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Brad is a freelance Bassist working in the Baltimore-Washington DC metro area....
I play straight-ahead (ii-V-7-I) jazz, ranging from traditional New Orleans-style to classic
Chicago-style to swing, bebop, neo-bop and beyond. I dig it all!
Not surprisingly, my musical philosophy is shaped by life experience. Because my musical
journey has taken such an interesting route-- from the dance halls and ballrooms of the Great Plains to the after-hours
clubs of "Little Chicago" to the juke joints and blue collar taverns of Louisiana, to radio broadcasts in New York, to sophisticated
venues along Embassy Row-- I've never forgotten the primary support role of the bass as a rhythmic AND percussive
instrument that defines the parameters of creative expression within a jazz ensemble. The bass is secondarily a
solo instrument in jazz, and as soloist I celebrate the metaphysical joy of being an improvisational voice-- in
the moment of time-- and within a timeless art form.
For me, all classic, mainstream Jazz repertoire is timeless in the same way that
classical music forms one long continuum. Thus, from the original vernacular of Traditional New Orleans
music, to the hot Chicago-style, to Swing, to the frenetic message of Bebop, to the detached voicings of Cool,
to European-influenced Third Stream, to Avant Garde...all remain valid schools for contemporary improvisational
performance, unaffected by the passage of time and altered only by the creative interpretation of today's players. For
if any of this music moves you then it is ART, regardless of whether it was created in 1920 or yesterday.
In an age where instantaneous electronic media has fostered shameless self-promotion, enabling
anyone who covers a jazz classic to instantly declare themself a "jazz" artist without having paid the dues or lived
the life, I am from the Old School. My teachers were the old blues and jazz practicioners--both great and
humble, known and unknown-- who created the art form. In reverence for these innovators, I strive in every performance
to incorporate the sum total of my experience to maintain the standards by which the authentic jazz art form is recognized,
measured and appreciated.
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