Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anita Brown was born June 17, 1959 in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. She attended and graduated the Pingree School and Andover High School before her family moved to Long Island, New York in 1977. It was at this juncture in her life that she began studying voice, phrasing and inflection with Lennie Tristano, first imitating Billie Holiday and then singing the solos of Lester Young.
A year later she enrolled at SUNY Old Westbury, majored in Music Education, adding photography, dance and choreography to her schedule. In 1980 Anita transferred her major to the University of New Hampshire concentrating on classical piano and voice. In her junior year that she discovered her passion of conducting and by the time she graduated she had a considerable transcript of instrumental and choral conducting along with score study under her belt.
Brown began her career in conducting also in her third year at UNH as a part time band director, prior to graduation and moving back to New York. In addition to studying clarinet, she took on and mastered the trumpet, continuing to play, write and teach. By 1995 she was at the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop and building a body of work for jazz orchestra guided by Jim McNeely, Manny Albam and Mike Abene. There she composed and contributed compositions that were featured in the annual concerts and was a finalist in 2001 and 2003 Charlie Parker Composition Competitions.
In 2000 she founded the Anita Brown Jazz Orchestra, independently recording and releasing her debut CD, 27 East, to critical acclaim and was appeared in six categories on the ballot for the 46th Grammy Awards. She was the first recipient of the ASCAP/International Jazz Composers’ Symposium New Music Award for Big Band Works for her piece The Lighthouse, selected by Bob Brookmeyer, ohn Clayton and Dave Douglas.
She has written arrangements for Nnenna Freeelon, The ount Basie Orchestra, the Jon Faddis jazz Orchestra, Chiuck Owen, and the Jazz Surge, Roseana Vitro, Bobby Short and a number of New York R&B bands.
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors, BMI New York Jazz Orchestra and numerous college and high school jazz ensembles have performed her original works. As an educator she is on the faculty of New Jersey City University and Sara Lawrence College, and established her Composer Residency Project.
Conductor, arranger and composer Anita Brown consults planning and producing recordings and performances, has served as copyist and/or assistant to Jim McNeely, Maria Schneider, Many Albam, Don Sebesky, John Pizzarelli, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and Toshiko Akiyoshi Big Band while serving as archivist for the Gil Evans and Manny Albam estates.
Music: https://youtu.be/9KZo1ItnDCE
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