Sad news, jazzers (and all you dance music-freak Pitchfork reading hipsters who should educate yourself in a little boplicity). According to magazine/blog/record-lable/all-around-source-of-funk WaxPoetics, "Alto saxophone great Marion Brown died in Hollywood, Florida, on October 18. He was seventy-nine." Sad news indeed folks. See, for those not in the know, Brown was a rare thing; a free jazz great who thrived on melody and lyricism in addition to creative free-for-all blowing sessions of mad anarchic chaos in sound (though he did his fare share of that shyzer too; check this puppy from 1967 out, called Porto Novo [if you can't make it through, just skip to the middle where it gets really intense]). He played on John Coltrane's monumental statement of jazz liberation, Ascension, as well as some great Archie Shepp records worth checking out, among others. But above all, this guy had pure soul. The beauty of a tune like 'Vista' here is just marvelous; reflecting the influence of 'Trane and Sanders yet with his own sensitive finesse, this group gets the afro-spiritual-Jazz thing going like no other. Man, this cat will be missed. Marion, Phat Fellas salutes you.
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