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Alison Brown and Compass Records

My friendship with Alison Brown was borne out of our passion for the same kinds of music. I was producing acoustic music shows with my company, "Black Sheep Concerts," at Sanders Theatre, located on the Harvard campus, where Alison had just entered her sophomore year. I was also booking agent, and later manager, for bluegrass legend Tony Rice, one of Alison's early musical influences, who had just started pioneering his own brand of "new acoustic music."

With all the above as fodder for discussion, Alison and I often dined on two-for-one coupons at our favorite Harvard Square haunts, swapping stories about bluegrass bands and culture, while frequently indulging in the New England tradition of "going out for ice cream" in frigid weather. I embraced her Harvard traditions as a guest at Lowell House teas and at Harvard bell-ringing ceremonies, as an antidote to the hectic bustle of Cambridge life.

But, what truly fascinated me about Alison was the appearance of so much dichotomy in her life. Alison was the seriously academic girl in pigtails and "Annie Hall" dress, who played banjo effortlessly, her expression a bit somber, while her resonator pulsed with disco lights. She was the friend with the drop-dead delivery of hysterical quips, who would merely chuckle when I couldn't stop laughing. And Alison looked the part of the California Blond, with her father's all American spun-gold hair and blue eyes, while later learning her mother possessed very dark hair and a striking ethnic beauty. To my delight, I discovered Alison could never be second guessed.

And now fast-forwarded to almost 20 years later, Brown still won't allow herself to be categorized. Alison has secured an impressive reputation as a premier banjo player, innovator, creative band leader, composer, and instrumentalist, who plays bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz with equal conviction and authenticity. But, Alison is also co-founder and a hard-working owner of the highly-respected independent label, Compass Records, all of which she does simultaneously. And her story continues to unfold.

Alison's foray into music began when her parents, Barbara & John Brown, both lawyers, started taking guitar lessons during the '60s "folk scare." When Alison began to master basic guitar at age 8, she was soon rewarded with her own lessons. As fate would have it, the Brown's teacher, Paul Guernsey, played banjo, as well as guitar, and introduced the family to the Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs' record, Foggy Mountain Banjo. Although now Alison was just 10, it was the sound of the banjo that captivated her. "Bluegrass was something that was clearly apart from our way of life then, but I was attracted to that rippling, pinging sound. There's no socioeconomic reason why I chose the banjo. It's almost as if the banjo chose me."

The Brown family moved to La Jolla in 1974, where the 14-year Alison met her soon-to-be musical partner, 11-year old Stuart Duncan, at the San Diego Bluegrass Club. Stuart was in a "kid bluegrass band," The Pendleton Pickers, who had just returned from an appearance on Nashville's legendary Grand Ole Opry. Even though Alison was amazed at his facility for soloing, just like on her Flatt and Scruggs record, initially Alison and Stuart didn't really click. It took intervention by Stuart's father Emmett, who recognized their potential and created situations for them to play together. When Alison was 13, she and Stuart formed their first band, which was to basically remain in place for the next five years.

While Stuart was already doing sessions on records like "The New Mickey Mouse Club," sometimes recording three or four instruments per song, Emmet continued to encourage and expand Alison's musicality. He built her a dobro out of a guitar, using a hub cap for the resonator, a door handle for the hand rest, and a seat belt for the strap. Alison practiced on her custom axe, quickly graduating to a respectable store-bought model. The summer of 1977 found Alison playing dobro along side John Hickman on banjo at California's Magic Mountain Theme Park as Goldrush, Alison and Stuart's own band.
John Hickman became Alison's musical mentor. With Goldrush's rigorous six-hour days and six days-a-week schedule, however, the band ran into conflict with the Child Labor Law Services Division and their gig was short lived. Yet John's mentorship of Alison persevered, "John was incredibly gracious about inviting me up to his house, playing Bill Emerson and live bootleg Flatt and Scruggs recordings. My Dad would always have to go with me since I was too young to drive. My parents would goodheartedly joke about me always playing with middle-aged men, but really, it helped me establish a sense of self that a lot of teenagers struggle to find."

During Alison's high school years, music continued to take center stage after school. "I was not a real popular kid, yet I didn't care, since from an early age I was doing my own thing, and that was a positive experience." A conscientious student, Alison's relief and fun came on the weekends by playing the banjo/fiddle contest circuit with Stuart. At a recent Nashville gig, Alison elaborated on her unusual high school experience and perhaps for why she wasn't more widely accepted by her peers. She confessed to having played the role of "Spock" in the girl's Star Trek Club and of accenting her jeans with a big country belt buckle, while sporting Tony Llama boots. "That about said it all," she commented with a wry smile, before diving in to her next composition.

However while Brown and Duncan continued to tour the festival and contest circuit with Emmett as their unofficial manager and cheerleader, Alison began to hit her musical stride in 1978 and won the Canadian National Banjo Championship, landing Alison and Stuart their own one-night appearance at the Grand Ole Opry.

Alison's high school and college years were a harbinger of her ability to excel in several pursuits at once. The summer after Alison graduated high school, she recorded Pre-Sequel with Stuart for Ridgerunner Records, so when Alison left for Harvard in 1980, it was with banjo, guitar, and album in hand. Fortunately, Boston's Bluegrass scene was already alive and well, but none-the-less Alison left her indelible stamp on it. She co-hosted a bluegrass show on Harvard's WHRB and recorded an album with Northern Lights, one of New England's premier bluegrass bands, into which she infused new life, while her repertoire grew by listening to artists like David Grisman, Tony Rice, Bela Fleck and Russ Barenburg. Alison expanded her own musicality further by learning to play flat-pick guitar breaks and by occasionally penning her own compositions.

As Alison's determination knew no limitations in her musicality, that translated into other areas of her life. And while always in possession of her spirit of adventure, while still a junior at Harvard, she created an opportunity for herself to audition as a player for Bill Monroe's band. In an attempt to cover all the bases, in anticipated appreciation, Alison decided to take "The Father of Bluegrass" a Harvard memento. However, this was perhaps one of the few times Alison didn't achieve the result she had hoped for. Alison recounts the historic audition:

"I arrived at the Kennedy Center in DC where Bill was filming a TV show. Of course, my name was no where to be found to get backstage, so fortunately I managed to fool a security guard into thinking he had seen me on TV and he let me in. I found Bill and spent the evening hanging around with him backstage, then he invited me back to the hotel to audition. His manager ordered some pizza and then Bill got out his mandolin and started playing "Sally Goodin'". When I finally started playing, he said I was too loud, took off his hat and then put his mandolin away. What else could I do at that point? So, I gave him a Harvard Glee Club tie." Looking back, Alison reflects, "What was really funny is that I thought, 'I could do this, have a real audition with Bill Monroe' - thinking that my idea and his idea of an audition was the same. That experience was probably the most rude awakening I could have had, though sometimes I wonder if he ever wore the tie."
Brown recovered from the incident and graduated from Harvard in 1984 with a degree in history and literature. She departed for UCLA that fall and interned at a major record company, becoming disillusioned with the inefficiency she witnessed there. While still in school, Alison was recruited by Smith Barney, and after receiving her MBA, moved to work in their San Francisco office, where she worked as an investment banker for the next two years.

Toward the end of her second year in the Public Finance division, Alison noticed disheartening changes in the marketplace and felt a bit of her own restlessness that prompted her to resign. She decided to take six months off to write music for a record she hoped to record, learn jazz guitar, and then look for another "regular" job. Her decision to leave Smith Barney ultimately become the music community's gain.

Shortly before Alison resigned, I visited her in San Francisco, listening to her new compositions at night and watching her play the part of the executive during the day. I told her about a new "phenomenon," the 15-year-old fiddler Alison Krauss, and suggested that they would get along musically. Two weeks later I received a call from Brown asking if I would introduce them, which was arranged a couple of months later in Nashville.
Eventually, music won out over her parents' dream for a practical and lucrative job for their daughter, when just a few months after their meeting, Krauss extended Brown an invitation to join her band, Union Station. Brown remained with them for three years and recorded I've Got That Old Feeling on Rounder, which earned a bluegrass Grammy. Coming into her own, musically, in 1991, Brown became the only woman to win the International Bluegrass Music Associations "Instrumentalist of the Year Award." And that same year, Brown released the first of her four albums for Vanguard Records, Simple Pleasures, which earned a Grammy nomination in the bluegrass category.

While Brown was still with Union Station, Michelle Shocked invited Krauss' band to record a track that was to appear on Shocked's Arkansas Traveler album in 1992. When Brown left Union Station in the fall of 1991, impressed by Alison's previous work, Shocked asked her to become the musical director of the Arkansas Traveler world tour, which featured Taj Mahal and included bassist Garry West, who would become her musical, business and life partner. West was a former student of Boston's Berklee School of Music and had toured with Delbert McClinton and Patty Loveless.

As Brown and West embarked on this nearly year-long tour, they began developing their own plan to start a label together after the tour's conclusion. While in Australia, on the last leg of the tour, they happened to be out shopping for some ethnic didjeridu music when they discovered a world and nature music label. Intrigued about other music in their catalog, Garry contacted Natural Symphonies and through their conversation, formed a bond with the owner. After a show in Sydney, they all met for dinner and Alison and Garry described their plan to start a US label, resulting in the opportunity to distribute Natural Symphonies titles in the US.

So, upon their return home, Alison and Garry established distribution for Small World Music in the North American market, laying the initial groundwork for what is now known as Compass. "Our original concept was to establish distribution channels with someone elseÕs product line, because then, as now, it's easier to get distribution when you have more than one CD. Joining with Natural Symphonies seemed like the perfect opportunity," said Brown. West added that during this process, they forged relationships with retail, radio and press that would be needed to initially launch Compass.

However, during this same time, Brown's found her own musical creativity soaring, as she was playing and composing in a variety of musical genres, always searching for the new and different, while occasionally returning to her bluegrass roots.

Yet, through listening to the sounds of "Dawg" and "New Acoustic" music - Brown decided to delve deeper into jazz, seriously exploring its roots and integrating more of it into her music,. In 1993 Brown formed her own jazz quartet with Garry West, keyboardist John R. Burr, and drummer Rick Reed, and recorded Look Left for Vanguard, with a host of guest musicians.

As Brown continued recording for Vanguard, touring and running her distribution company with West, Compass Records finally became a reality in 1995 and released four CD's in its first year.

Alison's and Garry's careful planning paid off. Since it's inception, Compass earned a reputation for a diverse and respected talent roster and remains today in the forefront of independent music., Compass worked hard to establish "brand identity" not unlike labels like Windham Hill and Vanguard, where the public knows the types and quality of music by association.

Now Compass has grown to include over 30 artists and by the end of 2000 will have released between 75 or 80 albums. As an artist at Vanguard, Brown found it frustrating to go in to the president's office to talk about the issues that were affecting the band on the road, so Brown and West conceived Compass as an artist owned label, employing musicians as their staff. Alison proudly notes that musicians do hold four out of their six full-time positions, with their interns following in that same path. And with the innovative focus of Compass, "one thing that's really great," Brown explains "is that there are a lot of students majoring in the music business, so if they want to get experience with non-country or non-commercial, many intern with us."

As for signing artists, Brown and West base their initial decisions, not on radio formats and genres, but most importantly on what they like and what they at Compass can offer to the artist's career. Alison and Garry look for artists that in their own way are "true" - whether in bluegrass, folk, world, or jazz, seeking out music that they believe will "endure".
The next step involves the artist's commitment and desire to further their own career by significant touring. "For Compass it becomes more and more important to sign artists with an active touring base, since it's harder and harder to get CDs into stores. The best ammo we can give a retailer to keep CD's in stock is by saying, Ôthe artist will be on tour.' Yet, we have to sign artists that can immediately step into supporting a national touring and promotion effort. This can be a frustrating dilemma for most budding artists when the labels will tell you that they can't sign you unless you are touring, and if you don't have a record, it's very hard to tour. But the reality is that the musicians who are really motivated to have a career are going to figure out how to make that happen," stresses Brown.
Recording budgets are then constructed to achieve "breakeven" if only a few thousand records are sold, in stark contrast to the unwieldy major label budgets where selling less than 100,000 units will produce a deficit. "When it comes to recording, in order to be smart in the long run, make your CD as affordable as possible. This is for your own sake as well as for your labelÕs; for your own sake because you'll make money on it sooner, and for the label's sake since it might free up more money for your marketing."

Being careful to stay out of the "commercial" music realm where big budgets are the norm, Compass doesn't jeopardize their bottom line by getting caught up in major financial advertising and promotional commitments. Instead they use creative marketing on a more "grassroots" level--knowing their audience, what their tastes are and how and where they like to purchase music. "The demographic that buys our diverse type of non-commercial music," says Brown, "is the educated listener looking to discover something off the beaten path. So despite the diversity of Celtic, jazz, and world, Compass markets these various genres to basically the same person."

Compass publicist Shari Lacy elaborates , "that very diversity makes it more exciting to do my job, since I never really feel like I'm working the same thing to the same people. Yet, a challenge is posed once you hit these publications; you know you need to go out in a broader spectrum. So, not only must I cover our basic core audience, but I'm constantly looking at how to expand upon that and introduce new people to our roster. I tailor what goes to Signal To Noise or USA Today, since they don't want to get hit with every record, instead they need an angle their particular audience will grab on to.

Compass' savvy business acumen has been acknowledged within the industry, and Brown's financial and business background is an incredible asset in creating and maintaining their formula for success. The Harvard Business School recently heralded Compass as the subject of a case study in entrepreneurial endeavor, while The Wall Street Journal noted Compass' achievements and that, "Compass treats all their songwriters with the kind of respect a small publishing house pays its novelists and poets." Perhaps the most gratifying result for the label and the artists is the quality of their combined work and that reviews of Compass' records have appeared everywhere from the New York Times and Entertainment Weekly to Pulse and Billboard.

On the road frequently with Alison's band, Alison and Garry are constantly challenged to move between their own music, creativity, and business on a regular basis, having learned that delegation is key to keeping their original creativity flowing and their business healthy. Now both Alison and Garry's roles are evolving from being in the minutia of every-day work, to again focusing their time on more of the big picture. "I like combining business and music so that I can have the luxury of touring, of hearing someone out there that I really want to sign, which allows us to bring them to a wider audience," remarked Alison.

Garry continues, " I think that itÕs the most natural thing in the world, working the business end while playing music - each side of the coin absolutely feeds the other. The way we operate the business makes us think creatively about the music and how it fits into the grand scheme. On the road Alison and I are exposed to great music, just what you need to be doing if you need to serve the AR needs of the company. We've been fortunate to meet up with a lot of the great artists that we've now signed to our label - usually through playing a co-bill together or some industry function. It's really great to meet artists as an equal."

However, the dual role creates it's own challenges for Alison . "I feel like composing music is equal part inspiration and craft, and while I don't have the hours to wait around and let inspiration hit, working in the business certainly affects my creativity. However, I don't think it's bad for the end result. It's difficult to come home at night after working a long day and sit down with banjo. But ever since I've played music, I've juggled business or school and music so for me it's a continuation of the same story. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this lifestyle for all artists, though. If your goal is to be an artist, you usually don't have an inclination to be a business person, so it's to your advantage to partner with an artist-friendly label."

But even while Compass has grown, Alison has continued developing her own musical options and finally become an artist on her own label in 1998. Alison finished her contractual obligations to Vanguard and The Alison Brown Quartet'sOut of The Blue became Compass' 25th release and featured Garry West as producer. Continuing to expand the New Acoustic/Dawg/Jazz format on the banjo, it received high praise in Billboard Magazine, describing Brown's banjo as "an instrument possessed of a unique sonic signature and an inescapable beauty. (Brown's) a player whose immediately apparent virtuosity is outdone only by her instinctive musicality." Stereo Review noted that "Brown may blur the lines between folk/acoustic music and modern jazz, but she does so without forsaking a melodic center or an emotional core." Brown herself admits that what's interesting about her jazz playing is that she still incorporates the Scruggs technique of banjo playing.

"Alison is an incredibly gifted musician and I'm constantly surprised when I work with her since I realize that her abilities as a musician come from a real inherent and deep-rooted talent," comments West. " She'll have these wonderful little jazz or bebop melodies that seem to spring from no where and writes memorable, well-constructed melodies, ably supported with a well-informed harmonic structure. Alison is really a very natural musician and writer, which is evident in the tunes she's written." Alison's musicianship and musical standards are equally impressive. In order to get that "round and expressive" sound she wanted on banjo for her jazz records, and to have a banjo that would allow one note to "sustain," she wound up inventing a new banjo that eventually will be mass produced by Tom Nechville Banjos. "The effect of having nylon strings on an electric banjo," Brown adds, "gives a warm and smoother tone, not so staccato." Alison's design has been incorporated into a mahogany cut away banjo. "I wanted to put nylon strings on the banjo, which he executed. The motivation was trying to come up more with a sound that sonically fit with a jazz trio, kind of like the Joe Pass L-5 jazz guitar sound. Of course, nylon was used on 'open-baked' banjos before, but on some old-time banjos, not bluegrass. However, it hadn't been used in electric music."

But, as is typical in Alison's life, despite the progress of her jazz quartet and banjo innovations, roots music and bluegrass never seems far behind for Brown. And some things happen through inspiration, instead of through a logical plan. Such was the case in the birth of the acoustic supergroup New Grange.

The same year that the Alison Brown Quartet released Out of the Blue, SRO agent Jeff Laramie, contacted Mike Marshall and Darol Anger, encouraging them to put together a wish list of musicians to take out with them on a folk-based, string-band Christmas tour. Anger contacted Brown, along with Tim O'Brien, Todd Phillips, and Philip Aaberg to comprise the band. Garry managed the tour, simply called "Christmas Heritage," with no name for the band.

Yet, before the tour started, another record label, Six Degrees, offered to record the tour and release a record. And while out on the road, the musicians had so much fun and the music took on such a wonderful life, that they decided they were more of a band than they originally thought. So, they took their subsequent band name New Grange from a song written by Tim & Kit O'Brien, found on the Christmas Heritage album, and then recorded a new release for touring in Spring of 1999.

"It happened in a backwards way," explains Alison, "Usually you form a band, tour and record. Our band started with a tour, decided to record and then along the way decided that we were in fact a band! Our band mission was to take Traditional American folk music and rework it in our own kind of way. It's truly an Americana band."
Tim O'Brien elaborated, "In New Grange we try to present the music so you can see you the roots as well as where it might go in the future. Alison, Mike and Darol bring a jazz slant to New Grange, resulting in us starting with a folk song and then stretching it out. And we do some good, off the cuff versions when we haven't rehearsed them because those guys are so aware, such great listeners."

"In working with Alison, she is a rock solid instrumentalist and is very supportive. Each person has their own tunes that they bring to the band and Alison's instrumentals have a new twist to each of them, yet you feel comfortable in playing them. Alison's music is very well defined. She's clear about what she's doing, so there's no grey area. I think itÕs a joy to listen to, as a result."

Coincidentally, finally recording her own bluegrass album had been on Alison's mind for some time, so Compass released, Fair Weather, in May 2000, drawing on the roots of Flatt & Scruggs, and branching out to David Grisman's Dawg music. Brown functions as both a bandleader and instrumental virtuoso, while showcasing eight of her originals with a bluegrass who's who - Tony Rice, Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, David Grier, Vince Gill and Missy Raines. Then there are the vocal performances by Sam Bush on Elvis Costello's "Everyday I Write The Book," Claire Lynch on "Hummingbird," Tim O'Brien on Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin," and the Nashville Bluegrass Band's Gene Libbea on the title cut. It is Alison's ease, either in developing each style separately, or melding them together, that her listeners have come to appreciate.

"I think that the jazz and bluegrass sides are two parts of the whole for me. I really enjoying playing the jazz stuff with the quartet and developing that style, yet it's great playing with New Grange. I didn't make the bluegrass record with the intention of touring. As much as I love bluegrass, the greater and more interesting challenge is developing my own music."

Even with the release of Fair Weather, Alison's quartet played a recent jazz gig at Nashville's bluegrass mecca, J.T. Gray's Station Inn. But, in a club that usually tolerates only certain definitions of music, the audience was there to see Alison, no matter in what genre she chose to play. With her band consisting of electric piano, banjo, bass and drums, and her understated and casual elegance on stage, the crowd waited to see what she would offer next. As her fingers playfully darted around the fretboard, she took obvious joy in hearing the keyboard solos. As she unrolled her original compositions, and spiced humor throughout her introductions, one gets a sense of Alison behind her calm exterior. Brown deftly switched between compositions; from Latin rhythms, to jazz, to a bluegrass piece that wowed the audience with it's breakneck speed. Then she picked up her guitar and took a dazzling jazz lead, virtually transporting the audience to a tony New York jazz venue, as they sat in the down-home comfort at the Station Inn. With her many years of performing and with her tight-knit group, it's evident that Alison has become a master at delivering a compelling performance and an entertaining evening of music.

So, from the Harvard student who appeared as a study in contrasts, Alison has shown us how gracefully she threads them together, incorporating diversity, innovation and change with a great deal of passion, into a life filled with creativity on every level. "My Mom says I have some gypsy blood, maybe it's just figuratively speaking. I've always been stimulated by what is different from me and I've always been surprised by those who are threatened by things that are different."

It's my guess that Alison will never stop evolving as a musician, advocate, musician's friend, and record company owner, who knows no boundaries as absolute.

Find out more about the Compass Records at: www.compassrecords.com.

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