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After 20 years as a working sideman with some of the most prominent names on the contemporary jazz scene, guitarist Dean Brown has finally realized his first recording as a leader. Many of those same funk-fusion icons who employed Brown through various phases of his career -- drummer Billy Cobham, the Brecker Brothers, David Sanborn, Bill Evans, Marcus Miller and George Duke -- have gathered to return the favor by appearing on HERE , the guitarists hard-hitting debut for ESC Records.

Aside from representing the different bandleaders that he has worked with over the years, HERE also showcases the range of Brown's own musical tastes. Touches of P-Funk, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix mingle nicely with Afro-Cuban grooves and unadulterated swinging jazz on this ambitious undertaking. "I didnt want to arbitrarily just have an all-star cast on this album," says the in-demand guitarist. "But there were certain people that I felt had strongly influenced my direction so I wanted to include them as sort of conduit for my writing. And everybody was so incredibly supportive about it. They all were extremely happy that I finally had made a record of my own."

With the exception of one tune, a slamming remake of The Beatles "Baby, You're A Rich Man", all the material on HERE was composed by Brown. And rather than using the occasion to showcase his own chops, Dean followed the Duke Ellington modus operandi of writing tunes with specific players in mind. "Back In The Day", for instance, is a fitting vehicle for both Marcus Miller's signature slap bass prowess and Sanborn's instantly recognizable alto sax wail.

"Gemini", which shifts from tasty acoustic guitar work to soaring electric lines by Brown, was written specifically to highlight Marcus Miller's remarkably fluid and agile fretless bass work. As the composer explains, "Marcus is a Gemini. I kind of wrote this tune for and about him. So for me it was a thing of, Marcus, if you cant play on this tune then I'm not doing the tune. There's not much point to it if Marcus is not playing it, and he kind of proves that."

Brown took the same approach in writing tunes to Billy Cobham's strength. "There's a couple of things that I wrote very specifically for Billy," he says. "And to me, they're very obvious. I just wanted to tap into the things I love about the way Billy plays. And he sure came through like a champ." Cobham, the first to elevate Brown's profile to an international level, is well represented on the slow-grooving vocal number "Tell It (Like It Is)", which is based on the drummers early 70's fusion classic, "Stratus". Says the guitarist, "I actually did a tour with Billy last summer which precipitated me asking him to play on my record. I've played with Billy over the years off and on. Its not been a regular thing but we just seem to want to play with each other every once in a while, so I appreciate those opportunities. Because he was one of the first guys to give me a gig." Elsewhere, Cobham erupts for a sizzling solo on a jazzy quartet number called "The Clave Groove", which has Dean playing fleet-fingered, warm-toned lines on a fat-bodied jazz box in the tradition of George Benson. Cobham reprises his inimitable backbeat groove on a brief but ultra-funky "Billy Groove Interlude" and dazzles on a dramatic reading of "The Battles Over (For Jaco)", Browns epic homage to the late, great bassist-composer, Jaco Pastorius.

Keyboardist-composer George Duke, another Brown employer, appears on the smooth jazz offering "Believe Me". "Big Foot is direct homage to Hendrix, alluding specifically to Jimi's cool organ quartet shuffle "Rainy Day Dream Away" from Electric Ladyland . And Dean's remake of the Beatles "Baby, You're A Rich Man" puts a funky spin on that quintessentially psychedelic pop offering. "There is something about that tune that is so cool", he says, "and I always thought it could be made real funky. I did enjoy that period of the Beatles where they were more into that Indian thing and more experimental...all the backwards stuff and the sitars. And there was something about this particular tune that just stuck with me. In fact, it was one of the tunes that I used to cover in the band I had as a kid, so I always dug it."

"Solid is an aptly-named, hard-edged Afro-Cuban groover which features some brilliant layered percussion work by Don Alias and a heroic tenor sax solo by Michael Brecker, and "Just For Kicks" is an urgent showcase for brother Randys stellar trumpet work. Dean's debut opens on an upbeat, turbo-charged note with "Take This!", an ultra-funky throwdown sparked by Brown's slick rhythm guitar work behind Randy Breckers trumpet solo, Ricky Petersons Hammond B-3 organ work and Richard Patterson's virtuosic electric bass slapping.

And the collection closes on a dramatic note with Brown's opus, "The Battles Over (For Jaco)". The composer details the genesis of passionate and depthful suite: "Its a very important and personal piece for me. And it came together over a long period of time. I was playing with Bob James in Florida at the time of Jaco's death (in September of 1987). I went to his funeral in Fort Lauderdale. And it's funny...I think that all of us were kind of half-expecting him to jump out of the casket and go...AAAAAAAAH! GOTCHA! But he never did, which was a drag. But Wayne Shorter was there and Joe Zawinul was there. They were pallbearers. Obviously, this was a solemn and important occasion. And as we were leaving the church, this melody came to me. At first I thought it might've been written before but I couldnt quite put my finger on it. And then later on, as much as six months or a year later, I completed the piece. The whole thing tells the story of Jaco's kind of meteroic rise and his unfortunate fall. And hopefully at the end of the tune it doesnt sound depressing but instead sounds like there's some hope there. Its a powerful song and whenever we play it I tell people, This isn't a song that's evocative of something that Jaco would write, its just how I feel about it."

by Bill Milkowski

at CD BABY!

For his follow-up to 2001's "Here", guitarist Dean Brown decided to focus more intently on his musical inspirations from the 1970s. The resulting and aptly-titled "Groove Warrior" is a slamming affair that owes a debt to the likes of Sly Stone, James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic, Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana while showcasing Brown as a singer-songwriter as well as a chopsmeister of the highest order. Backed by a funky crew including keyboardist Bernard Wright, bassists Booker King and Schuyler Deale, drummer Juju House and special guest Marcus Miller, Brown lays down some soulful lead vocals and searing guitar licks in his second recording as a leader for ESC.

"This record had more of a homogeneous concept as opposed to "Here", where I was really trying to demonstrate a lot of the styles that I had been accustomed to playing for the past 20 years. But with "Groove Warrior", I just wanted to try and make a record that indicated what made me want to play music in the first place and get back to some of that stuff...that early '70s experience and the old school R&B I grew up on."

While fusion fans may well recognize Brown's name from the numerous recordings and tours he's done over the years as a sideman with Billy Cobham, the Brecker Brothers, Vital Information, David Sanborn and Marcus Miller, they may be surprised to hear him singing on "Groove Warrior". But as Dean notes, "I was always a singer-guitar player from the time I was a kid all the way up until I started studying more about jazz. And then when I got the gig with Billy Cobham (in 1981) I just kept going in that direction and haven't had a chance to really sing again until now."

Brown demonstrates a particularly soulful quality on the vocals to his originals "To Be With You", a masterful piece of pop composing with a few allusions to Middle Eastern music tossed into the mix, and "Forever", a Sly-flavored piece augmented by a savvy arrangement for string quartet. His spoken word verse on "The Divining Tree", reminiscent of Hendrix's poetic raps on If Six Was Nine and Third Stone From The Sun, leads into one of the albums more ambitious tunes, a kind of semi-autobiographical suite entitled "Feed My Jones". As Dean explains, "Its a story about somebody giving up whatever it is that they feel is not doing them any good anymore and then dealing with it. And the middle section, where it sounds like just a bunch of voices all wrapped around your head, is kind of like what happens when you've stopped doing whatever it is that you thought would be bad for you, whether it was drugs or a relationship or food or whatever. And now all of a sudden when you're without that, you can't focus because you dont have that anchor anymore. So finally I just give in and say, The hell with it. Im just gonna do whatever it is, whatever it takes to get through the day, which is not what I actually did in real life, but it just seemed like something that I would like to do."

Elsewhere, the instrumental pieces on "Groove Warrior" kick with a vengeance, fueled by Juju's big-as-a-house backbeats and Booker's low-end groove and sparked by some scintillating synth work from Wright and some multi-layered, over-the-top guitar playing from Brown. Their chemistry is particularly apparent on the heavy-duty "In The Basement" (a kind of James Gang-meets-Mandrill mantra), the super-funky "Break Song" and the country-funk flavored group improv number "Piggly Wiggly", which has Dean taking a surprise turn on 4-string banjo. The lyrical "Shadows", underscored by Juju's go-go beat, is Dean's personal tribute three giants of the guitar whom he acknowledges as "the masters of melody" Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana and Mike Stern while "Blues on the Blvd. -- Part II" is an earthy throwdown workout spurred on by Bernard Wright's velvety Hammond B-3 organ cushion.

"Hunter" is a meditative groover inspired by an African field recording. As Brown explains, "I was listening to various tribal African recordings and the one that struck me was from a Malinke hunting song. I just used the groove, the bass line...and put it in two different keys, and then tried to treat it the way that Miles Davis treated things in the Kind of Blue record, where everything was kept very simple and he really left it up to the musicians to make the music happen or not. So at the session I gave everybody this chart that had two lines on it - a groove in A and another in B - and that was it. So what you hear is us actually composing the song as it happens. I just played the head and Bernard just reacted to it like we were having a very animated conversation. We really get this weird little rhythm tapestry going and all the while Booker just stays the course and plays the bassline. And what Juju did on that tune is just phenomenal. Its a powerful piece of music, almost kind of mystical for me. We really unleashed something in the studio that day and it all happened in just one take."

Bass great Marcus Miller appears on three pieces - "Forever, Break Song" and a special remix of "Forever". Another special guest on "Groove Warrior" is vocalist extraordinaire Lalah Hathaway, who makes her presence felt on "To Be With You, Forever" and "Hunter", on which she improvises wordless vocals to suit the African-flavored groove. As Brown explains, "Lalah didn't want to just come in and do the r&b hit on the record. She really wanted to be like one of the instruments, so that's basically how we treated her. She doubled Bernard's Indian-sounding synth line on "To Be With You" and she improvised all the way through "Hunter", just accompanying the events and responding to what's going on. And I like the idea that she's much more like a musician on the record as opposed to this r&b diva."

While Brown continues to be in-demand as a hired gun, his deepest and most personal musical statements continue to be made as a leader.

Through the '80s and into the '90s, Brown alternated constant touring with sax star David Sanborn, bassist Marcus Miller and the Brecker Brothers. More recently he has toured with saxophonist and ESC labelmate Bill Evans, keyboardist George Duke and two summers ago with Billy Cobham on his 30th anniversary celebration of his landmark fusion album, Spectrum.

2001s Here was his first big step. He takes another giant step in that direction with Groove Warrior.

Author: Bill Milkoswki