Joe Brazil

Did You Know?

• John Coltrane practiced at Brazil's Detroit basement, and tapes of those sessions were made there.
• A jam session in Brazil's basement on September 25, 1958, included Coltrane, Joe Henderson, and Roy Brooks.
• Brazil recorded Coltrane's band on reel-to-reel from The Penthouse's house system in 1965; those tapes were released in 2021 as A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle.

Biography

Joseph Brazil, born in Detroit on August 25, 1927, bought a house there in 1951, sharing it with his mother and brother. He turned the basement into a music space, adding a bar and a baby grand piano. That basement became a hub for jam sessions, drawing in players like Donald Byrd, Sonny Red, Barry Harris, Doug Watkins, and Frank Gant. John Coltrane practiced there, with tapes made of his sessions.

A notable jam on September 25, 1958, featured Coltrane, Joe Henderson, Hugh Lawson, and others. Neighbors Kiane Zawadi and Kenneth Winfrey often joined in. Alice McLeod, later Alice Coltrane, was a regular; Kenny Cox believed she met John Coltrane there, though they were formally introduced in New York. Brazil moved to Seattle in 1961 for a tool-making job at Boeing.

In September 1965, he played with Coltrane at The Penthouse, and on October 1 recorded flute on Coltrane’s Om, released by Impulse! in 1968. The next day, Brazil recorded Coltrane’s band on reel-to-reel from The Penthouse’s sound system. Those tapes, found in his basement after his death, came out in 2021 as A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle. In 1967, he co-founded the Black Academy of Music with George Hurst, hiring Floyd Standifer, Jabo Ward, and Milt Garred.

He taught at Garfield High School’s Magnet Program in 1968 with Chuck Metcalf. The Black Student Union pushed for his hiring at the University of Washington, where he taught from 1969 to 1976 but was denied tenure.