Milton Aubrey "Brew" Moore (March 26, 1924 – August 19, 1973)
was an American
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
tenor saxophonist.
Early life
He was born in
Indianola, Mississippi
Indianola is a city in and the county seat of Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States, in the Mississippi Delta. The population was 10,683 at the 2010 census.
History
On June 30, 1874 the town was surveyed and on April 14, 1885 an addition ...
, United States.
Moore's formal musical training began at twelve, first on
trombone
The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...
, then
clarinet
The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell.
Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...
before switching to
tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (whi ...
.
Inspired by the style of
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist.
Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most i ...
, he gained his first professional experience playing in a Texas territorial band the summer before entering college.
Professional career
Moore left the
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi (Epithet, byname Ole Miss) is a Public university, public research university in University, near Oxford, Mississippi, United States, with a University of Mississippi Medical Center, medical center in Jackson, Miss ...
in his first year to pursue a performing career, with periods in
New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
,
Memphis and
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
(twice) between 1942 and 1947. In New York, he first heard the new music called
bebop
Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...
. As one who idolized Young (he even held his saxophone at the same unorthodox 120-degree angle), Moore was at first uncomfortable with it, but as he recalled for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' critic
John S. Wilson in 1968: "When I heard what Bird (
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz Saxophone, saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of beb ...
) had done for himself, I realized that Pres was not the complete messiah. So I combined Bird and Pres and my own thing."
Returning to New York in 1948, Moore became a fixture on the city's jazz scene, cutting his first sides as a leader ("Brew Moore and His Playboys,"
Savoy Records
Savoy Records is an American record company and label established by Herman Lubinsky in 1942 in Newark, New Jersey. Savoy specialized in jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel music.
In September 2017, Savoy was acquired by Concord Bicycle Music.
...
) and working with
Machito
Frank Grillo (born Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo; December 3, 1909 – April 15, 1984) known professionally as Machito (previously as Macho), was a Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music ...
's orchestra and
Claude Thornhill's Big Band, the
Kai Winding
Kai Chresten Winding ( ; May 18, 1922 – May 6, 1983) was a Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is known for his collaborations with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson. His version of " More", the theme from the movie ''Mondo Ca ...
sextet,
Stan Getz
Stan Getz (born Stanley Gayetski; February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wis ...
and
George Wallington among others. In 1949, he joined three of the "four brothers" from
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987) was an American jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roo ...
's celebrated Second Herd (Getz,
Zoot Sims
John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...
,
Al Cohn
Al Cohn (November 24, 1925 – February 15, 1988) was an American jazz saxophonist, arranger and composer. He came to prominence in the band of clarinetist Woody Herman and was known for his longtime musical partnership with fellow saxophonist ...
) plus
Allen Eager in a session that resulted in the album ''
The Brothers'' for the
Prestige
Prestige may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Films
*Prestige (film), ''Prestige'' (film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnett: woman travels to French Indochina to meet up with husband
*The Prestige (film), ''The Prestige'' (fi ...
label. In the early 1950s, he gigged with Bird and other beboppers of note at venues like
Birdland. Pianist
Gene DiNovi described him as "a natural player. I remember him saying once that you should come to the saxophone as a child would—pick it up and blow. He had blond, straw-colored hair. Always with a farmer's cow-lick sticking up. He was a very simple, lovely person."
He left New York in 1954 for the West Coast, settling eventually in
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
where he found a congenial environment, fitting well into the
beat generation
The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by members o ...
culture personified by one of his acknowledged admirers,
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Of French-Canadian ...
. In 1959, the heavy drinking that had early on given him his nickname took its toll, and he withdrew from the scene. He subsequently resurfaced in Europe.
Based out of
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
,
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
, he would, with the exception of three years in New York (1967–1970), continue to perform there for the rest of his life,
teaming with such fellow ex-pats as
Kenny Drew
Kenneth Sidney "Kenny" Drew (August 28, 1928 – August 4, 1993) was an American-Danish jazz pianist.
Biography
Drew was born on August 28, 1928, in New York City, United States, and he received piano lessons from the age of five. Feather, ...
and
Sahib Shihab
Sahib Shihab (born Edmund Gregory; June 23, 1925 – October 24, 1989) was an American jazz and hard bop saxophonist (baritone, alto, and soprano) and flautist. He variously worked with Luther Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Fletcher Henderson, Tad ...
as well as European players
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (; 27 May 1946 – 19 April 2005), also known by his abbreviated nickname NHØP, was a Danish jazz double bassist.
Biography
Pedersen was born in Osted, near Roskilde, on the Danish island of Zealand, the son o ...
and
Alex Riel
Alex Riel (13 September 1940 – 9 June 2024) was a Danish jazz and rock drummer.''Jeg skal sgu sidde ved trommerne'' Af Bine Madsen. Dagbladenes Bureau, 9 February 2010. Same interview in Flensborg Avis, 17 February 2010, Side 18''Alex Riel ...
. In August 1973, back in Copenhagen from a trip home to settle his late father's affairs (and, ironically, after years of economic uncertainty coming into a substantial inheritance), he fell down a flight of stairs in
Tivoli Gardens
Tivoli Gardens, also known simply as Tivoli (), is an amusement park and pleasure garden in Copenhagen, Denmark. The park opened on 15 August 1843 and is the third-oldest operating amusement park in the world, after Dyrehavsbakken in nearby Kla ...
and suffered the injuries that caused his death.
Influence and legacy
In the liner notes for a
Storyville Records
Storyville Records is an international record company and label based in Copenhagen, Denmark, specializing in jazz and blues music. Besides its original material, Storyville Records has reissued many vintage jazz recordings that previously appea ...
issue, critic
Alun Morgan suggests in liner notes for the CD reissue ''No More Brew'' that Moore's "total discography is small for a man of his musical stature" because of the saxophonist's unswerving adherence to his Lestorian roots. As critic
Scott Yanow
Scott Yanow (born 1954) is an American jazz reviewer, historian, and author.
Life and career
Yanow was born in New York City and grew up near Los Angeles.
Beginning in 1974, Yanow was a regular reviewer of many jazz styles and was the jazz e ...
observed: "In the early '50s,
oorerecorded . . . with fellow tenors Stan Getz, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, and Alan Eager; at the time, they all sounded identical. Moore was the only one of the five who did not change his sound through the years."
Alternatively, Danish scholar Soren Schou has likened Moore's "epic melodist" playing to writing a novel and contrasted it with the concentrated "short story" approach practiced by post-Bird improvisers. Certainly Moore's expansive style of playing tested the attention span of post-bop era listeners. (In evidence of this, one is referred to his X-rated comments to an apparently less than fully engaged Stockholm audience while introducing "Manny's Tune" on "No More Brew," Storyville CD 8275, 1998.)
Moore himself told critic
Ralph J. Gleason in 1954: "The idea of playing for me is to compose a different, not always better I'm afraid, melody on the tune and basis of the original song, rather than construct a series of chord progressions around the original chords." An idea the more pre-bop inclined Gleason clearly approved of, noting that Moore "has two absolutely golden gifts. He swings like mad and he has soul . . . he also has a priceless gift for phrasing. . . . When Brew says it, he says it simply, but it rings true."
[Ralph Gleason, Original liner notes to ''The Brew Moore Quintet'', Fantasy, 1954]
Discography
As leader
As sideman
*
Slim Gaillard, ''At Birdland'' (Hep, 1979)
*
Stan Getz
Stan Getz (born Stanley Gayetski; February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wis ...
, ''
The Brothers'' (Prestige, 1956)
*
Ray Nance, ''
Body and Soul'' (Solid State, 1970)
*
Cal Tjader
Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. ( ; July 16, 1925 – May 5, 1982) was an American Latin Jazz musician, often described as the most successful non-Latino Latin music (genre), Latin musician. He explored other jazz idioms, especially small group mod ...
, ''Tjader Plays Tjazz'' (Fantasy, 1956)
* Cal Tjader, ''Latin Kick'' (Fantasy, 1959)
*
George Wallington, ''The George Wallington Trio'' (Savoy, 1956)
*
Chuck Wayne
Chuck Wayne (February 27, 1923 – July 29, 1997) was an American jazz guitarist. He came to prominence in the 1940s, and was among the earliest jazz guitarists to play in the bebop style. Wayne was a member of Woody Herman's First Herd, the f ...
, ''
The Jazz Guitarist'' (Savoy, 1956)
Notes
References
* "Brew Moore Dies; Jazz Musician, 49," ''The New York Times'', August 20, 1973.
"Brew Moore," Jazz ProfessionalAttarian, Hrayr, "Brew Moore," ''All About Jazz''
* Gardner, Mark, Brew Moore Quartet - I Should Care (Notes) SteepleChase CD 36019 1993 reissue of 1965 broadcast recording
*
* Gleason, Ralph, The Brew Moore Quintet (Notes), Fantasy, 1956 (CD reissue 1993).
* Morgan, Alun, Brew Moore – No More Brew (Notes), Storyville, 1998 (Originally recorded for Danske Radio in 1971.)
Neely, Mike, "The Brew Moore Quintet" (Review)* Schou, Søren, "Brew Moore – En Melodisk Epiker," Tidsskrift: Jazz Special, No. 62, 2002.
* Wiedemann, Erik, Brew Moore - Svinget 14 (Notes), Black Lion CD760164, 1991 reissue of 1961 recording.
*
Wilson, John S., "Brew Moore, Saxophonist, Back After Two Decades." ''The New York Times'', September 11, 1968.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Brew
1924 births
1973 deaths
People from Indianola, Mississippi
American jazz saxophonists
American male saxophonists
20th-century American saxophonists
Jazz musicians from Mississippi
20th-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians