Phil Brown is an American bassist, composer, and educator based in Illinois. With a professional performance career of several decades, he continues to play and record, and to write and arrange as an established jazz artist. Brown has composed scores of works, both art music and jazz, and has released five jazz recordings as leader. In 2017, after 26 years as professor of double bass and jazz studies at the Southern Illinois University School of Music, he retired from academia. He established a monthly Jazz Vespers service in 2019, and has added directing, performing, and curating that to his schedule.
Born in Amarillo, Texas, Brown grew up in a musical household. He began music at an early age, singing in the children’s choir at church, and taking piano lessons with the organist and choir director. When Brown entered junior high school, he began playing bass in the school orchestra. He finished high school at Interlochen Arts Academy, receiving his diploma there. Following two years at Amarillo College, Brown transferred to Northwestern University to complete his undergraduate degree. After spending 10 years in the professional music world, he returned to North Texas State University to earn his masters degree.
Brown’s bass clef journey began in the seventh grade when on the first day of school, the instrumental music director took one look at the husky boy, telling him “sousaphone in band, and bass in orchestra.” At the same time jazz was catching his ear. With bass players in short supply, Brown was gigging with the locals within a couple of years, and soon playing in the Amarillo Symphony bass section. Through high school, his musical path and training were almost entirely classical. The summer following graduation was spent as a bassist with the Internationale Jugendorchester Berlin (International Youth Orchestra of Berlin). But in the time-honored oral tradition of jazz, Brown was absorbing the lessons of his on-the-job experiences following high school, and immersing himself in jazz recordings, particularly those in which his idol, Ray Brown, was involved. Thus he continued to gig, first in Amarillo, and then in Chicago.
The initial Chicagoland gigs were with a band playing Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and Jewish weddings. But soon enough, he was performing numerous other engagements, including frequent runouts with Tex Beneke and the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Ralph Marterie and his Orchestra (with vocalist, Marilyn May), and Frankie Masters and his Orchestra. Meanwhile, Brown was also doing green sheet school gigs on Chicago’s North Shore with the Herbert Zipper Orchestra, and still playing with groups like the Handel Society, or the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, or a visiting Lithuanian orchestra from Canada. And he was one of the two finalists for a section bass position with the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Brown’s next stop was Jacksonville, Florida, where for 4 seasons he played second desk in the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra bass section. While there, he also played in the Savannah Philharmonic Orchestra on occasion, and did shows such as John Denver and Disney On Ice. Also maintaining a busy schedule of jazz gigs, he soon became the bassist with the Bill Davis Trio, the reigning local jazz group.
Returning to Amarillo, Brown rejoined the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra for 3 seasons, this time as principal bassist. At the same time, he also put together a popular 8-piece fusion jazz group, AmaJam.
In 1981, Brown relocated to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, and though he did occasional classical work (Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra), the intended concentration was jazz. After a year of sporadic casuals and club dates, his first steady gig was doing nightly shows at the Fairmont Hotel’s Venetian Room with the Lennie Dawson Orchestra—backing the Four Freshmen, John Gary, the Lettermen, and Bobby Vinton, among others. And while there would be other independent shows—Frankie Avalon, Gypsy (revival with Tyne Daly), the Fifth Dimension, Bob Hope, and Rich Little, jazz was still his primary focus. Being a graduate student at North Texas State University (NTSU) afforded Brown the opportunity as a member of the One O’Clock Lab Band, to perform with Pepper Adams, Steve Gadd, Dizzy Gillespie (Kool Jazz Festival, Dallas and Houston), and Al Hirt; as a selected bassist for the Jazz Lecture Series, with Herb Ellis, Tom Harrell, and Clark Terry; and as a member of Rich Matteson and the Outrageous Mothers, with Mark Murphy (Wichita Jazz Festival). As a freelance bassist, he also played with the Ray Anthony Orchestra, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis (Dreamland), and the Red Garland Quartet (6051 Club). He was one of the founders of the Denton Jazz Fest, established in 1986, at which he also appeared with the Dan Haerle Group. And for 4 nights a week for five years, he was the bassist with Wilson, Baxter and Brown (Nana Bar, Anatole Hotel). It was at NTSU that Brown was invited to play bass with the faculty jazz group for the recordings that accompany the 2-volume Jazz Tunes for Improvisation by Dan Haerle, Jack Petersen, and Rich Matteson (Van Nuys: Alfred Music, 1983, 1997). [now out-of-print]
In 1991, Brown accepted a faculty appointment at the School of Music, Southern Illinois University. He served as principal bassist with the Paducah Symphony Orchestra (PSO) for 7 seasons (including a concert backing the Moody Blues), and performed various shows as well (Debbie Reynolds). And Brown enjoyed a concert duet appearance with Delfeayo Marsalis, and his regular summer encounters with Willie Thomas. But over the years, it was his affiliation with the New Arts Jazztet (NAJ) that became a mainstay and catalyst for growth. Brown had begun to write again, creating original material for the NAJ, rather than just covering standards. Taking a (permanent) leave of absence from the PSO in 1998, he began planning his first recording as leader. Twenty-five years later, that number has grown to five. [see recordings] Along with the recordings, the NAJ has toured and performed throughout the Midwest over the years—club dates, concerts, and festivals. They have opened twice for Stanley Jordan, and have shared the stage with numerous other jazz artists, such as Charles McPherson or Eden Atwood. In 2010, the NAJ was invited to perform at the inaugural Jazz Education Network Conference in St Louis. The group has also performed as part of a live statewide television broadcast, Arts Across Illinois: CenterStage at PBS affiliate, WTTW/Channel 11, Chicago. [see videos]
These days, in addition to preparing his new album for release, Brown can be heard at an occasional local club date, or at the monthly Jazz Vespers he established in 2019. And most summers, he continues to play as a section bassist with the Southern Illinois Music Festival Orchestra.
Brown’s bass teachers have included Paul Ellison (Eastern New Mexico University), Oscar Zimmerman (National Music Camp), Lawrence Hurst and Ringwalt Warner (Interlochen Arts Academy), Evan Tonsing (Amarillo College), Warren Benfield (Northwestern University), and Edward Rainbow (North Texas State University). Brown has been affiliated with the International Society of Bassists (ISB).
It was when first taking music theory courses in college that Brown began to realize his love for harmonic creation and manipulation. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Music in Composition at Northwestern University in 1972, studying there with M William Karlins and Luciano Berio. His first professional outing came a few years later with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra (JSO), where he was staff arranger, writing over 40 pop arrangements for orchestra with rhythm section. Because of his college orchestration courses, those first scores seemed to have a certain Impressionist character, but they improved in due course, with selections being performed not only by the JSO, but also by the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, and the St Louis Symphony Orchestra. Brown’s more recent writing efforts have produced almost 50 originals for the New Arts Jazztet [see lead sheets], many of them recorded on his five albums.
In 2003, the Illinois Arts Council honored him for his work and commitment within the arts with an Artist Fellowship Award in music composition. And undertaking Jazz Vespers in 2019 has called for countless transcriptions and arrangements. Of his compositions, Brown has stated that almost all of his works are subjective expressions that musically honor persons, places, moods, moments, etc. But he believes that there is also an intrinsic spiritual component. That prevailing ethos is almost always hope. Brown is affiliated with Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI).
During his first extended period in the professional music world, Brown began to consider a path as a music educator. He earned a Master of Music Education degree with an emphasis in Jazz Studies from North Texas State University (NTSU) in 1983. There as a graduate teaching fellow, Brown was an instructor of both double bass and jazz ensemble. He was also a member of NTSU's highly acclaimed jazz ensemble, the One O'Clock Lab Band. It was the exceptional jazz faculty there who became his mentors—Dan Haerle, Rich Matteson, Jack Petersen, and Neil Slater.
The next several years were spent in administrative work in the Jazz Studies department at that institution. But in 1991, Brown was appointed Assistant Professor of Double Bass and Jazz Studies, as well as Coordinator of Music Business, at Southern Illinois University. In addition to teaching applied double bass, he started and directed a second jazz ensemble and a jazz combos program there. Brown was promoted to Associate Professor in 1997, and to Professor in 2013. Because so much of what he taught over the years was about performance, Brown’s teaching philosophy emphasized the experiential, but always with supportive grounding. In 2009, he was a finalist and first alternate for the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program (Romania). He retired from academia in 2017.
During his career as a music educator, Brown has served as a guest artist, clinician, and adjudicator at a number of jazz camps and festivals, including the Fiesta Jazz Festival (St Mary’s University, San Antonio), Jazz Week (University of Louisville, Louisville), the Longhorn Jazz Festival (University of Texas, Austin), the Southern Illinois Jazz Festival (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale), and the Wichita Jazz Festival (Wichita State University, Wichita), among others. Brown has been affiliated with the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) and the Jazz Education Network (JEN).