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A `summer storm' to close Animal Crackers for season" Guitarist Norman Brown and friends take to the stage tonight
By Erik Ernst
RACINE - Summer is the best time of the year to get together with some friends and enjoy favorite activities.
Usually that means trips to the beach, barbecues, softball games or a few rounds of golf. But, when you are someone like Norman Brown, and music is your passion, there is no better summer plan than a tour with a few friends to perform for jazz lovers across the nation.
After a successful outing last year, Brown has pulled together a few of his musical friends for a second installment of his "Summer Storm" tour, which will stop in Racine tonight as the final installment of this year's Animal Crackers Jazz Series.
In addition to saxophonist Paul Taylor and pianist Alex Bugnon, Brown will be joined by vocalist Peabo Bryson, who is known for both his solo and collaborative work which includes a duet he recorded with Celine Dion of the theme to Disney's "Beauty and the Beast."
"For me, these tours are pretty unique. It gives me an opportunity to work with so many
talented musicians that I haven't necessarily worked
Since releasing his first album in 1992, Brown has used his guitar skills to prove that he is more than a talented musician in his own right. Touring and recording for the past 14 years, Brown has become a fixture on the Jazz circuit. He released his sixth album, "West Coast Coolin'" in 2004. Brown explained that a music career has been in the works for much longer than his professional timeline shows.
"I think I pretty much knew that I was going to do this pretty immediately after I started playing music in the school system," he said. "We'd go to school district and regional competitions, and they were pretty successful. Soon after that, it made sense, at least to me, that I should make a career out of this."
Even before getting involved at the school level, Brown became infatuated with music at home. It is there that his love of guitar was spawned.
"My brother played guitar and drums," he said. I watched him and was amazed. I knew I wanted to do that.
"Guitar was my first instrument, but in the schools, we had to learn horns, so I picked up the saxophone, too."
Intent on learning as much as he could, Brown said he played just about any instrument he could get his hands on in any performance situation he could. When it was time to take an instrument to a creative level, it was the guitar that he looked to.
"I just always really loved the sound that you can get from the guitar," he said. "Also, like a piano, it's a great writing tool. I didn't play the piano like the guitar, so it gave me an opportunity to gain access to how music is created."
Brown said he is in the process of creating a new album. Fans that have come to love his previous studio efforts should be pleased by this, he said.
"We've been in the studio at every opportunity that we can," he said. "We already have pretty much a whole album's worth of material and it's a good blend of everything, all of the styles they've heard from me in the past."
For now, however, it is the "Summer Storm tour that is foremost on Brown's mind and he is enjoying every moment of it.
"It is going so great this summer," he said. "The shows are a lot of fun. We're playing songs from all of our own CDs and we're playing a lot of tunes together. There are some great
collaborations.
"I get to work with Peabo Bryson, and on a few dates, Patti Austin is playing with us. They are such professionals, when they hit the stage they turn it on and it's so much fun to watch and I'm learning so much all of the time. As a musician, for me, it's like going to school on stage every night."
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