The clever composition title "Ahmadification" is a tip-off to one of the many jazz masters' influences that are felt in the music of this guitarist, who can play with as much delicate imagination as his inspiration, pianist Ahmad Jamal. Guitarists who are turned on by Brown's approach do have the opportunity to do more than just listen and imitate, due to the man's long tenure in the jazz studies department of Ithaca College in New York. Students that work with Brown are exposed not only to his own knowledge but the usual bits of wit and wisdom handed down from the musicians he has worked with on the road and in recording studios, such as bassist Chuck Israels, drummers Billy Hart and Ben Riley, saxophonist Gerry Niewood, pianists Marian McPartland and Barry Harris, and the king of the organ, Jimmy Smith. Brown has toured throughout the United States and Europe, frequently presenting educational clinics on various subjects related to jazz performance. His most widespread exposure on recording has been in the early '70s with trumpeter and bandleader Chuck Mangione, but he has also released a series of recordings as a leader, including the self-produced Night Waves. He was also featured as a soloist on the atmospheric "Impressions of Point Lobos," an extended composition recorded by his brother (trumpet player and arranger/composer), Ray Brown, fronting the Ray Brown Great Big Band. The two jazzmen named Brown, co-writers of An Introduction to Jazz Improvisation, are not related. There is also no connection between the guitarist and '20s jazz bassist Steve Brown, except for that made by discographers who have discovered the fountain of youth. ~ Eugene Chadbourne