Phil Lasley talks about Joe Brazil

Detroit saxophonist Phil Lasley talks about Joe Brazil at 18:25 on this podcast from Detroit Jazz Stage. http://castroller.com/podcasts/DetroitJazzstage/2789889

Kenn Cox talks about Joe Brazil

Detroit was a university without walls

"I had a rich environment, it was like a university without walls, I have to say that and we all looked and there are guys you don’t even know about who were there that we played with and were helping each other and teaching us. It was just a great exchange. It was all about the music and reaching for that level of being really good. So we had a lot of discussions about material, about songs, and I think we developed some pretty sophisticated taste, in terms of what’s good and what isn’t and how to discern the good from the mediocre. And all of that is learning, especially when you’re a teenager is invaluable. So like I say, it was like a university. So when we got to New York we really felt like we were prepared." - Kenny Burrell, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History

Sonny Red

Anders Svanoe published research of Sonny Red in The Annual Review of Jazz Studies in 2007. Like Sonny, Joe's family moved to Detroit from the south. Anders conducted many interviews with Detroit musicians. Below are mentions of Joe Brazil from Anders' research.

"I remember seeing Red a few times down at Joe Brazil's. I first started to play drums by going down to Joe Brazil's. The way I got there was Doug Watkins, the bass player, pulled me over there since Doug and I went to the same high school. Anyway, he was telling me to go sit  in, and I told him that I wasn't ready yet. But he told me to come on  by there anyway. So I went there and sat in with Barry on piano, Joe Brazil [on alto saxophone], Donald Byrd [on trumpet], and Doug Watkins on bass. They played a tempo, extremely fast, and somehow or another I kept that tempo, and that's what opened the door for me. They said that the next time they were going to give me a call, and they did." - Frank Gant

"Joe Brazil was important on the scene and a good friend of Coltrane's. That was perfect for Trane. This was a place, just free to him, to play as long as he wanted to." - Tommy Flanagan

"I remember one session that we did at Joe Brazil's place. We did a lot of jam sessions down there. Sonny was there and sometimes Barry, Ko-Ko [Kenneth "Cokie" Winfrey], the tenor player, used to live down at Joe's place, so he'd always be there for the sessions. That was around 1955 or 1956. I lived right down the street, so I was there a lot." - Kiane Zawadi

Bluebird Music Alumni

I found Joe listed as a Bluebird Music Alumni in the second Bluebird Reunion booklet. 

Joe at the Bluebird Reunion

I found a picture of Joe in the Bluebird Reunion booklet from 1995. In the picture is drummer Bert Myrick who often played with Joe in the 1950s.

Adventurous Programming Award

Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers have for the second time selected the Steve Griggs Ensemble for an Adventurous Programming Award. This honor recognizes the ensemble's programs that blend history and original music to recognize important but often overlooked stories in Seattle (A Cup of Joe Brazil, Panama Hotel Jazz, Listen to Seattle, and Sound in Stone). The award will be presented at the CMA conference in New York City on January 10.

50th Anniversary of Live in Seattle

Check out my article in the Seattle Weekly
http://www.seattleweekly.com/home/960901-129/the-night-that-john-coltrane-played

Jubilee for Joe Brazil at Boxley's

Boxley's in North Bend will be hosting a Jubilee for Joe Brazil in commemoration of Joe's passing on August 6, 2008. Come listen to saxophonist Steve Griggs, guitarist Milo Petersen, bassist Chuck Kistler, and drummer Greg Williamson on August 7 at Boxley's, 101 W North Bend Way, North Bend, WA 98045.

Stokely Carmichael

Seattle P-I photo

Yesterday I listened to a 1967 tape of Stokely Carmichael addressing a full gymnasium of supporters at Garfield High School in Seattle. The transcript can be found at http://www.aavw.org/special_features/speeches_speech_carmichael01.html. The tape is part of the Joe Brazil Collection. Stokely also spoke to 3,000 people at the University of Washington. Stokely talks about Beethoven being black. Joe said the same thing a few years later at Whitman College.

Maupin Meets Coltrane at Brazil's House

Detroit saxophonist Bennie Maupin talks about meeting John Coltrane at Joe Brazil's house. (Thanks to Chris Devito for sharing this information)

Detroit House Today

This is Joe Brazil's house in Detroit. His neighbor told me that the musicians would enter and exit from the door on the side that led into the basement. There used to be a fence that obscured the doorway. One New Year's Eve, several folks fired guns in the back yard. The vinyl siding is missing now because a woman in the neighborhood is stealing it.

Joe said in an interview that bassist Paul Chambers lived here with him. I wonder if Paul Chambers introduced Joe to John Coltrane when Paul and John were visiting Detroit in Miles Davis' band.

In the last few years Joe lived in Detroit, he shared the house with bassist Ali Jackson.

Program from Homegoing Celebration

"As the Music Historian he would wish for us all to study our history, listen to music and to support local musicians." - Virginia Brazil

Thad Jones and Joe Brazil

A tape in the Joe Brazil collection labeled "Thad Jones at the West End" contains an announcer saying, "How about a hand for Thad. Thank you, Freddie Froo. Freddie Froo on the drums, Joe Brazil on the alto, Ernie Farrow on the bass and Abe Woodley on the piano."

According to an article at http://www.telegram.com/article/20121119/NEWS/121119571, Freddie Froo was a nickname for Detroit drummer Fred Metcalf. Baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams wrote a song for him.

Abe Woodley also worked in a band called the Jazztet with Joe Brazil.

According to Before Motown, the West End Hotel was a popular Detroit location for weekend after hours jam sessions in the late 1950s.

Thanks to the owner of the Joe Brazil tape collection for allowing me access to this rich trove of historical information.

Performance at Jack Straw

Grateful for the attentive audience and passionate performance at Jack Straw on January 14. It is a joy to share the story of Joe Brazil with people unfamiliar with his life. Jay Thomas, pictured here on trumpet, played his first jam session with Joe. Susan Pascal, vibraphonist out of the frame to the right, is married to Dave Pascal, who worked in a band with Joe. In the audience was a student from one of Joe's History of Jazz classes. Stories of musicians are a backbone of the jazz tradition. Blending new music and old stories is at the heart of my artistic practice. Thanks to Jack Straw for supporting this project through discounted studio time.