Mary Ann (Live In Bremen 1969)

The alto saxophonist Marion Brown (1931), who grew up in Atlanta, moved to New York in 1965, and almost immediately, while still an unknown, played on John Coltrane's seminal album "Ascension" and Archie Shepp's "Fire Music," quickly became one of the most radical yet romantic of free improvisers. Brown was an important figure in twentieth-century jazz. Together with Ed Kroeger (trombone), Sigi Busch (bass) and Steve McCall (drums), they played various concerts in Germany as a quartet in 1969 and also stopped at the Club Lila Eule in Bremen on April 24. His son Djinji remembers, "His playing tone, sounded like his speaking voice, the way he held his horn reminded me of the way he held my hand, the way he walked was in the same rhythm of his songs, and then it all made sense. His music was who he was first and foremost. It was the purest expression of his soul and everything he did had the same gentle strength as his music did. He was truly one with his art, there was no separating the two."