John Brown Bio
Bassist, composer, educator and actor John Brown is a native of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and currently resides in Durham, NC. He is a graduate of the School of Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the School of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
| Browns extensive experience includes
performances at notable venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center,
the Blue Note, Blues Alley, and the Hollywood bowl. He has also shared the stage at Internationally recognized Jazz festivals such as The Playboy Jazz Festival,The JVC Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Free Jazz Festival (Brazil) and Jazz e Vienne (France). John Brown has been performing professionally since his teens and has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Delfeayo Marsalis, Elvin Jones, Nnenna Freelon, Diahann Carroll, Rosemary Clooney, Nell Carter, Lou Donaldson, Slide Hampton, Nicholas Payton, Frank Foster, Larry Coryell, Cedar Walton, Fred Wesley, Bernard Purdie and Mark Whitfield. |  |
 | “Brown’s woody bass tones are
resounding and full of soulful authority…brilliant bass solo…solidly
swinging and full of deep feeling from start to finish.” Bill Milkowski in JazzTimes
|
John currently serves as Director of the Jazz Program and Associate Professor of the Practice of Music at Duke University, and he has served on the faculties of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Central University and Guilford College (NC).
Brown also gives regular performances as a substitute with the North Carolina Symphony since 1992.
Brown has a Grammy nomination for his performance and
co-writing on Nnenna Freelon’s 1996 Concord release, Shaking Free, and
recently earned his membership the Screen Actors’ Guild for his
role in the feature film, Bolden.
He actively performs and records internationally as a sideman & a leader, and gives education residencies across the nation. He is the Director of the Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble and is part owner of the Hudson Brown Agency – a full-service international booking agency.