Charles Brackeen
b. 13 March 1940, White's Chapel (renamed Eufaula), Oklahoma, USA. As a child Brackeen studied piano and violin before taking up saxophone at the age of 10. After living briefly in Texas and New York, he moved to Los Angeles in 1956, where he met musicians such as Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins and Paul Bley, so furthering an interest in new jazz already sparked by his love for the records of John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. In 1960 he married pianist Joanne Brackeen (they later divorced) and in 1965 moved back to New York. After playing ‘all types of music’, including gigs with West Indian musicians, Brackeen recorded RHYTHM X in 1969; with Haden, Cherry and Ed Blackwell as his associates, the record was virtually a homage to Coleman. From 1970-72, he played in the Melodic Art-tet (with Ahmed Abdullah, bassist Ronnie Boykins and drummer Roger Blank), performing regularly on New York's avant garde loft scene. Brackeen next worked with Blackwell again, with Ronald Shannon Jackson and with Paul Motian, playing on the latter's DANCE (1977) and LE VOYAGE (1979). After recording with Blackwell's quartet in 1982 (the album remains unreleased), Brackeen returned to Los Angeles the following year and is still living there. In 1987 he was invited by Dennis Gonzalez to record for the Silkheart label and has so far issued three albums as leader as well as appearing on records by Abdullah (LIQUID MAGIC) and Gonzalez (NAMESAKE, DEBENGE-DEBENGE). A compelling tenor saxophonist, with echoes of Rollins and Albert Ayler in his playing style and the influence of Ornette Coleman discernible in his writing, Brackeen plays a disciplined post-free jazz that is shot through with a broad streak of lyricism. He is also a persuasive, if rare, performer on soprano saxophone.