Raymond Harry Brown
American musician, composer and arranger
Raymond Harry "Ray" Brown (born November 7, 1946) is an American composer, arranger, trumpeter, and jazz educator. He has performed as a trumpet player and arranged music for Stan Kenton (early 1970s), Bill Watrous, Bill Berry, Frank Capp, Nat Pierce (of the Juggernaut Big Band), and the Full Faith and Credit Big Band.
Career
Brown joined Stan Kenton in September 1971, succeeding Gary Lee Pack [b. 1950; Director of Jazz Studies (retired), University of Southern Maine], holding the jazz trumpet chair and serving as an improvisation clinician. The Kenton trumpet section included Mike Vax, Jay Saunders, and Dennis Noday. Brown also contributed arrangements for Kenton, including "Mi Burrito" and "Neverbird". Brown remained with the Kenton Orchestra until November 1972.
Before joining the Kenton Orchestra, Brown had served as arranger and trumpeter with the Studio Band of the United States Army Field Band at Fort Meade, Maryland (1968–71). His tenure with the Army Band and Kenton coincided closely with that of Jay Saunders — trumpet player, and jazz educator, who, while with the Kenton Orchestra, eventually played lead trumpet.
Brown currently leads his own big band, the Great Big Band, which has performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the San Jose Jazz Festival, the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival, the Lake Tahoe Music Festival, and jazz venues in the San Francisco Bay area.
Early career
1968–71: arranger and trumpet player for the Studio Band of the United States Army Field Band, Fort Meade, Maryland
September 1971 – November 1972: trumpet player (jazz chair) and improvisation clinician with the Stan Kenton Orchestra
1973: became a member of ASCAP
1973–74: trumpet player for Bill Watrous Band in New York
1973–75: led own rehearsal band in New York City
March 1975: received a grant for Jazz, Category I, National Endowment for the Arts (to write a composition for the rehearsal band)
1974–75: teacher of improvisation in nine New Jersey schools through a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts
1974–75: faculty member (teaching arranging, improv, brass), Five Towns College, Merrick, NY
1974–79: played trumpet with the New York Orchestra, Thad Jones, Joe Newman, Ray Brown (bassist), Leroy Vinnegar, Mundell Lowe, Bill Berry (William Richard Berry) Big Band
1980: member of the Nat Pierce and Frankie Capp Big Band
Musical family
Ray's wife, Sue Brown (b.
“Raymond Harry Brown” enters the record as american musician, composer and arranger. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Raymond, Harry and Brown can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Raymond Harry Brown” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Raymond, Harry and Brown provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7298839. VIAF identifies the subject as 108330529. The Library of Congress control number is n85180913. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1946, 1971, 1950 and 1972.
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This entry incorporates text from “Raymond Harry Brown” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.