Remembrance

SSC1800 2026-09-25

Track List

Sheila, It’s You! - 5:30
Baby Suite - 12:35
Soft Seas - 9:44
Lullaby For George, Don and Dannie - 6:26
Rylie’s Bounce - 9:34
For Dad and Dannie - 7:10
Cocktail Suite: Remembrance / Portrait in Black and White / Mushi Mushi / Remembrance / O.C.D.C. - 21:56

Musicians

Lisa Parrott - alto, soprano and baritone saxophones
Jason Rigby - tenor & soprano saxophone
Russ Johnson - trumpet
Cameron Brown - bass
Tony Jefferson - drums

Bassist and composer Cameron Brown established a singular path in the creative world of jazz music. His journey was graced by many musical legends, including trumpeter/conceptualist Don Cherry and drummer Dannie Richmond. Brown pays tribute to these two special influences with his band, Dannie’s Calypso. Their new recording, Remembrance, harkens back but with an open and exploratory approach, which only the bassist and his open-hearted ensemble could provide.

Originally from Detroit, Brown found himself at Columbia University in the summer of 1964 after a year in Sweden as an exchange student. As a relatively new, self-taught bassist, Brown was surprised when his friend and bandleader, trombonist Brian Trentham, recommended him to join George Russell’s band for a year’s worth touring in Europe. This was a time of remarkable personal and musical growth for the 19 to 20-year-old Brown. Not only was he performing regularly with a musical genius in Russell, but he also had the opportunity to meet many outstanding musicians based in Europe.

Russell bandmate and drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath introduced Brown to Don Cherry in Sweden in August 1965, where they played a couple of concerts as a trio. The following spring, Cherry invited Brown to play with his Paris-based band in Copenhagen. This was the band that had perfected Cherry’s “cocktail suite” concept. Being on that bandstand was a life-changing experience for Brown, as he was immersed firsthand in this amazing format for group improvisation.

Brown went on to have a long and illustrious career, playing with a wide variety of musicians, including Beaver Harris, Sheila Jordan, Archie Shepp, Art Blakey, Dewey Redman, Joe Lovano, and the Don Pullen/George Adams Quartet. It was with Charles Mingus alums Pullen and Adams that Brown was able to play with Mingus’s favored drummer, Dannie Richmond. Brown was mentored by this drumming great for the last seven years of Richmond’s life, including innumerable gigs with Adams and Pullen and three tours with Richmond’s own band, which primarily featured Mingus repertoire.

Fast forwarding to 2005, Brown was invited to participate in a tribute to Don Cherry at The Stone in New York City. For the gig, Brown assembled a band of like-minded musicians with tremendous chops to help him realize his dream of leading a band working with Cherry’s unique method of creating collages made up of almost any tune that struck his fancy: originals, Ornette Coleman tunes, Albert Ayler tunes, Antonio Carlos Jobim melodies, the siren calls of Parisien ambulances–almost anything– to frame improvisation.

Dannie’s Calypso began as a quartet. Brown had known Jason Rigby for some time, appearing on three of the saxophonist’s recordings. Rigby suggested trumpeter Russ Johnson and drummer Tony Jefferson was a local favorite of Brown’s and was a perfect fit for the band’s blend of post-bop swing and free improvisation. After a handful of gigs in New York and Denver with the quartet, Brown met saxophonist Lisa Parrott at a jam session and was immediately struck by her sound and concept, feeling that her voice on baritone and alto would be a wonderful addition to the band.

The band developed a strong and varied repertoire, including Brown’s originals and many obscure Cherry and Coleman tunes that Brown had learned with the Paris-based Cherry ensemble while in Copenhagen. The group adopted the name Dannie’s Calypso in honor of Brown’s mentor and friend, Dannie Richmond.

Remembrance was recorded live in concert by Scott Friedlander at The University of The Streets on August 2, 2011. The recording captures the quintet at full force, energized by the audience and the intensity which this improvisational matrix requires. They play wonderful versions of Brown’s suite and originals. The “cocktail suite” opens with two Cherry tunes, dissolves into a slow Jobim bossa nova, and jumps back to life with Dewey Redman’s “Mushi-Mushi,” before returning to an extended version of the opener, “Remembrance.” Cherry often began and ended a suite with the same composition, a reprise to close the circle. “Remembrance” serves that purpose here and, also, presented itself as a perfect title for the album.

The program begins with Brown’s “Sheila, It’s You!,” a tribute to Brown’s late duet partner, the immortal vocalist, Sheila Jordan. The piece is a buoyant and swinging affair. “Baby Suite” is a long, through-composed piece by Brown that showcases the ensemble’s wide-ranging ability to move between thematic material, free improvisation, and deep swing. The quintet’s take on Dannie Richmond’s calypso, “Soft Seas,” is dancingly energetic with a focus on Jefferson’s deft percussion work. Brown’s pensive ballad “Lullaby for George, Don and Dannie” is a tribute to his former bandmates. The piece provides a lilting feature for Johnson’s lilting trumpet.

Brown’s “Rylie’s Bounce” is a festive 24-bar blues with breaks, zest, and solo features that will keep listeners rapt, while the bassist’s “For Dad and Dannie” is a heart-rending ballad written for two important men in Brown’s life. The piece gives ample space for Rigby’s soulful tenor in conversation with Brown’s resonant bass playing. The recording nearly concludes with the “cocktail suite,” except that Cherry had a “break tune” that he often played at the end of a set. This tune is “OC/DC,” attributed to Cherry and Coleman. Though there wasn’t a sound system at the gig, you can hear Brown announcing and appreciating each member of the ensemble at the finale.

It had been a long-held dream for Cameron Brown to assemble a group to play his music and honor his musical friends and mentors. His Dannie’s Calypso quintet provides a perfect vehicle for these intentions as can be heard on their recording, Remembrance.