LBJ w/ Colour

SoulTrain.com: At what age did you realize that you had a talent for music? What instruments do you play?

Larry Brown, Jr.: Very early. I grew up in a musical family. All of my sisters played classical piano, and my brother studied percussion. My mom studied piano with my sisters, my dad played guitar. In fact, he played in a quartet for over 20 years. My grandfather and my older cousins played as well, so I knew early that I wanted to play and that I could do it.

I play guitar, piano/organ, bass, some drums, and recorder.

SoulTrain.com: As a youth, please describe that one performance that let you know that you wanted to pursue music professionally.

Larry Brown, Jr.: There wasn’t a performance when I was a kid that gave me that feeling, because coming out of high school I was interested in pursuing business administration. I did a co-op my senior year at the Purina Company in St. Louis, and it was in that year that I started to change my mind towards music because I knew I wouldn’t want to be in this type of work all of my life. So, the short answer is probably [during] undergrad studying at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is where I knew that I wanted to build a life around making music.

SoulTrain.com: Your foundation in music lies in the jazz genre. What about jazz attracts you?

Larry Brown, Jr.: Swing, the blues, the players, and the culture. I love the feeling of swing.

SoulTrain.com: Who are some of the jazz greats that inspire you?

Larry Brown, Jr. 2Larry Brown, Jr.: Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Quincy Jones to name a few. -

Larry Brown Jr., Hyde Park jazz musician and songwriter, lives comfortably in his cozy neighborhood apartment. As we sit down to listen to some of his recently released modern jazz album, The Music and the Moment, Larry mentions that he ran into one of the musicians featured on the record in the grocery store not ten minutes before. He pulls out hummus, some pita chips, and plays the first track as we lay back on his couch.

This one is called the “Language of the Unheard,” it’s kind of my protest song. When I began, I knew I wanted something angry. I didn’t have any idea yet, but I knew I wanted something with a definite edge.

All the crazy stuff in the world that’s happening right now—you know, for someone who grew up not that far from Ferguson, to see a city burn down like that, and you know, the last couple years of tragedy: accidents and killings of young people, especially of young African-Americans. I think the older I get the more responsible I am about trying to deliver some type of commentary or conversation about it as an artist. That’s kind of what Music and the Moment is all about—music that speaks to today rather than forty years ago. I appreciate the civil rights movement, but I can’t make music about it. I have no real—well, I can’t say I don’t have a tie to it, but it doesn’t speak to me like this moment does. It’s just trying to make a statement about what’s happening now.

It’s about everything, this moment in time as an artist. We live in a time where politically, we’re everywhere. In a time where millennials have taken over the world, we aspire to so much stuff. And love…well, love’s going to be a part of everyone’s life. So this album’s about all those things—hopes, dreams, aspirations, disappointments, things that anger you, the people you love. - Austin Brown