Joanne Brackeen is a gifted pianist and composer whose harmonically advanced, creatively complex, and rhythmically adventuresome music greatly enhanced the development of jazz during the closing decades of the 20th century. Born Joanne Grogan in Ventura, CA on July 26, 1938, she was mostly self-taught but did study at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. Although her earliest inspiration was pop pianist
Frankie Carle, her life was permanently altered by the music of
Charlie Parker and she rapidly developed into an aspiring jazz pianist. By the late '50s, in fact, she was gigging with saxophonists
Teddy Edwards,
Dexter Gordon,
Harold Land,
Charles Lloyd, and
Charles Brackeen, a friend of trumpeter
Don Cherry and drummer
Ed Blackwell. After getting married, the two relocated to New York City in 1965 and were eventually divorced, after which she raised their four children even as her artistry blossomed under the influence of
McCoy Tyner,
Ornette Coleman, and
Chick Corea.
Between 1965 and 1968,
Joanne Brackeen appeared on five different albums released under the name of soul-jazz vibraphonist
Freddie McCoy. After working with trumpeter
Woody Shaw and saxophonist
David Liebman she became the first woman ever to gig and record as a member of
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers (1969-1972), and can be heard on
Blakey's album Catalyst along with trumpeter
Bill Hardman and saxophonist
Carlos Garnett. From 1972-1974 she worked with saxophonists
Joe Henderson,
Joe Farrell, and
Sonny Red, as well as mouth organist
Toots Thielemans. She began releasing albums under her own name in 1975 while collaborating with saxophonists
Sonny Stitt and
Stan Getz, with whom she was recorded in live performance at Copenhagen's Cafe Montmartre in 1977. In 1982 she assumed greater control over her career by becoming her own manager.
For decades
Brackeen's trios helped to define the steadily evolving tradition of modern jazz as she sought out musicians whose creative integrity and improvisational facility matched her own, such as bassists
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen,
Rufus Reid,
Cecil McBee,
Clint Houston, and
Eddie Gomez, an ex-member of the
Bill Evans Trio who became one of her preferred collaborators.
Brackeen's choice of musical company has always been unwaveringly excellent, and has included drummers
Jack DeJohnette,
Al Foster,
Idris Muhammad,
Roy Haynes, and
Billy Hart (like
Gomez a trusted ally whose involvement with
Brackeen's ensembles spans decades).
Brackeen's guitarists have included
Ryo Kawasaki,
John Abercrombie,
Earl Klugh, and
Joshua Breakstone; she has made great music with trumpeters
Freddie Hubbard,
Terence Blanchard, and
John McNeil; with flugelhornist Ed Sarath, and with saxophonists
Gary Bartz,
Tom Scott,
Michael Brecker,
Bob Berg,
Glen Hall,
Lew Tabackin,
Branford Marsalis,
Donald Harrison, and
Chris Potter, as well as vocalist
Kurt Elling.
In her maturity
Brackeen achieved greater recognition as a composer and as a solo performer, even while continuing to record with some of the most exciting and creative musicians on the scene. During the '90s her fascination with Brazilian music resulted in Breath of Brazil (released in 1991), Brasil from the Inside, an album released in 1992 with guitarist
Romero Lubambo, bassist
Nilson Matta, and drummer
Duduka da Fonseca (a team that became internationally known as the
Trio da Paz), and Take a Chance, a quartet offering that appeared in 1993. In 1994 she joined saxophonist
Ivo Perelman on his imaginatively stoked tribute to composer
Heitor Villa-Lobos,
Man of the Forest. Other Brazilian composers whose works have inspired
Brackeen are
Antonio Carlos Jobim,
Milton Nascimento,
Egberto Gismonti, and
Gilberto Gil. In 2001
Brackeen recorded
Eyes of the Elders with saxophonist
Talib Qadir Kibwe, an
Abdullah Ibrahim alumnus now operating under the name
T.K. Blue, and with veteran multi-instrumentalist
Makanda Ken McIntyre on what was unfortunately to be his very last album,
New Beginning. A survivor of many years in an economically challenging and at times unhealthy working environment,
Joanne Brackeen is an internationally acclaimed improvising artist and a respected educator at the Berklee College of Music. ~ arwulf arwulf