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Dr. Kathy Brown

Kathy Brown M.D. pianist, composer, bandleader, recording artist KathyBrown, standout Jamaican pianist, jazz instrumentalist and medical doctor, routinely captivates audiences with pleasing jazz arrangements and delightful piano riffs, whether performing solo or as leader of the Kathy Brown Band. The April birth musician, who, incidentally, has an academic familiarity with the French language, plays the piano with verve or, as the French says, joie de vivre, with energy and love of life. And, the rave reviews corroborate these sentiments. For instance, American Christopher Porter, writing in the reputable Jazz Times, described the pianist's 20-minutes performance at Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival in this manner. “The multitalented Dr. Kathy Brown, a jazz and reggae pianist, played a really fun but too-short set, mostly consisting of standards such as Caravan” and “Afro Blue”. Two years later, on the same international festival, on a night headlined by American contemporary jazz vibist Roy Ayers, Jamaican Gleaner writer Adrian Frater noted, “Although not attracting top billing, it was the charismatic and musically charged Dr. Kathy Brown who stole the spotlight as the 2007 Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival ended its two-night stopover at the Half Moon Shopping Centre in Montego Bay”. En route to Jamaica’s biggest jazz festivals, inclusive of the Ocho Rios International Jazz Festival and Port Royal Music Festival, the pulchritudinous pianist made regular stops at smaller shows and venues, for instance, the Jamaica Pegasus’ Jazz in the Gardens and Jazz on the Green series, Red Bones Blues Café, Christopher’s Jazz Cafe and others. The jazzy medical doctor’ s musical journey took her into the recording theatres of some veritable Jamaican studios, including Marley's Tuff Gong, where, after a succession of setbacks and a near miscarriage owing to a crashed computer disc, she delivered the labour-intensive first CD aptly named Mission: A Musical Journey. The 9-track CD features clever interpretations of great works of jazz and reggae standards, including Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage and Bob Marley/Peter Tosh’s Get Up, Stand Up. But, it also contains Brown's own compositions, Mission and Latin Groove. Kathy Brown’s CD, according to a Jamaica Gleaner review, captures many of the influences on her personal journey from the classical and folk music she heard at home [in the early days] through to the African and Latin music that stocks her ever-growing CD collection. Year ago she walked into the Phillip Sherlock Centre for Creative Arts on the University on the West Indies (UWI) campus in Kingston, Jamaica and heard jazz for the first time, Since Jill Gibson, master piano tutor at the Jamaica School of Music, imparted to her the rudiments of jazz piano, Brown whet her awareness listening intently to master craftsmen like Bob James, Joe Sample, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock’s earlier works, Chucho Valdes, countryman Monty Alexander, Kenny Barron, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Michel Camilo.

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Interview

Jazzy a Graders

Jazzy a Graders

Source: Michael Ricci

By Claude Wilson The jazz genre appears to lure and engage more musicians that are academics than any other genres, at least of popular music. Recently the United States (US) National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) released survey results suggesting that jazz musicians are largely male, middle-aged and well-educated. “The study shows that jazz musicians tend to be male and well educated, with about 45 per cent holding a bachelor's degree or higher," says the NEA. And, likewise, many women ...

209

Education

Kathy Brown in Training with Jazz Masters

Kathy Brown in Training with Jazz Masters

Source: All About Jazz

Jazz pianist Dr Kathy Brown left the island last week to further study jazz piano with three of New York's top master teachers who are themselves recording and performing artists. Years ago, when she mostly played classical music, Kathy Brown walked into the Phillip Sherlock Centre for Creative Arts at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and heard Jill Gibson playing an unfamiliar style of music on the piano, curiosity got the better of her. Introduction out of the ...

158

Performance / Tour

Kathy Brown Launches Ambassador's Concert Series

Kathy Brown Launches Ambassador's Concert Series

Source: All About Jazz

The launch, of what is intended to be a regular noontime concert series, hosted by United States Ambassador, Brenda La Grange, took place at the United States Embassy on Friday. Dr Kathy Brown was the featured musician. In addition to being a practicing medical doctor, the multi-talented Brown plays, sings, composes and arranges music. She's also a band leader and recording artiste. Seated at her Kurzweil K2500X keyboard half-way up the curvilinear iron stairs, she gave evidence of only some ...

108

Recording

Kathy Brown Completes Album Mission: A Musical Journey

Kathy Brown Completes Album Mission: A Musical Journey

Source: All About Jazz

Pianist Kathy Brown's debut album Mission: A Musical Journey is appropriately entitled in more ways than one. For one, it captures many of the influences on her personal musical journey from the classical and folk music she heard at home in Mandeville through to the African and Latin rhythms which reached out and grabbed her from record stores in the United States.

And, making the nine-track instrumental album was a journey in itself, a voyage into production waters which she ...

152

Performance / Tour

CIUT FM Live Remote Broadcast of Ernest Ranglin and Kathy Brown August 5

CIUT FM Live Remote Broadcast of Ernest Ranglin and Kathy Brown August 5

Source: All About Jazz

We love summer because it means we get to do more live remote broadcasts! We're getting in the van and heading to these amazing events, and we'll be bringing them directly to you! Ernest Ranglin and Kathy Brown Sunday August 5, 1:00pm - 6:00pm CIUT is thrilled to broadcast performances by two of Jamaica's most celebrated artists live from the Harbourfront Centre Stage, performing as part of Island Soul, a Caribbean-inspired extravaganza featuring Calypso and Reggae legends. A ...

381

Technology

Dr Kathy Brown: A Big Hit on Jazz Website

Dr Kathy Brown: A Big Hit on Jazz Website

Source: All About Jazz

Jazz pianist Dr Kathy Brown is so far proving a big hit on a world-leading Internet jazz website. The founder and leader of the Dr Kathy Brown & Friends band reached position Number 82 of the Top 200 most viewed musician profiles on AllAboutJazz.com, the world's best media reference in jazz and improvised music. Within a month of being posted on the site, the pianist tallied 470 hits to move up the Top 100 of thousands of registered musicians whose ...

Ladies rule the Best of Jazz in the Gardens Basil Walters, Observer staff reporter Friday, December 28, 2007 Pianist extraordinaire Dr Kathy Brown displayed her unmistakable dynamic blend of passionate keyboard artistry synchronising with frenzied high-energy drumming from Desi Jones, along with his friends, Denver Smith on congas, Peter James on keyboard and Dale Haslam on bass. In the various expositions, they engaged a great deal of improvisation and instrumentation which were elastic. Dr Brown's skill, coupled with her desire to please her audience, displayed a most sophisticated style of playing and a type of delicacy towards refinement which earned her some well- deserved applause from the highly appreciated audience. Her take on the Wailers' Get Up, Stand Up, was superb. Mission Accomplished Dr. Kathy Brown releases first album By ROLAND HENRY Sunday Observer Staff reporter Music is her medicine, or so it seems. “Being a full-time musician and a part time doctor simply means there’s never a dull moment,” writes pianist, Dr. Katherine ‘Kathy’ Brown in her liner notes on her recently released first album, Mission: A Musical Journey. The work is primarily a collection of instrumental tracks • save two that feature minimal vocals by jazz performer Toni Anderson • which are, for the most part, deft arrangements with surprising twists. The nine-track album opens with a cover of bob Marley’s Get Up, Stand Up, a blend of strings and percussions that heightens toward the end with a drum solo by Deleon White. Kathy Brown completes album 'Mission' published: Sunday | September 30, 2007 Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer Pianist Kathy Brown's debut album Mission: A Musical Journey is appropriately entitled in more ways than one. For one, it captures many of the influences on her personal musical journey from the classical and folk music she heard at home in Mandeville through to the African and Latin rhythms which reached out and grabbed her from record stores in the United States. And, making the nine-track instrumental album was a journey in itself, a voyage into production waters which she first dipped her fingers in three years ago...... Now that the mission has been accomplished Brown says "I feel relieved. I feel grateful for this product. Not because I have talent means it would have got this far". Being actually pleased with the entire album is another matter, though, as she says "Kathy Brown is a perfectionist, so it is very hard for me to be excited about my own music. I am glad for what it is Dr Kathy Brown, pianist keyboardist extraordinnaire, thrilled Christopher's Café last Tuesday.

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