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Northern, Bob

June 4, 2020 By Michael Fitzgerald Leave a Comment

Hornist and educator. Robert Anthony Northern born May 21, 1934 in Kinston, North Carolina; died May 31, 2020 in Washington, D.C. Known since the early 1970s as Brother Ah.

Northern grew up in Bronx, New York. He began as a trumpeter and studied with Bennie Harris. He attended School of Performing Arts and Manhattan School of Music. Served in the U.S. Air Force (1953-1957). Performed in the orchestras of the Metropolitan Opera and Radio City Music Hall.

Worked with Gil Evans, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane. Member of Orchestra U.S.A. Avant garde associations with Sun Ra (1964-1974), Jazz Composers Orchestra, and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra.

Taught at Dartmouth College and Brown University in the 1970s. Traveled annually to Africa for studies. Relocated to Washington, D.C. in 1982. Taught at Levine School of Music and hosted a long-running weekly radio show on WPFW-FM called “The Jazz Collectors.”


Bibliography

7756 BobNorthern items 1 chicago-fullnote-bibliography author asc https://jazzmf.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/zotpress/
Ah, Brother (Robert Northern). Jazz Oral History Program Interview. Interview by Askia Muhammad, November 30, 2002. Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
Barnes, Bart. “Robert Northern, Who, as ‘Brother Ah,’ Became a Synthesizer of Sounds, Dies at 86.” Washington Post, June 1, 2020.
Hassan, Rusty. “A Life in Music: From Robert Northern to Brother Ah.” Open Sky Jazz (blog), May 14, 2018. https://www.openskyjazz.com/2018/05/a-life-in-music-from-robert-northern-to-brother-ah/.
Richards, Chris. “Brother Ah’s Jazz Divinity.” Washington Post, April 7, 2017.
Richards, Chris. “Brother Ah Heard the Music in Everything.” Washington Post, June 2, 2020.
Richards, Chris. “Brother Ah: A Lifetime of Jazz on Local Radio.” Washington Post, April 26, 2013.
West, Hollie I. “Brother Ah.” Washington Post, August 4, 1979.
West, Michael J. “Bob ‘Brother Ah’ Northern 1934–2020.” JazzTimes, June 10, 2020. https://jazztimes.com/features/tributes-and-obituaries/bob-brother-ah-northern-1934-2020/.
West, Michael J. “Is It an Aha Moment for Brother Ah?” Washington Post, September 13, 2016.

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