Remembering Ray Brown: Arni Egilsson Shares Stories of His Friend and Bass Hero

It’s hard to overstate Ray Brown‘s importance in the world of bass. He set the bar for solid, soulful walking bass lines with his creativity, impeccable feel, and instantly recognizable tone. His influence extended beyond the bandstand, as bassist Arni Egilsson recalls in these personal memories of his colleague and friend.

Hailing from Iceland, Egilsson relocated to California in the 1970s and became a fixture in the studio scene playing for TV and movie soundtracks. He also performed on Tom Waits’ Closing Time, Earth Wind & Fire’s Powerlight, and even Jaco Pastorius’ Word of Mouth.

He soon was working alongside Brown, and they developed a lifelong friendship. They even recorded an album together called Basses Loaded, which stands as a testament to the power of the bass even 41 years after its release. Egilsson’s sheet music is included in The Ray Brown Papers at the Smithsonian Archives in Washington D.C., and Egilsson now has his own archive at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik.

In light of the centennial of Brown’s birth, we reached out to Egilsson to go beyond his playing. Here, the bassist shares personal stories about working with Brown, from his generosity to his demanding standards to his hilarious pranks. We’re happy to share this firsthand portrait of a bassist whose influence reached beyond the albums he made.

The following recollections are in Egilsson’s own words.

Discovering Ray Brown

I went to college in London, England, in 1956.

Playing music was as far from my plans as could be, but I was a Jazz fan, and when the Oscar Peterson trio concertized in London, I went to every performance and even to some they played outside London.

Years later, when I decided to try to become a bass player, I would listen to every record I could find on which Ray Brown played bass and tried to imitate him and learn his bass lines by playing with the recording. Of course, I studied classical bass playing, as well.

Working Together in Hollywood

When I came to Hollywood, Ray was already there. He not only played in television and movies as a jazz bassist, but also as a classical bass player.

Shortly after I got to Hollywood, I was teamed up with Ray Brown. The two of us were the bass section for composers like Benny Carter, J.J. Johnson, Oliver Nelson, Lalo Schifrin, etc., etc.

I found Ray’s classical playing outstanding! He truly was a first-rate double bass player!

Ray NEVER stopped playing. Every spare minute, he was noodling! Soon he started asking me to noodle with him. I would play some tune with the bow, and he liked that. Of course, we were driving the other musicians in the band crazy!

Ray kept saying, “I want us to do an album together,” to which I answered, “Oh yeah, sure! You gotta be kiddin!!!”

Practically every TV film and/or movie had a love scene or a murder scene underscored by a jazz band. Of course, Ray always played the bass in those.

One day I came to the studio. I had been hired to play both as a classical player and jazz bassist for the rhythm section. I had figured Ray would not be on the session. Anyway, as soon as I walked in the studio, I see Ray sitting there, so I figured the contractor had screwed up. The session started, and at the end I handed him the rhythm bass part.

Ray says, “No way! You got called to play this. I’ll just sit back and listen!” He waited a bit and added, “JUST MAKE SURE THEY THINK IT WAS ME PLAYING!”

It was my good fortune that nobody noticed it was not Ray Brown playing, and I was spared a heart attack!

Filling In on Mission Impossible

One day Ray calls me up and says, “Arni, I am working at Paramount Studios with Lalo Schifrin, but I have another session after this one in a studio in a different part of town. Could you come over by 4PM and finish this session for me? I could then grab something to eat before the next session. And by the way, don’t bring a bass. Just use my bass, and since we have the same cartage company, they will pick up the bass after the session.”

I say, “OK.” By the way, the TV film they were working on was “Mission Impossible.” Lalo generally wrote every cue as a solo piece for Ray Brown.

I got to the studio just before 4PM. There was a window on the door to the studio, and I saw that there were a couple of minutes that I could use to get in the studio. When I entered, Ray says, “Great, thanks for being early, just grab the bass and I am out of here.”

I grab the bass, Ray gets out, but stands at the window on the door. The red light comes on… I look at the music, and IT IS BLACK WITH NOTES. The heading says “BASS SOLO.”

I started to play and almost died! THE STRINGS WERE LIKE A FOOT HIGH! The action and playing the bass was like pushing a truck!

I got through the cue, looked back at the entrance door. Ray was still there, laughing his head off! He knew that my own bass is very easy to play. I finished the session in one piece, but with some blisters!

Returning to the Road

Ray really never liked studio work. The money was good, but he didn’t feel cut out to do it forever. One day he comes to work and is kind of excited because Oscar Peterson had asked him to come to Monterey the next day and play a concert with him.

A couple of days later, we worked together again. He was crushed. The job with Oscar turned out to be with two basses: Ray and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. It turned out somewhat like a duel.

Ray had not played “serious” jazz in a long time and felt terrible about his performance. I never saw him that down.

He was going to quit playing, he said. He felt he should go back on the road and play real music.

He was right! He felt good on the road and playing for audiences. So he did!

Meeting Again in Iceland

A couple of years later, my wife and I were on the way to Iceland. As we boarded the plane, I saw a Ray Brown Bass trunk being loaded onto our plane.

We had just been seated when I saw familiar figures enter the plane: Ray Brown and The Modern Jazz Quartet. When in the air, Ray introduced us to the guys. They were going to Iceland to play a concert, and Ray Brown was the manager.

I went to their sound check and was thrilled with Ray’s professionalism organizing the stage setup, sound check, etc. He invited us to the concert and a post-concert party.

Making Basses Loaded

One day in August (I don’t remember what year), I got a call from Ray saying the following: “Arni, I will be in Los Angeles in the beginning of September for a few days. We are going to do that album we talked about. Get the studio, the musicians, and have the charts ready!”

The timing was lousy. I was working 10 to 15 hours a day in the studios, but I managed to book “The Sage and Sound” studio and its owner, the great Jim Mooney, mixing; Pete Jolly, piano; and Ray recommended Jimmie Smith on Drums.

Now, I had never heard of Jimmie Smith, so I made an urgent call to Ray saying, “Wait a minute, what do we need an Organ player for?”

He just laughed! “No, Jimmie is a great drummer! He has lived in Europe and Japan for many years.”

I got the charts done and the studio ready. Ray got there early, then me and Pete. In walks Jimmie with some of his equipment. He looks in the studio and comes to a dead stop.

Looks at the 2 basses and then at me and says: “WHAT THE [expletive] ARE WE DOING HERE??” It took Ray several minutes to explain to him what we had in mind.

Jimmie is a real great drummer! A month or so later, Ray called me from Chicago and says, “Arni, did you see we got ‘Album of the Week’ in the New York Times?!”

We did the album in two sessions:

• Rhythm tracks one evening: 2-3 hours.
• Bowed Bass overdubs the following day: 2-3 hours.

Since Ray Brown had recorded a lot at “Sage and Sound Studios,” Jim Mooney, the engineer, knew exactly the settings for him. Pete Jolly also had recorded there a lot, so Jim knew the settings Pete liked. The piano was great, a Bösendorfer, I think.

Setting up the drums was also no problem. We could start running through the charts less than half an hour in the studio.

When we ran through the charts, I was in an isolation booth and played through the tunes with them so they would get an idea of what they were up against.

When I did the overdubs the next day, most of the time was spent finding a mic that reproduced a bass sound as I heard it while playing the bass. The mic placement ended up pretty much where my ear was when playing in the upper register of the bass.

We basically went through all the mics in the studio to find the right sound. The one we chose had a little noise in it, but got us what we were looking for.

Honoring Ray in Austria

Quite a few years later, I got a call from the Headquarters of the String Making Company Thomastik-Infeld in Vienna, Austria, informing me that Ray Brown was to be awarded Austria’s highest honor in the form of a medal. They asked me to come to Vienna and be present at that ceremony, which included the Austrian Cultural Minister et. al. They asked me furthermore to be prepared to give a speech in Ray’s honor (IN GERMAN). It was heart attack time, but I told them I would.

As it turned out, the program at the ceremony was delayed, so I survived since there was no time for my speech. Before the medal ceremony, Ray had several engagements in Europe and elsewhere with his trio. He would be in Germany and Austria a week before, and we decided to meet there and hang out.

Those were some of the best times of my life. We discussed our beginnings: him emulating Jimmie Blanton, me emulating Ray Brown. We also talked about the physical problems we faced.

I told him about me having a car accident in 1967 and fracturing my back and it never healing right, so one lives with it. His knee was really giving him problems. He was really suffering from his knee problem, and then he held up his hands. They looked almost crippled with arthritis. That he played through this in spite of the pain is pretty unbelievable. This is what so many of us do. No one would ever know!

No matter how he tried to ignore the pain, a knee replacement was imminent, so he had it done. The knee healed slowly, and Ray got very impatient. I kind of know what he went through. I had a knee replacement 8 months ago.

Plans for Another Album

His last words to me were about a month before he passed away:

“Arni, we are going to do another CD. I have talked to the record company. I will do the arrangements and the producing.”

Ray Gets Even with Oscar Peterson

On a lighter note, this is one of my favorite Ray Brown stories. He told it to me himself.

He was working with Oscar Peterson. In the afternoon of an evening concert in Seattle, Washington, Oscar had been giving Ray all kinds of grief. Ray was pissed, so he went shopping in a sporting goods store.

He came back with a couple of big bags, all very secretive. They went through a sound check.

The concert was to start with a virtuoso solo piano piece only Oscar Peterson could do with 1,000,000 notes.

Just before the downbeat, Ray sneaked onto the stage and, unseen, unloaded a couple of bags of ping-pong balls onto the strings inside the piano.

Oscar Peterson’s opening piece had ping-pong balls flying all over the inside and over the piano! MR. BROWN GOT EVEN!!!