Alison Brown
Encyclopedia
Alison Brown is an American banjo
player and guitarist
known for a soft nylon-string banjo sound. She has won and has been nominated on several Grammy awards and is often compared to another banjo prodigy, Béla Fleck
for her unique style of playing. In her music, she blends jazz, bluegrass, rock, blues as well as other styles of music.
, Brown learned to play guitar
at eight and banjo at ten. When she was twelve, she met fiddler Stuart Duncan
. In the summer of 1978, Brown traveled across the country with Duncan and his father, playing at festivals and contests. She won first place at the Canadian National Banjo Championship, which helped her land a one-night gig at the Grand Ole Opry
.
, where she studied history and literature. After graduating from Harvard, she earned an MBA from UCLA.
In 1982, while still at Harvard
, Brown helped to reunite the Northern Lights
band after 5 years of their hiatus, as she become their full member until 1984, when she moved back to California. Brown worked for two years with Smith Barney
in San Francisco, and then took a break to pursue her music interests.
asked Brown to join her band, Union Station. Brown spent three years with Krauss. In 1990, she moved to Tennessee
, and was named International Bluegrass Music Association
Banjo Player of the Year in 1991. The 1990 album I've Got That Old Feeling
, which Brown played banjo on, won a Grammy award.
In 1992, Brown became the band leader for Michelle Shocked
. This experience led Brown to merge bluegrass
with jazz
and folk
idioms, in a manner similar to those of Béla Fleck
and David Grisman
.
, Brown and her husband, bass player Garry West, started their own record label, Small World Music. This company eventually led to the launch of Compass Records
in 1995, an internationally recognized label, which has such artists as Victor Wooten
, Colin Hay
, Catie Curtis
, Lúnasa
, Martin Hayes
, Jeff Coffin
, Russ Barenberg
, Darol Anger
and others.
, she won the 2000 Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance. She participated in Alison Krauss
’s Grammy-winning album I've Got That Old Feeling
, and received a Grammy nomination for her own recording, Simple Pleasures
(1990). In 2001 she won the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance
for her song "Leaving Cottondale" from the album Fair Weather
.
's Stars of the South. Her last album, The Company You Keep
(2009) follows this trend of mixing different acoustic genres resulting in fresh-sounding new hybrids.
Alison Brown continues touring with her band, Quartet internationally. As a famous Harvard University
alumna, she was invited to play at the inauguration of Harvard's new president, Drew Faust.
:
Recorded under Compass Records
:
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
player and guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
known for a soft nylon-string banjo sound. She has won and has been nominated on several Grammy awards and is often compared to another banjo prodigy, Béla Fleck
Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
for her unique style of playing. In her music, she blends jazz, bluegrass, rock, blues as well as other styles of music.
Early life
Born in Hartford, ConnecticutHartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
, Brown learned to play guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
at eight and banjo at ten. When she was twelve, she met fiddler Stuart Duncan
Stuart Duncan
Stuart Duncan is a bluegrass musician who plays the fiddle, mandolin, guitar and banjo. Born in Quantico, Virginia and raised in Santa Paula, California, where he played in the school band, he has been a member of the Nashville Bluegrass Band since 1985, and is a much-in-demand session musician...
. In the summer of 1978, Brown traveled across the country with Duncan and his father, playing at festivals and contests. She won first place at the Canadian National Banjo Championship, which helped her land a one-night gig at the Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
.
Harvard University and Northern Lights
In 1980, Brown went to Harvard universityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where she studied history and literature. After graduating from Harvard, she earned an MBA from UCLA.
In 1982, while still at Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Brown helped to reunite the Northern Lights
Northern Lights (bluegrass band)
Northern Lights was an American Progressive bluegrass band formed in 1975 in New England, which musical career spanned more than three decades....
band after 5 years of their hiatus, as she become their full member until 1984, when she moved back to California. Brown worked for two years with Smith Barney
Smith Barney
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is a retail brokerage joint venture between Morgan Stanley and Citigroup.On January 13, 2009, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup announced that Citigroup would sell 51% of Smith Barney to Morgan Stanley, creating Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, which was formerly a division of...
in San Francisco, and then took a break to pursue her music interests.
Union Station and other collaborations
In 1987, Alison KraussAlison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in...
asked Brown to join her band, Union Station. Brown spent three years with Krauss. In 1990, she moved to Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, and was named International Bluegrass Music Association
International Bluegrass Music Association
The International Bluegrass Music Association, or IBMA, is a trade association to promote bluegrass music.Formed in 1985, IBMA established its first headquarters in Owensboro, Kentucky. In 1988 they announced plans to create the International Bluegrass Music Museum as a joint venture with...
Banjo Player of the Year in 1991. The 1990 album I've Got That Old Feeling
I've Got That Old Feeling
I've Got That Old Feeling is an album by American violinist/singer Alison Krauss, released in 1990. It reached number 61 on the Billboard Country Albums chart....
, which Brown played banjo on, won a Grammy award.
In 1992, Brown became the band leader for Michelle Shocked
Michelle Shocked
Michelle Shocked is the stage name of Michelle Karen Johnston, an American singer-songwriter.-History:Shocked received her first international exposure in Europe, particularly Britain, with her debut album The Texas Campfire Tapes .Her first U.S...
. This experience led Brown to merge bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
with jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
idioms, in a manner similar to those of Béla Fleck
Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
and David Grisman
David Grisman
David Grisman is an American bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist and composer of acoustic music. In the early 1990s, he started the Acoustic Disc record label in an effort to preserve and spread acoustic or instrumental music.-Biography:Grisman grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey...
.
Compass Records
In the early 1990s1990s in music
For music from a year in the 1990s, go to 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99This article includes trends in popular music in the 1990s....
, Brown and her husband, bass player Garry West, started their own record label, Small World Music. This company eventually led to the launch of Compass Records
Compass Records
Compass Records is a Nashville-based independent record label founded in 1995 by musicians Garry West and Alison Brown. Currently home to nearly 100 folk, bluegrass, Celtic, jazz, and new acoustic artists, the label releases about 20 records a year...
in 1995, an internationally recognized label, which has such artists as Victor Wooten
Victor Wooten
Victor Lemonte Wooten is an American bass player, composer, author, and producer, and has been the recipient of five Grammy Awards....
, Colin Hay
Colin Hay
Colin James Hay is a Scottish-Australian musician, who made his mark during the 1980s as lead vocalist of the Australian band Men at Work, and later as a solo artist.- Early life and Men at Work :...
, Catie Curtis
Catie Curtis
Catie Curtis is an American singer-songwriter. Her music has been categorized in several genres, including pop, rock, alternative country, indie and folk. She has recorded 11 CDs. The most recent, Stretch Limousine On Fire, will be released in August 2011 on Compass Records.-Early life:Catie...
, Lúnasa
Lúnasa (band)
-History:Named after Lughnasadh, an ancient Irish harvest festival, Lúnasa was started when Seán Smyth, Trevor Hutchinson, and Donogh Hennessy briefly toured through Scandinavia in 1996. Upon their return to Ireland, they teamed up with Michael McGoldrick and John McSherry to record a few tracks...
, Martin Hayes
Martin Hayes (musician)
Martin Hayes is a fiddler, born in Maghera in East County Clare, Ireland, and now living in West Hartford, Connecticut. He has been the All Ireland Fiddle Champion six times, and has won a National Entertainment Award, and the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2000 award for Instrumentalist of the Year...
, Jeff Coffin
Jeff Coffin
Jeff Coffin is an American jazz and alternative rock musician best known as the saxophonist for Dave Matthews Band and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. In addition to the saxophone, he plays clarinet, flute and oboe.-Biography:...
, Russ Barenberg
Russ Barenberg
Russ Barenberg is a Grammy-nominated American bluegrass musician.-Biography:Barenberg began playing guitar at age 13, taking lessons from Alan Miller, whose brother John Miller Barenberg he would later play with. His style was heavily influenced by the flatpicking technique of Clarence White. He...
, Darol Anger
Darol Anger
-Career:Darol Anger entered popular music at the age of 21 as a founding member of The David Grisman Quintet. Anger played fiddle to David Grisman's mandolin in The David Grisman Quintet's 1977 debut. He co-founded the Turtle Island String Quartet with David Balakrishnan in 1985 and performed,...
and others.
Grammy awards
In collaboration with Béla FleckBéla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
, she won the 2000 Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance. She participated in Alison Krauss
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in...
’s Grammy-winning album I've Got That Old Feeling
I've Got That Old Feeling
I've Got That Old Feeling is an album by American violinist/singer Alison Krauss, released in 1990. It reached number 61 on the Billboard Country Albums chart....
, and received a Grammy nomination for her own recording, Simple Pleasures
Simple Pleasures (album)
Simple Pleasures is an album by American banjoist Alison Brown, released in 1990. Produced by David Grisman and recorded with his David Grisman Quintet plus such stars as Mike Marshall, Alison Krauss and Turtle Island String Quartet violoncellist Mark Summer, this jazzy album delivers a...
(1990). In 2001 she won the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance
Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance was awarded from 1970 to 2011. Between 1986 and 1989 the award was presented as the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance ....
for her song "Leaving Cottondale" from the album Fair Weather
Fair Weather (album)
Fair Weather is album by American banjoist Alison Brown, released in 2000.At the 43rd Grammy Awards Brown and Béla Fleck won the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance for "Leaving Cottondale"....
.
Alison Brown and Quartet today
Stolen Moments (2005), in Brown’s estimation, is her most musically successful record to date. "For the first time, I feel like I’ve created a true hybrid sound that suggests its influences – bluegrass, jazz, celtic music – but when taken as a whole isn’t any one of these things." – Brown's words about the album on the group's official webpage. In 2007, Brown was honored as one of Irish America magazineIrish America magazine
Irish America magazine is a bi-monthly periodical that aims to cover topics relevant to the Irish in North America including a range of political, economic, social, and cultural themes. The magazine’s inaugural issue was published in October 1985...
's Stars of the South. Her last album, The Company You Keep
The Company You Keep (Alison Brown album)
The Company You Keep is the latest album by American banjoist Alison Brown, released in 2009. The other members of the Quartet, especially pianist John Burr contribute to Brown's compositions more than on any of her previous albums, where she composed mostly on her own.- Reception :In his Allmusic...
(2009) follows this trend of mixing different acoustic genres resulting in fresh-sounding new hybrids.
Alison Brown continues touring with her band, Quartet internationally. As a famous Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
alumna, she was invited to play at the inauguration of Harvard's new president, Drew Faust.
Discography
Recorded under Vanguard RecordsVanguard Records
Vanguard Records is a record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York. It started as a classical label, but is perhaps best known for its catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal folk and blues artists from the 1960s; the Bach Guild was a subsidiary...
:
- Simple PleasuresSimple Pleasures (album)Simple Pleasures is an album by American banjoist Alison Brown, released in 1990. Produced by David Grisman and recorded with his David Grisman Quintet plus such stars as Mike Marshall, Alison Krauss and Turtle Island String Quartet violoncellist Mark Summer, this jazzy album delivers a...
(1990) - Twilight MotelTwilight Motel (album)Twilight Motel is album by American banjoist Alison Brown, released in 1992.- Reception :In his Allmusic review, music critic Michael McCall called the album " Jazzier, yet also more relaxed, than her debut."- Track listing :...
(1992) - Look LeftLook Left (album)Look Left is album by American banjoist Alison Brown, released in 1994.- Reception :In his Allmusic review, music critic Johnny Lofthus called the album "a cleanly played set that's as crisp as white sheets on a springtime clothesline."...
(1994) - QuartetQuartet (Alison Brown album)Quartet is album by American banjoist Alison Brown, released in 1996.- Reception :In his Allmusic review, music critic Rick Anderson noted flxibility of the banjo in jazz and bebop and complimented many tracks...
(1996) - Best of the Vanguard Years (2002)
- Vanguard Visionaries (2007)
Recorded under Compass Records
Compass Records
Compass Records is a Nashville-based independent record label founded in 1995 by musicians Garry West and Alison Brown. Currently home to nearly 100 folk, bluegrass, Celtic, jazz, and new acoustic artists, the label releases about 20 records a year...
:
- Out of the BlueOut of the Blue (Alison Brown album)Out of the Blue is album by American banjoist Alison Brown, released in 1998.- Reception :In his Allmusic review, music critic Charlotte Dylan wrote of the album; "The music on this album is bluegrass flavored with a little jazz...
(1998) - Fair WeatherFair Weather (album)Fair Weather is album by American banjoist Alison Brown, released in 2000.At the 43rd Grammy Awards Brown and Béla Fleck won the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance for "Leaving Cottondale"....
(2000) - ReplayReplay (Alison Brown album)Replay is album by American banjoist Alison Brown, released in 2002.- Reception :In his Allmusic review, music critic Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr. wrote that of the album; "One may not be able to please all of the fans all of the time, but Replay should please most of Alison Brown's fans most of the time...
(2002) - Stolen Moments (2005)
- EvergreenEvergreen (Alison Brown album)Evergreen is a Christmas album by American banjoist Alison Brown, released in 2008.Arranged in a jazzy style, the album features fiddler/mandolinists Joe Craven and is often compared with similar Christmas album effort by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Jingle All the Way.- Reception :In his...
(2008) - The Company You KeepThe Company You Keep (Alison Brown album)The Company You Keep is the latest album by American banjoist Alison Brown, released in 2009. The other members of the Quartet, especially pianist John Burr contribute to Brown's compositions more than on any of her previous albums, where she composed mostly on her own.- Reception :In his Allmusic...
(2009)