Friday Night Jazz Hosted By Maggie Brown

2226 East 71st Street,Chicago IL 60649

23 April, 2021

Description

Studio 2226 Presents:Maggie B. & Company Friday Night Live Jazz Hosted by Renowned Musician Maggie Brown beginning Friday April 23, 2021. Maggie Brown is an accomplished singer, songwriter, producer and stage director. When performing, Maggie embodies the story. She communicates with power and a passionate performance style - it doesn’t matter if singing acapella, leading her own quintet, or with Orbert Davis’ full 60 piece Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Orchestra. In her hometown Chicago, Maggie Brown is called on to bring authenticity and integrity to whatever the job calls for. Though her upbringing is rooted in jazz, Maggie is comfortable singing various genres including blues, gospel, pop and even spoken word- with impressive conviction and flow. It is hard to put Maggie in a single category or genre. It is easy to see that this seasoned artist is a true entertainer, not just another singer. Chicago Tribune’s Howard Reich says of Maggie’s performance, “she is one of the most fiercely committed artists in Chicago. . . . Blues spirit, jazz syntax and a certain show-business savvy come together in her performances.” Brown has recorded with Abbey Lincoln, Jonathan Butler, Ramsey Lewis, Stevie Wonder and her legendary father Oscar Brown, Jr. In 1995 Maggie launched her own independent label MagPie Records releasing her first solo project FROM MY WINDOW. The CD was nominated for Best Jazz CD by the Chicago Music Awards. Before his passing, Maggie produced a live concert recording with her father entitled: WE’RE LIVE. The CD was re-released internationally on ESP Disk, available on iTunes. As a little girl, Maggie absorbed the creative atmosphere of the Avant garde and free music scene. Being the younger sister of bassist, Oscar Brown, III, she regularly witnessed her brother rehearsing and performing with AACM co-founder Brother Phil Cohran and with the Sun Ra Orchestra. In the 1990’s Maggie began spreading her wings, comfortably hanging in free music circles performing with creative ensembles including: Samana, One Family Band, and The Funky Wordsmyths. Maggie has worked with Kelan Phil Cohran in his Rainbow Ensemble at the 2008 tribute to Sun Ra in Millenium Park; Brown’s vocals have been featured in Doug Ewarts’ Inventions Ensemble as part of the AACM’s 50th Anniversary series of celebrations at Chicago Jazz Festival and the MCA in 2015. Maggie is proudest to be called on by Orbert Davis to work in both his large and small ensembles. Her vocals and even lyrical collaboration have been featured in the many productions put on over the last decade by Davis’ Chicago Jazz Philharmonic. At the Schomberg in New York she has performed Maggie Sings Abbey, her tribute to mentor Abbey Lincoln. Also on the road, Brown performed the historic WE INSIST: Freedom Now Suite re-imagined in Posnan Poland in 2017 after presenting at the invitation of Julie Wood and Caroline Davis for the Jazz Institute of Chicago in the 2015 Jazz Festival. 2018 and 2019 Maggie’s vocals were mingled regularly with Earnest Dawkins Great Black Music Ensemble during their Arts Residency at Stony Island Arts Bank. A recent 2019 CD release by percussionist, Art “Turk” Burton, includes Maggie on two cuts, getting good radio play with her vocals on Freedom Jazz Dance and Night In Tunisia. With such a range of accomplishments on stage it may be hard to imagine Maggie Brown devotes herself to another endeavor she holds just as dear as being a performing artist; Maggie is manager of the company responsible for maintaining and popularizing the works of her protean father, Oscar Brown, Jr. She is at the forefront of her family’s efforts to preserve and build on the legacy of music, literature and stage plays he left. Beginning in 2018, together with her sister Africa Brown, the two Brown sisters are co-managing the Oscar Brown, Jr. Archive Project, at the University of Chicago’s Logan Center for the Arts.