Maurice Brown

Maurice Brown, hailed as a standout presence in modern jazz circles, came into the world on January 6, 1981, in Harvey, Illinois. His trumpet prowess emerged early, allowing him to share a stage with Ramsey Lewis at Chicago’s Symphony Center while still enrolled at Hillcrest High School. A full scholarship carried him to Northern Illinois University after graduation, and he later advanced his training at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, studying alongside the celebrated clarinetist Alvin Batiste.

He soon settled in New Orleans, where he sat in with established jazz figures including Clark Terry, Johnny Griffin, Ellis Marsalis, and Lonnie Plaxico. Additional sideman appearances during this time featured Curtis Fuller, Fred Anderson, Roy Hargrove, Michelle Carr, and Ernest Dawkins. Brown captured first place at the National Miles Davis Trumpet Competition in 2001. Two years later he issued his first leader date, Hip to Bop, credited to the Maurice Brown Quintet; the recording underscored his command of bop-inflected jazz while revealing an eagerness to stretch the idiom through novel methods such as routing trumpet solos via a wah-wah pedal. He continues to reside in New Orleans, appearing both with the quintet and with the hip-hop/funk ensemble Soul'd U Out.