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Sunday, October 27, 2002

By Rick Nowlin, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Chances are, you've never heard of trumpeter Oscar Brashear. In fact, he's never cut an album as a band leader.

But other musicians certainly know who he is.

A veteran of the Los Angeles studios who has worked with hundreds of well-known artists, Brashear joins the usual stellar lineup for this week's University of Pittsburgh Jazz Seminar and Concert.

Brashear, a Chicago native who had taken part in the Pitt Jazz Seminar two years ago, gave an unusual reason why he found Pittsburgh refreshing.

"It's almost the same weather as [where I grew up], as opposed to Los Angeles weather," he says. "It was stimulating."

Brashear started out as a pianist, as was his mother, but that didn't last long. Perhaps unusual for those days, his church had a band, and "I gravitated toward the trumpet," he says.

So when he was "around 10 or 11," he started studying trumpet privately with Charles Allen, who familiarized him with all styles of music. "He [also] made mouthpieces, and that helped a lot," Brashear says.

In the late 1950s, the budding musician began a major part of his musical education.

"We had a tremendous high school director [Captain Walter Dyett, at DuSable High School] who introduced us to a lot of composers [and material] that the concert band had to play," Brashear said. "He also had a jazz band."

After stints at Wright Junior College and Roosevelt University, Brashear went out on the road with Woody Herman's Thundering Herd in 1967 and spent the next two years with Count Basie. Still based in his home town, Brashear had gigs with with Eddie Harris, Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon and Don Byas.

In addition, "I started freelancing with different big bands and Latin groups and I started getting into the recording," Brashear says. The company that was doing a lot of the recording those days was Chess Records."

That turned out to be an important contact. It just so happened that Chess' house drummer was Maurice White, who played with the Ramsey Lewis Trio and later formed what is now known as Earth, Wind & Fire. "I related with Maurice," Brashear says. "We had the same friends."

So when Brashear moved to LA in 1970 and White followed to form the band, Brashear ended up on a number of EWF albums, as well as "doing some film work with Oliver Nelson, J.J. Johnson, Henry Mancini. I was also working with Gerald Wilson's big band and Harold Land."

With all that he has done and all the people he has worked with -- Johnny Mathis, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Andrae Crouch, among dozens of others -- nothing in particular stands out. "They're all kinda unique," Brashear says matter-of-factly. "It's been a long truck stop."

One of Brashear's best-known -- or perhaps more accurately, most often heard -- sessions surrounded saxophonist Boney James' first CD, "Trust." Brashear added a snake-like Harmon-muted solo on the opening track, "It's a Beautiful Thing."

"Yeah, I think I have that CD," Brashear said. "It's not automatic that they'll send you one."

Beyond all the work he does with other artists, "I intend to do a CD first chance I get," he said.

Brashear adds that being part of this seminar is somewhat unusual because he hasn't done much teaching. In addition to some private lessons, "I was at UCLA, part of the jazz department, for about three years. I left three years ago." But he had met Nathan Davis, Pitt's director of jazz studies, in Montreux in 1973, and he was recruited for the seminar.

"I felt like it would be interesting -- I [hadn't] seen him in quite a while," Brashear says. "I was delighted with the personnel."

Joining Brashear in conducting the workshops on jazz as well the Saturday night concert will be fellow trumpeter Benny Bailey; trombonist Curtis Fuller; alto saxophonist Bobby Watson, replacing Jackie McLean; tenor saxophonist Benny Golson; guitarist Pat Martino; pianist Monty Alexander; bassist Bob Magnusson; and drummer Carl Allen.