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Brandon Lee

As the youngest faculty member in the jazz studies program at The Juilliard School, Brandon Lee is committed to preserving the integrity of America’s uniquely original art form, jazz. Brandon has toured the world presenting his hard-swinging, soulful and progressive music to captive audiences. As an artist for Wren/Tang Studios, Brandon has recently released his debut album, “From Within” to critical acclaim. With praise ranging from Jazziz Magazine to jazz master Benny Golson, His style has been described as “a rare combination of power and subtlety” and as “playing from the deepest grotto of your heart’s core.”

Born in 1983 in Houston, Texas, Brandon is the middle child in a musical family of three siblings. His interest in music began at an early age. Encouraged by his father, a former band director, he began playing piano at age 2 and trumpet in the fourth grade at Parker Elementary School Fine Arts Magnet. He furthered his playing at Johnston Middle School Fine Arts Magnet. In the fall of 1997, Brandon broadened his love for jazz as he studied at the Houston High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (H.S.P.V.A.).

In the fall of 2001, Brandon Lee joined 17 other students in launching a new Jazz Studies program at The Juilliard School. In the summer of 2002 Brandon was awarded a scholarship by Wynton Marsalis to attend The International Achievement Summit in Dublin, Ireland. Since he has been a student at Juilliard, Brandon has been privileged to perform in 4 different countries with members of the Jazz Orchestra: Italy, Japan, Costa Rica, and England. In the fall of 2002, Lee was given the opportunity to perform with members of the LCJO, which included his teacher, Victor Goines on saxophones, Herlin Riley on the drums, and Richard Johnson on piano. In December of this same year he was contracted through Jazz @ Lincoln Center to play a Miles Davis Tribute Concert in the Kaplan Penthouse. Over the past few years, has played with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in a number of concerts and was recently given the opportunity to record with them on a NBA pre-game show project in December, 2005. Also in 2007, Brandon recently toured with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra where he was one of the youngest members in the band.

Over a 7 year period in New York, Brandon has had the opportunity to play with a plethora of great jazz musicians: Benny Golson, Frank Wess, Clark Terry, Joe Wilder, Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Tom Harell, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, Eddie Henderson, Bob Leslie Hurst, Billy Childs, Peter Washington, Carla Cook, Carl Allen, Ernestine Anderson, Lewis Nash, etc. Though a consummate sideman, Brandon has often performed as a leader in New York playing his original compositions and arrangements.

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36
Album Review

John La Barbera Big Band: Grooveyard

Read "Grooveyard" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Composer/arranger John La Barbera has been at the top of his game for more than half a century, and Grooveyard is simply another example of his undiminished artistry. Besides arranging everything--superbly, as always--La Barbera wrote six of the session's ten charming songs, escorting other treasures by Carl Perkins, Dave Brubeck, Curtis Fuller and Elvin Jones. As he writes his handsome and colorful big-band charts, La Barbera is always careful to observe Rule No. 1: they have to ...

Album Review

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society: Dynamic Maximum Tension

Read "Dynamic Maximum Tension" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Precursore nel 2009 (con l'innovativo Infernal Machines) del nuovo rinascimento orchestrale nel jazz, Darcy James Argue approda all'etichetta Nonesuch e pubblica il nuovo album in studio: un doppio CD realizzato con i consueti partner della Secret Society più l'aggiunta della cantante Cecile McLorin Salvant e della violinista Sara Caswell. A differenza degli ultimi due dischi, Dynamic Maximum Tension non è un'opera multimediale ma conserva la spinta visionaria animata dalla costante riflessione socio-politica. Spinta che si traduce in ...

6
Album Review

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society: Dynamic Maximum Tension

Read "Dynamic Maximum Tension" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright


Darcy James Argue's superb double-album Nonesuch debut offers compositions written throughout his career. He turns to twentieth-century thinkers for “ideas that can help us in the present, that we can reexamine and reconfigure for our own purposes." These include futurist designer Buckminster Fuller, cryptanalyst-computer scientist Alan Turing, composer-arranger Bob Brookmeyer, actress-screenwriter Mae West, trumpeter-mentor Laurie Frink, and musician-beyond-category Duke Ellington, among others. Like West, Argue seems to control his own path. He may not yet be the tycoon she was, ...

5
Album Review

The John La Barbera Big Band: Grooveyard

Read "Grooveyard" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


The geometry, if you will, of a terrific big band recording is such that the three major elements--the players, the arrangements, and the performance--balance in every regard. Grooveyard from the John La Barbera Big Band is such an offering. The album features ten masterfully selected, arranged, and performed selections, each containing outstanding section, solo, and ensemble playing. Wes Montgomery's “Grooveyard" launches a hip, swinging first course in which tenor man Pat La Barbera and guitarist Brandon Coleman ...

6
Liner Notes

New Faces: New Sounds

Read "New Faces: New Sounds" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


While established forces typically radiate clout and currency, it's the new faces, beaming with hope and the promise for what's to come, that tend to shine brightest. Posi-Tone Records, not surprisingly, supports that line of thinking. Promoting emerging artists has long been a mission for the label, which prides itself on seeking out and nurturing burgeoning talent, and this aptly named project, launched with one group of individuals on 2018's Straight Forward and carried to tremendous heights with different personnel ...

28
Album Review

Joe McCarthy's New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band: The Pan American Nutcracker Suite

Read "The Pan American Nutcracker Suite" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Yes, Peter Tchaikovsky's timeless Nutcracker Suite is basically holiday music; and, yes, the 2022 holiday season is squarely in everyone's rear-view mirror. Even so, there is always room for a fresh approach to the annual festive staple, which is what drummer Joe McCarthy's New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band brings to The Pan American Nutcracker Suite. The Nutcracker has been rhythmically amended before, but never quite like this, as McCarthy and the band use the strong ...

9
Album Review

Joe McCarthy's Afro Bop Alliance Big Band: The Pan American Nutcracker Suite

Read "The Pan American Nutcracker Suite" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


"The Nutcracker" is a holiday staple and, as many musical and dance companies around the United States and Europe will tell you, thank Heaven for it. The musicians and performers may eventually lose their sanity from repeat performances, but the ballet is a money-maker as sure as holiday sales generate commercial profits for retailers. Besides, someone is inevitably hearing it for the first time, and children—even some adults—seem to enjoy it. This year, the season starts early with ...

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3

Recording

Uptown Jazz Tentet - What's Next - Release Date: October 1st Featuring Brandon Lee, Adam Birnbaum & More!

Uptown Jazz Tentet - What's Next - Release Date: October 1st Featuring Brandon Lee, Adam Birnbaum & More!

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations

Uptown Jazz Tentet What's Next Release Date: October 1st Featuring Brandon Lee, Willie Applewhite and James Burton III Ten-Piece Powerhouse! The Uptown Jazz Tentet is a ten-piece ensemble collectively led by trumpeter, Brandon Lee and trombonists Willie Applewhite and James Burton. The other seven members are the most reputable sidemen on the jazz scene today. The band attributes it's distinct sound to not only the musical prowess of its members, but also to the priceless value ...

Primary Instrument

Trumpet

Credentials/Background

I am currently jazz faculty as an assistant instructor at the Juilliard School. I also have worked with Jazz at Lincoln Center their Educational outreach programs, levels ranging from beginner-advanced.

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Grooveyard

Origin Records
2023

buy

Dynamic Maximum...

Nonesuch Records
2023

buy

The Jam!

Self Produced
2022

buy

The Pan American...

Angel Face Records
2022

buy

New Sounds

Posi-Tone Records
2021

buy

Freedom Suite Ensuite

Sunnyside Records
2021

buy

Grooveyard

From: Grooveyard
By Brandon Lee

What's Next

From: What's Next
By Brandon Lee

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