Re: “In Memory of Matt Brown: John Howie Jr., Mike Nicholson and Brian Hill remember their friend and drummer”

In the early days of Project Mastana, I decided that we would not use a drum kit with cymbals, and should focus instead on more hand drum percussion. Then I heard Matt Brown play a drum kit.
The first time Matt played with us was at the Raleigh International Festival just after the 9/11 trajedy. He showed up with his suitcase kit with built in microphone. After the first couple of songs I forgot to look over and nod to him to signal the changes and ends. He played the changes perfectly even though he had never heard our songs before.
Matt and the suitcase kit became part of us over the next ten years, through our shows and recording projects. I felt each experience I had with Matt was a gift - from learning percussion techniques, to his humor which he could play through his rhythms and solos at will, to witnessing maturity beyond his years in remaining calm in the crazy and stressful situations that bands often seem to attract.
The world has lost a wonderful, generous person, and I will miss Matt dearly.

John Medley