Gerry Brown Here!

[Deafmoon]

Bassist John Lee & Drummer Gerry Brown were as tight as a frogs a** when it comes to a rhythmic duo laying down funk/fusion back in the 70's. There isn't anything I have heard with these two gents on it that I don't dig. Gerry is a player who integrates both the top and bottom of the kit in his grooves. He is balanced to serve the music as a drummer should. Now many years later, their stuff is pretty obscure and you will have a hard time seeking it out on CD or even MP3 downloads. But the vinyl is out there if you want to dig in. If you are into great music check out these albums: John Lee & Gerry Brown: Infinite Jones 1973, Mango Sunrise 1975, Still Can't Get Enough 1976, Chaser 1979. Danny Toan - Bigfoot 1979, Stu Goldberg - Fancy Glance 1979, Toto Blanke -Spider's Dance 1975. These albums have some of the best drumming on them to hear fluidity between the top & bottom of the kit and are worthy of any serious drummers attention. If you dig Gerry, right on!

 

[Alex Sanguinetti]

Yes, those are great records, many of them were done when Gerry lived in Europe, mostly in Holland (the ones you mentioned), but he did a lot in Germany too because he spent much time there as well. Gerry is an amazing player and fantastic guy, I love Gerry. In the 70´s, when he became popular worldwide with "Musicmagic" (Chick Corea), was very influential. He was adding the toms in rhythms like noone did before him. Gadd introduced the idea doing it mainly with the floor tom, but Gerry add many smaller ones too, with a beautiful sound, creating very unique grooves. Of course also he plays integrating backsticking, twirlling, etc., which most of us were not aware in the 70´s, because we couldn´t WATCH any drummers back then live or on TV, specially if you lived in third world countries, you just could pick things up from the records (if you could get the records!!), I found out this when I first saw him much later. He is extremely funky, plays jazz great and is an amazing reader too, so he played in all kinds of projects, from big bands to very special combos. He is one of the masters on the use of hi-hat!!

 

[J-Boogie]

I know him mainly as that bad ass stick twirling, stick spinning, visual acrobat laying down crazy funk on some old vhs tapes of clinics I had. Good to get a little more perspective from Deafmoon and Alex.

 

[eddypierce]

I first found out about Gerry Brown because a friend played me some of the Music Magic album when we were in college, and I was blown away by his playing. He's also played with Stevie Wonder (I know he's on a live Stevie album from the 90's) and most recently he's been the drummer with Diana Ross for many years.