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Ruby Braff

Ruby Braff began his jazz career as an out-of-time traditionalist playing with veteran jazzmen of an earlier age, and rose to establish his own standing as one of the handful of leading artists playing in traditional and mainstream idioms.

He did so on the back of one of the most beautiful instrumental sounds in jazz, a prodigious gift for phrasing melody, and an acute harmonic sense which revealed his awareness of more modernist developments in jazz. Louis Armstrong remained his touchstone and only avowed master, but his playing also reflected the influence of musicians like Bix Beiderbecke and Bobby Hackett. His musical voice, though, was always very much his own.

He was born Reuben Braff in Boston, and was self-taught on his instrument. He said that he wanted to play saxophone, but his father bought him a cornet instead. His trumpet style, which largely eschewed high-note pyrotechnics in favour of a softer exploration of the middle and bottom registers of the instrument, reflected that original love of reed rather than brass sonorities.

He began working in local clubs in the Forties, and was recruited for the band led by the veteran clarinettist Edmond Hall at the Savoy Cafe in Boston in 1949. He made the move to New York in 1953, and was soon in demand for gigs and recording sessions in a traditional and mainstream vein.

His loyalty to traditional jazz at a time when the focus had shifted to more modern styles starved him of work for a time in the Fifties, but he returned to prominence with an All-Star touring band created by pianist and jazz impresario George Wein. Wein remained a loyal backer of the cornetist, and featured him regularly on his international tour and festival circuit.

He worked with major band leaders like Buck Clayton, Benny Goodman and Bud Freeman as a young man, and in turn became something of a musical mentor to a new generation of young mainstream musicians in the Seventies, including saxophonist Scott Hamilton and guitarist Howard Alden.

In the Eighties and Nineties he made a series of recordings for the major mainstream jazz labels Concord Jazz and Arbors, and formed highly-regarded duo partnerships with pianists like Mel Powell, Ralph Sutton, Dick Hyman, Ellis Larkins and Roger Kellaway.

Braff worked with singer Tony Bennett for two years from 1971-73, then formed a very popular and artistically successful band with guitarist George Barnes. The relationship ground to a halt in 1975 in characteristic fashion when Braff fell out with his collaborator.

Ruby Braff/Pizzarellis: C'est Magnifique!

Read "C'est Magnifique!" reviewed by George Kanzler

by George Kanzler
April 7, 2008

It's not surprising that Tony Bennett, as well as the late Frank Sinatra, was a fan of the cornetist Ruby Braff (1927-2003). Like those singers, Braff had a life-long affair with the canon of (mostly) American songs known as pop standards. And like them, Braff brought fine-tuned musicality, craft and consummate artistry to interpreting that canon. He also brought a conspiratorial intimacy to his performances, as though he was letting you in on some special nuance or secret that only ...

170

Album Review

Ruby Braff Quartet: Watch What Happens

Read "Watch What Happens" reviewed by AAJ Staff

by AAJ Staff
March 7, 2003

This review also serves as a tribute and an obituary for a marvelous jazz cornetist. Ruby Braff died on February 9, 2003 in North Chatham, Mass., at age 75. The cause of death was given as “complications related to emphysema and asthma." The cornetist, born in Boston on March 16, 1927, said that his major influence was Louis Armstrong. He had no formal education beyond high school; he said that he attended “Louis Armstrong University." Braff was an outspoken and ...

292

Album Review

Ruby Braff: I Hear Music

Read "I Hear Music" reviewed by AAJ Staff

by AAJ Staff
November 1, 2002

Ruby Braff has compiled an album of sheer pleasure in quintet work. His well shaped cornet sound, and the interplay of the instruments through each cut is a shining example of mastery of pacing and a sense of timing. Within each of the cuts is a conversation between the instruments where each one says their version of the melody in turn. Cut 2, a medley of “Chicago” and “My Kind of Town” also has hints of Loesser’s “Baby, It’s Cold ...

175

Album Review

Ruby Braff and Ralph Sutton: R & R

Read "R & R" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 17, 2002

Two Like Minds...

Two classic traditional jazz recordings have finally made it to compact disc. The Ralph Sutton—Ruby Braff Duet (Chaz Jazz 101-2. 1979) and The Ralph Sutton—Ruby Braff Quartet (Chaz Jazz 102-2, 1979) have been re-released on a single Chiaroscuro CD— R & R: Ruby Braff and Ralph Sutton. This disc is a welcome addition to the digital age as this is the jazz of the 1920s and ‘30s as played by two of the greatest practitioners of the ...

126

Album Review

Ruby Braff: Music For The Still Of The Night

Read "Music For The Still Of The Night" reviewed by Mike Neely

by Mike Neely
September 1, 2001

Ruby Braff has been so good for so long that it’s easy to take him for granted. He suffers from what a friend of mine calls the “Zoot Sims Syndrome" a situation in which another great release is not given its due because what did you expect? Well, Ruby Braff keeps cranking them out: creative performances with inspired bands. He also keeps attracting (like Sims consistently did) some of the best musicians jazz has to offer, his latest recording Music ...

150

Album Review

Ruby Braff: Ruby Braff With Strings: In the Wee Small Hours in New York and London

by C. Michael Bailey
March 1, 2000

The Night Watchman. Ruby Braff may very well be the conscience of jazz. He has been performing for fifty years, always at a high level. His style is of an earlier time as is his instrument. He performs on the instrument of Joe King Oliver and stays mostly in the lower register. His performance is timeless. In no way does it sound old fashioned. A treasure is what Ruby Braff is. With Strings is nominally a tribute to Bing Crosby ...

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Obituary

Ruby Braff was Memoralized at Stenesky Memorial Chapel, February, 12, 2003

Source: All About Jazz
February 13, 2003

Obituary

Ruby Braff: Cornet Master with a Distinctive Voice

Source: All About Jazz
February 11, 2003

Cornet, trumpet Born: March 16, 1927 in Boston, Massachusetts Died: February 9, 2003 in North Chatham, Massachusetts

He did so on the back of one of the most beautiful instrumental sounds in jazz, a prodigious gift for ...
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114

Obituary

Trumpeter/Cornetist Ruby Braff Dies at 75

Source: All About Jazz
February 10, 2003

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Performance / Tour

Ruby Braff Tribute to Boby Hackett Apr. 9th at the Tremont Theater

Source: All About Jazz

Boston, MA. In a 1969 concert in Nice, France, Ruby Braff and Bobby Hackett shared the bandstand. At 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, Braff will be taking the stage at Boston's Tremont Theater in a salute to Bobby Hackett, one of the first 10 late jazz artists recently inducted into the New England Jazz Hall of Fame.

Jazz Appreciation Month — April 2002

Last July, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History announced its designation of April as Jazz Appreciation ...
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