Donald Brown

Jazz pianist Donald Brown was born in Desoto, Mississippi, on March 28, 1954. After honing his skills at college in Memphis, where he switched his primary instrument from trumpet to piano, he served a brief stint in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers (alongside Wynton and Branford Marsalis), and from there on out pursued simultaneous careers as an educator and as a musician. Shortly after their time together in the Jazz Messengers, Wynton Marsalis recorded Brown’s composition “Insane Asylum”, which was nominated for a Best Jazz Instrumental Performance (Soloist) in 1986. By the mid-'80s, Brown was teaching at the Berklee College of Music, and later the University of Tennessee, and began releasing albums as a bandleader. His debut as a leader, Early Bird, arrived in 1987, which set the table for nearly annual releases from then on, primarily on Muse and Space Time Records. He appeared as a sideman on albums by trumpet legend Donald Byrd, and also began working as a producer, notably for woodwind player Kenny Garrett, and the two teamed up on several Grammy-nominated albums throughout the 90s and beyond. Garrett would return the favor by appearing on Brown’s 2013 album Born to Be Blue, which also featured Wallace Roney and Ravi Coltrane.

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