It's not unusual for musicians to play in more than one band, but few get around quite as much as bassist John Brown.
He's playing tonight at Durham's Hayti Heritage Center with his "Little" Big Band, which is one of six - count 'em, six - groups that Brown has. Brown also has a quintet, a trio, a combo for educational shows, a full-on big band and a funk band called the Groove Shop.
"I just want to play," Brown says. "So I try to create opportunities for them to satisfy my musical tastes. I'm blessed to do what I love for a living. I guess I'm being selfish, putting together groups I want to play in and make fit my schedule."
Brown also teaches as director of the jazz program at Duke University. And he's a movie star, kind of. Last month, Rodrigo Dorfman's short film "One Night in Kernersville" debuted at Duke's Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. "One Night" documents a session Brown put together to record his big band at Mitch Easter's Fidelitorium studio in Kernersville. Dorfman came over to film it, and the footage he got was good enough to turn into a few clips to put online.
The project grew from there, turning into a 20-minute film that showed Brown and his 18-piece big band in the studio recording an album that debuts this fall ("Setting Standards"). And darned if "One Night" didn't win Full Frame's Jury Award for best short film.
"At first, making it into a real film wasn't even on our radar at all," Brown says. "But we were at the luncheon, and I was getting another plate of barbecue when they started describing the next winner and making musical references. Rodrigo and I caught each other's eye. It never even occurred to us it might win something. 'They talking about our film?!' Then they said it was like a musical composition and the fulfillment of a dream, and they said our name. We were very stunned."
Recording with a big band was indeed a dream of Brown's. In the film, he describes his anticipation of it as something like Christmas and his birthday all rolled into one. And it lived up to Brown's expectations enough that he's plotting ways to make it happen again, by starting an annual arranging competition; his big band will record the winning entry.
Brown's other order of business is "Dancing with Duke: An Homage to Duke Ellington" (Brown Boulevard Records), an Ellington tribute. Recorded by the trio of Brown, pianist Cyrus Chesnut and drummer Adonis Rose, "Dancing with Duke" bops along with a loose and relaxed ambiance as they cover "In a Mellow Tone," "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" and other selections from the Ellington cannon.
"I had in mind to get this band together and it started with a date that worked, then deciding what we'd play," he says. "And as we played, the presence of Duke emerged very early and powerfully. I'm very spiritual and religious, and I believe things happen in order. So the project was ordered that way. We're recording again this summer. It worked before, so we'll see what we end up doing."
