STAR BASS
If the parents of Raymond Matthews Brown had been better off when he was a schoolkid in the 1930s, you’d now be reading a Star Trombonist profile. Thankfully for us—if not for the young Ray—his folks couldn’t afford the brass instrument, and so he took to the upright bass instead. And what a decision that was, leading to a 60-year career that took in work with the likes of Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Rich, and Frank Sinatra.
Brown is one of
