Sheldon Brown Group

Sheldon Brown, woodwinds.

Composer and woodwind multi-instrumentalist Sheldon Brown formed the Sheldon Brown Group in 1993, and in 1996 he released the jazz/fusion CD Shifting Currents. Brown tours internationally (most recently with pianist Omar Sosa) to world-renowned venues such as the North Sea Jazz Festival, Moers Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Jazz d'Or, Toronto Jazz Festival and the Spoleto Festival. He is featured on Omar Sosa's CDs Prietos, Bembon, Spirit of the Roots and Free Roots and on Ian Dogole's CDs Ionospheres and Night Harvest.

Brown is a member of San Francisco's Club Foot Orchestra, for whom he has composed scores for Film Roman's cartoon series The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat and silent films such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr. and Cops, G. W. Pabst's Pandora's Box and Robert Wiene's Hands of Orlac. Club Foot has performed at New York's Knitting Factory, Walter Reade Theater, at Lincoln Center and the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. Brown performed in Anthony Braxton's Composition No. 132 at Grace Cathedral as part of the 1986 San Francisco Jazz Festival. He also performs regularly with the Realistic Orchestra.

He currently teaches composition at the Jazzschool in Berkeley, California.

Sheldon appeared here previously with the group Hemispheres, with Ian Dogole, Paul McCandless and Bill Douglass, and with Clarinet Thing.

Jonathan Alford, piano.

Jonathan studied classical piano at the University of Wisconsin and privately with Julian White and Dorothy Taubman. He has given recitals at Amherst College, Mills College, Sonoma State University and with the Tassajara Symphony.

He wrote and performed music for the Ellen Webb Dance Company, and for Howard Hain’s “A Play for One and All” staged at ODC. He was also Musical Director of the Childrens Opera of SF at Herbst Theatre.

Notable performances include Zellarbach Hall with the Machete Ensemble, the SF and San Jose Jazz Festivals, and with the Oakland Ballet performing “Union Fraternal”, a Cuban Danzon Suite for the 2000 season. He appeared with Elaine Lucia on "West Coast Live" in 2001.

Jonathan's recording and performing associations include Pete Escovedo, John Santos, Bobby Hutcherson, Elaine Lucia, Carlos Santana, Denise Perrier, Chocolate Armenteros, Orestes Vilato, Machete Ensemble, Mazacote, Peter Apfelbaum, Josh Jones, Los Compas, Jenna Mamina, Ray Obiedo and Maria Marquez.

Michael Wilcox, electric bass.

Michael has performed with Richie Cole, the Fifth Dimension, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Oakland Eastbay Symphony, Eddie Duran, Jules Broussard, Tom Coster and Larry Schneider. He was an Adjunct Faculty member in the Jazz Department at San Jose State University for five years (1989-1994), and currently teaches at the Jazzschool in Berkeley.

Alan Hall, drums.

Alan has played and/or recorded with: bassists Stuart Hamm, Brian Torff and Kai Eckhardt; guitarists Larry Coryell, Mick Goodrick and Joyce Cooling; saxophonists Ernie Watts, Paul McCandless, Bob Mintzer, John Handy, Jerry Bergonzi and Eddie Harris; trumpeter Bobby Shew; pianists Art Lande, Billy Childs, Tom Coster, Kit Walker and Smith Dobson; and vocalists Mark Murphy and Rebecca Parris.

Alan's work has been heard on jazz radio stations nationally and his original compositions have been recorded and released on the Blue Crescent and Polymorph record labels. His performances have been aired on B. E. T.'s Jazz Discovery Series and KRON TV's Daybreak.

He is currently a member of several groups including Ray Brown's Great Big Band, Dave Eshelman's Jazz Garden Big Band, and Michael Smolens' quintet, Kriya.

He is a faculty member of The Jazzschool in Berkeley, CA. and a participating faculty member of The Brubeck Institute, University of the Pacific, Stockton. CA. He was previously a member of the percussion faculty at Berklee College of Music in Boston from 1986-1993, and the University of California at Berkeley from 1998-2000.

Alan was heard previously at Chez Hanny with the Michael O'Neill Quintet and the Charlie McCarthy Quartet.

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