Department of Music to present ASU Jazz Bands with Grammy-nominated pianist Donald Brown March 1

Feb. 23, 2010 -- The Department of Music at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro will present the ASU Jazz Band and Jazztette with a special guest, the Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Donald Brown, in concert on Monday, March 1, at 7:30 p.m. in Riceland Hall, Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive, Jonesboro.

The band will feature a number of Brown’s compositions, and Brown will be featured as a soloist during the concert.  Additionally, Brown will be featured in a clinic on the following evening, Tuesday, March 2, beginning at 5 p.m. in the Recital Hall of the Fine Arts Building, 2412 Quapaw Way, Jonesboro. Both events are free of charge and open to the public.

Brown was raised in Memphis, Tennessee, where he learned to play trumpet and drums in his youth. From 1972 to 1975 he was a student at Memphis State University, by which time he had made piano his primary instrument. He joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers from 1981-82.

Throughout his illustrious career, Brown has been associated with a seemingly unending list of mainstays of the music industry including Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson, Roy Hargrove, Toots Thielman, Diane Reeves, Wallace Rooney, Donald Byrd, and Wynton and Branford Marsalis. Brown has recorded and toured on projects for Stax and Hi records, was a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, and is currently touring with his own group. He is a skilled pianist and composer and is one of the most sought-after educators in the country. Brown has taught at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville since 1988, and he has also taught at Berklee, the Julliard School of Music, and the Brubeck Jazz Colony, as well as at many other colleges and universities. To listen to Donald Brown, visit Donald Brown and Space Time All Stars on YouTube.

For more information about the concert or ASU music, contact the music office at (870) 972-2094. 
 

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