Marion Brown

Alto saxophonist Marion Brown's first statement was participating on John Coltrane's band for the monumental Ascension, and soon after he revealed himself as one of the most poetic voices in jazz. In his music candid folk sensibilites and harsh abstractions often stood side-by-side and created profound alchemy, his spiritual jazz had no mysticism like his contemporaries but a warm veneration for community and rural landscapes. It's often that honest yet idiosyncratic illustrations feel truer than reality and his music verifies this; Van Gogh found himself through wheat and too did Marion Brown with cotton.

These pastoral qualities are immediate on Marion Brown Quartet where songs from two basses detail an idyllic countryside and deep hospitality (Ronnie Boykins, Reggie Johnson), in this landscape Marion Brown's free-jazz excursions blends what's lyrical with animalism, as though documenting both people and fauna. The result is rich with imagery.
Exhibition (mistitled Mephistopheles on some releases) in contrast is firmly situated in the city.