Gerald Brashear was a Seattle

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

performer from the 1940s to the mid-1970s. Ernestine Anderson said, "Brashear had taught himself to play the style of Dizzy's Cuban drummer,

Chano Pozo Luciano Pozo González (January 7, 1915 – December 3, 1948), known professionally as Chano Pozo, was a Cuban jazz percussionist, singer, dancer, and composer. Despite only living to age 33, he played a major role in the founding of Latin jazz. ...

Buddy Catlett George James Catlett (May 13, 1933 – November 12, 2014), known professionally as Buddy Catlett, was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work as a bassist. Career Catlett was born in Long Beach, California, and raise ...

says Brashear 'played like a Cuban', he was that good." "The Cecil Young Quartet album, released on King in 1951 as a 10 inch LP under the title Concert of Cool Jazz was the first local record since the Maxin Trio's to make an impact outside Seattle ... The Norman record showcased Brashear and so impressed San Francisco jazz critic

Ralph Gleason Ralph Joseph Gleason (March 1, 1917 – June 3, 1975) was an American music critic and columnist. He contributed for many years to the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', was a founding editor of ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, and cofounder of the Monterey ...

that he encouraged local disc jockeys to play the cut, writing that Brashear's scat solo on 'Who Parked the Car/.' was the best scat solo ever recorded. Gerald's solo is so incontestably in a class by itself,

Eddie Jefferson Eddie Jefferson (August 3, 1918 – May 9, 1979) was an American jazz vocalist and lyricist. He is credited as an innovator of vocalese, a musical style in which lyrics are set to an instrumental composition or solo. Jefferson himself claims t ...

and

Jon Hendricks John Carl Hendricks (September 16, 1921 – November 22, 2017), known professionally as Jon Hendricks, was an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and rep ...

notwithstanding ... Brashear weaves curlicue Lestorian solos with an appealing dry, woody tone, fluid, fleet phrasing, and spitfire tonguing."DeBarros, Paul, ''Jackson Street After Hours: The Roots of Jazz in Seattle'' (1993).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brashear, Gerald American jazz drummers American jazz saxophonists American male saxophonists Musicians from Seattle Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American saxophonists 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians