Photo: Maya Dagmi

Portland-based producer and percussionist Barra Brown, known for his acoustic jazz band, Barra Brown Quintet, and as one half of beat-making duo Korgy & Bass, is gearing up to release his debut album, LFT:RT. With an ambitious approach to songwriting, and the ability to seamlessly move through a variety of genres and musical styles, Brown has crafted a wildly diverse and playful record. “I say I’m left-handed, yet I’m extremely ambidextrous,” Brown commented, in reference to his drumming and the album title which represents his “attempt to break down the binary thinking so often used to sort complex human life into simplified categories”.
To bring LFT:RT to life, he invited several artists to contribute, including Brubeck Institute fellow Tree Palmedo, who guests on trumpet on the latest single to emerge, ‘Woah hey!’. Brown commented on this collaboration:

“My friend Tree is an amazing trumpet player. His last jazz related album received four stars in Downbeat and was named #1 debut album on the NPR Jazz Critic’s Poll. It happened that he was back in town (Portland) visiting from his new home in NYC. We had about an hour together in my home studio and he took a few passes over my work in progress. I chopped some things he played to create a melody after our session. But the ripping solo at the end, I kept that one-take wonder! The guitar and bass sounds were taken from an improvised session I recorded with my former teacher and Oregon Hall of Fame guitarist, Dan Balmer. He didn’t know several seconds of our jam would become this sonic world and his guitar would also become a bass.”

‘Woah hey!’ comes with an accompanying video edited by Brown and featuring archival footage of astronauts training in the 60’s. Watch it below and grab the album when it’s out on March 5th through Cavity Search Records.