Home » Jazz Musicians » YolanDa Brown

YolanDa Brown

Think saxophones, and most of us will immediately start thinking of jazz, specifically trad jazz. No bad thing, maybe, as there are few instruments as beautiful as the saxophone, and few sounds as effortlessly beautiful as jazz, but YolanDa Brown is someone who has made the instrument truly her own, a miraculously gifted saxophonist fluent in a whole lot more than just that one genre.

As her two EPs to date, July 2007's Finding My Voice and August 2008's A Step Closer, so volubly attest, here is an artist who takes jazz and introduces it to all sorts: to soul, to R&B and gospel, to loping reggae and infectious Latin. She can sound at once emotionally raw and incontestably infectious, and she can make it sound like no one else on earth. For the past three years now, she has performed with some of the music world's most respected artists, and her name on the bill alone can sell out all sorts of venues. She has won a prestigious MOBO Award, has presented an arts show on television, and is currently putting the finishing touches to a debut album which will firmly establish her on modern music's cultural map. Right now, YolanDa Brown is a star in waiting. She won't have to wait very much longer.

"I think the first time I heard music I was still in the womb," YolanDa says, laughing loudly. "It was always on in the house. My father [who worked in advertising] wasn't a musician himself, but he played the hi-fi very well indeed. He introduced me to all kinds of music, and so I didn't really have a choice, I suppose. I was hooked from the youngest age."

Born in Barking 26 years ago, YolanDa started to study her passion early on. At six, she was regularly seated at the piano, going diligently through the keys until she understood it intrinsically.

By seven, she was giving the violin a go, then the drums. She loved the recorder, the oboe, and by 13 had settled on the saxophone. She refused to take lessons, however, simply because the saxophone to YolanDa was somehow instinctual. She simply knew how to play it, naturally, as if she were born to do so. Pretty soon, she became something of a prodigy.

"I'm not sure why the saxophone of all instruments appealed to me most," she admits, "but I just felt at home with it somehow. I loved the music it made."

Read more

Tags

17

Music Industry

Mobo Winner Yolanda Brown Tops UK Jazz Charts

Mobo Winner Yolanda Brown Tops UK Jazz Charts

Source: Ivan Brown

Multi MOBO award winner YolanDa Brown has topped the UK iTunes and Amazon jazz charts with her debut album “April Showers, May Flowers". The album was released in February 2012 with tow special concerts at the London HMV Hammersmith Apollo accompanied by the London Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and special guests including Ian Shaw, Jacqui Dankworth, Omar and Nigerian saxophonist Mike Aremu. The album has risen to the top slot amidst much critical and music loving acclaim from public and aficionados ...

75

Interview

YolanDa Brown: A Jazz Saxophonist with Affiliation in Academia

YolanDa Brown: A Jazz Saxophonist with Affiliation in Academia

Source: JamaicaMusic Offbeat

Jazz has a preponderance of musicians of high academic achievements who have PhDs, Masters, Bachelors degree behind their names. Maybe the converse holds that high academic achievers, who are musicians, are invariably attracted to this great and wonderful music. A recent addition to the list of A-Graders is YolanDa Brown, British born jazz saxophonist, 2008 MOBO Award Winner “Best Jazz," 2008 Urban Music Award Nominee “Best Jazz," Women in Entertainment and Arts Award 2009 “Best Musician," who recently been awarded ...

Primary Instrument

Saxophone, tenor

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

Photos

Concerts

May 29 Wed

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

April Showers May...

Black Grape Records
2012

buy

Videos

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.