.com
Attic Records – Pittsburgh http://atticrecordstoreinc.com/
Sweden:
Snickars Records – Stockholm http://www.snickarsrecords.com/
Tennessee:
Grimeys – Nashville http://www.grimeys.com
Washington:
Silver Platters – Seattle http://www.silverplatters.com/
Zion’s Gate Records – Seattle Click here for store
October 17, 2017
October 16, 2017
#NowJazz
This is The CO-OP – conceived and recorded back in the wild and wooly mid-oughts. The Brown Bros. brought 5 elite musicians together and asked each to bring 1-2 original compositions. After a day’s worth of rehearsal, we went into the studio for 2 days @ the now defunct Clinton Studios in Hells Kitchen NYC. We recorded in their live room (wow what a room) and were truly pleased with the output. Jeremy Pelt did triple-duty as a player, composer and producer, and Steve Mandel recorded the sessions.
The music sat on the shelf for the better part of a decade until the Brown Bros. finally pressed the record.
You can now listen to this record pressed on some phat and lovely vinyl, and also on all digital platforms globally. We invite you to take 40 minutes out of your busy day to do just that.
Thanks for reading.
Yours in Music,
Arvin Suback (of the fighting and writing Suback clan), October 13th, 2017 – somewhere in NYC
“…a beautiful, diverse, perfect set of Jazz.” – Jazz Times, October ’17 issue
September 23, 2017
Bruce Springsteen presents a real conundrum for lyrics obsessives. He’s not quite the poet like Dylan, Van or Costello nor the wry workingman and arch character builder like Randy Newman or Mose Allison. He rocks hard but is basically an earnest soul revue live act. Perhaps as much as anyone though he’s carved his own space, filled by virtuoso guitar, taskmaster band leading and a work ethic which sustains rather than drains pure artistry. Happy birthday Boss. The Brown Brothers love you.
Who Killed Davey Moore?
9/13/17
Ultiminio “Sugar” Ramos died last week. Ramos was a world-championship featherweight boxer active in the 50’s and 60’s who started his professional career at the age of 15. He was born and then raised dirt-poor in Matanzas, Cuba in the 1940’s. Ramos stood just shy of 5 feet 5 inches, but he hit as a mule kicked – hard.
In 1958, Ramos beat his countryman, Jose “Tigre” Blanco by a brutal knockout. Shortly after the match, Blanco died of a brain hemorrhage.
Fast-forward to March 21st, 1963, Dodger Stadium, Elysian Park, Los Angeles – the world featherweight title match: Sugar Ramos v the 4-year defending champ, Davey Moore. Moore was widely thought of as one of the top pound for pound fighters of his day, and as evidenced by the venue, boxing was a big deal in 1963 America.
Moore got the better of Ramos in the early rounds, battering the Cuban with heavy artillery, but Ramos kept his composure and knocked Moore out in the 10th. Moore was able to leave the ring under his own powers, but slipped into a coma shortly thereafter and then passed at a local hospital. Word has it that Moore hit his head on one of the ropes surrounding the ring (and the below video appears to corroborate this), and that at the time, those ropes were not padded. Word also has it that Ramos, ever the mensch, was present at the hospital post Moore’s death and was absolved of responsibility by Moore’s widow…
Ramos continued to fight until retiring in 1972 – a true warrior and a gentleman as the story goes, and was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992.
The 1963 fight and subsequent death of Moore was immortalized by the great Bobby Dylan at the height of his folk phase with the song “Who Killed Davey Moore” which asks lots of questions but doesn’t take a firm point of view on the actual culprit. Here’s a link to that song along with a video of Moore v Ramos from that fateful nite.
Are you ready to get lit?
It’s too easy to go through the motions after a certain age. You know what you have to do and your energy for things you want to do wanes. That’s why here at Brown Brothers Recordings we like to block out parts of each day to do absolutely nothing except think of things we want to do. We make as big a list as our imagination allows. We almost never actually do anything from the list but when we do it provides a nice balance to crushing adult obligations.
Oh the drawing above is by Steven Mandel, about whom most of what you want to know is available on his various social media feeds @stevenmandel
Outstanding yet obscure
One of the fascinating things about jazz is how many musicians master it’s difficult techniques and become among the best players in the world on their instruments only to toil in relative obscurity to musicians with not a tenth the talent in other genres. Today we present exhibit a: Mr. Mundell Lowe of Shady Grove, Mississippi. Mumdell is an absolute whiz on guitar and he played with some of the all-time greats from Yardbird Parker to Sarah Vaughan to Barry Manilow but we bet you’ve not heard of him as much as thousands of 3 chord rock stars. And that is one of the great pleasures for those of us who love jazz: most people will never appreciate a Mumdell Lowe, like a secret you can tell and still keep.
Brown Brothers Recordings 