Deborah Brown

Deborah Brown ranks among those American jazz vocalists whose strongest success and visibility emerged outside the United States. Equal measures of inspiration come to her from Charlie Parker and Betty Carter. A classical pianist by training, her mother also gave accordion lessons. Brown opened her own instrumental path on violin, moved next to accordion, and then studied piano with her grandmother. Several semesters at a nearby university proved less formative than the education she gained through steady live work. At twenty she turned professional, crisscrossing the United States in varied settings that included Las Vegas engagements with a big band supporting comedian George Carlin.

Extensive international touring carried her across the Far East, Japan, and Indonesia, while a full decade, 1985–1995, was spent living in Europe. Performances in more than fifty countries have followed. Pianists Roger Kellaway (with whom she gave ten duet concerts), Cedar Walton, and Dorothy Donegan have accompanied her, as have tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, harmonica master Toots Thielemans, and trumpeters Harry “Sweets” Edison and Benny Bailey. Further appearances have featured Russia’s Oleg Lundstrem Orchestra, Sweden’s Sandviken Big Band, and Denmark’s Kluver Big Band. A Siberian tour took place with Russian saxophonist Nikolai Panov’s quintet, and she has also led the quartet Jazz 4 Jazz, which included pianist Horace Parlan. In addition to recording alongside pianist John Lundgren, the Doky Brothers, and the Sandviken Big Band, Brown has issued eleven albums under her own name on the labels 33 Jazz, Alfa, Timeless, Koch, Intermusic, and Jazz ’N Pulz, together with a duet project with guitarist Joe Beck released on Jazz Voix.