One of the outstanding presentations at the Ellington ’89 conference was the one given by Kurt Dietrich from Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin about Lawrence Brown. Dietrich was at that time working on his doctoral dissertation on three Ellington trombone players and Brown was one of them.
To make his research handable, he focused on the period up to 1951 for all the three players.
His presentation in Washington D.C. gave examples of Brown’s playing during the 1932 to 1947 period and he tried to illustrate the different styles of Brown from the lyrical one to swinging one.
In most examples he only played excerpts of the recording but in some cases also the full one.
Here is the list of what Dietrich let the audience hear:
Sheik of Araby (1932)-Slippery Horn (1933)-Sophisticated Lady (1933)-Isn’t Love The Strangest Thing? (1936)-Rose Of The Grande (1938)-Blue Light (1938)-Braggin’ In Brass (1938)-Linger Awhile (1940)-Main Stem (1942)-On A Turquoise Cloud (1947)-Golden Cress (1947).