Born: January 1 Primary Instrument: Vocal
Los Angeles native Angela Carole Brown has been a veteran of the L.A. music scene for two decades as a vocalist, recording artist, and songwriter. She has recorded voice-overs, movie cues, jingles, and CDs for herself and other artists, her most recent being Josh Groban's hit single “You Raise Me Up” on his Closer CD for Warner Bros. Records; for the independent film Funny Money, starring Chevy Chase; and for the political documentary Running with Arnold. She has worked theatre, clubs, concert halls, television, and radio, in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
She is also a writer and an award-winning poet (Heritage Magazine Award), who last year brought us her debut novel, TRADING FOURS, which released on Infinity Publishing, and about which she was interviewed on KPFK's Arts in Review with Julio Martinez, and given an honorable mention in Music Connection Magazine and ejazznews.com.
Four years ago, Angela released two very different albums of original music on her own Rue de la Harpe Records label: A modern folk experimentation, utilizing instruments from around the world, entitled Resting on the Rock; and her acclaimed jazz recording, The Slow Club.
Her most recent releases are the folk Music for the Weeping Woman with guitarist Ken Rosser, and the jazz Expressionism with The Slow Club Quartet, also on Rue de la Harpe Records.
Angela began her career, however, as an actress, after graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and landing work with various Los Angeles theatre companies, performing the repertoires of Shakespeare, Williams, Brecht, Shaw, and Puccini, to name a few.
Her singing career began by joining various bar bands; and in 1984, won the grand prize in the first-ever (to become annual) Stardom Pursuit singing contest sponsored by the old legendary Rose Tattoo Cabaret.
In 1989, her debut CD Angela, on Teichiku Records, Japan, rose to #2 on Japan’s pop charts.
In 1994, she authored, composed, and starred Off-Broadway in her critically lauded one-woman show The Purple Sleep Café, at Primary Stages' 45th Street Theatre in New York City.
In 1995, she released a CD of jazz standards Standard Procedure, on Sand Canyon Records, with pianist Dana Bronson and bassist Jim DeJulio, longtime collaborators with her from the Four Seasons Beverly Hills.
And in 1996, she created the role of larger-than-life vixen The Fabulous Miss Thing for the exquisitely radical Elvis Schoenberg's Orchestre Surréal, a wild, genre-bending orchestral show. Her involvement with the orchestra included work as performer, contributing writer, and art designer.
For seven years, Angela was “Miss Thing” to select Los Angeles audiences, through the release of two CDs, Air Surréal, and It's Alive!, for which she created the artwork that serves as their covers; a slot on Music Connection's Best Unsigned Acts List, and as L.A. Weekly's “Music Pick of the Week” in 2000. Her final performance with the orchestra, in 2003, was their John Anson Ford Amphitheatre debut, a show that ended up winning the L.A. Music Award for “Best Rock Opera of the Year.”
Angela has had the honor to sing with/for Linda Hopkins, Ricky Martin, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr., David Foster, Billy Childs, Keb Mo, Freda Payne, Rita Coolidge, Trini Lopez, Roy Clark, Heatwave, Al Wilson, and Peter Yarrow.
Today, however, Angela speaks to us most uniquely through her newest canon of original songs, and as a woman of letters.
The Slow Club Quartet's EXPRESSIONISM
Rue de la Harpe Records
2008
12 tracks
Personnel: Angela Carole Brown: vocals, Ed Czach: piano, Don Kasper: bass, Craig Pilo, drums.
Angela Carole Brown & Ken Rosser's MUSIC FOR THE WEEPING WOMAN
Rue de la Harpe Records
2008
14 tracks
Personnel: Angela Carole Brown: vocals, piano, synth, Tibetan singing bowls; Ken Rosser: multiple guitars
THE SLOW CLUB
Rue de la Harpe Records
2005
12 tracks
Personnel: Angela Carole Brown: vocals, Ed Czach: piano, Jonathan Pintoff: bass, Craig Pilo, drums.
RESTING ON THE ROCK
Rue de la Harpe Records
2004
12 tracks
Personnel: Angela Carole Brown: vocals, Ken Rosser: guitars, Ross Wright: bass, Paul Angers: percussion, Skins Coulter: drums
STANDARD PROCEDURE
Sand Canyon Records
1996
15 tracks
Personnel: Angela Carole Brown: vocals, Dana Bronson: piano, Jim DeJulio: bass.
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