Kevin Brown

Kevin Brown was born and raised in Winnipeg, MB where at age 7 he began to play guitar under the tutelage of his uncle Peter Ulrich. He was trained in classical guitar, but learned blues and rock as well. During high school at River East Collegiate he became interested in jazz through the influence of his band director Jeff Kula. At the Brandon Jazz Festival in 2001 Kevin was awarded a scholarship to attend the University of Manitoba Summer Jazz Camp. Also while playing in the school's senior jazz band, Kevin had the opportunity to travel to New York City for two consecutive years to participate in Jazz at Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington competition. Kevin received the award of 'honorable mention soloist' in area of guitar from Wynton Marsalis as a result of his performance on 'Stompy Jones' in the 2004 competition.Kevin began his post secondary education at CMU in Winnipeg, MB where he studied with classical guitar Willie Wiebe and jazz guitar with Larry Roy. He was also able to study at the U of M in a combo with Steve Kirby. He then later transferred to Wheaton College in Illinois, where he studied with Stephen Ramsdell, Nicole Mitchell, Ernest Dawkins, David Young and Audrey Morrison. While he was at Wheaton he began to compose under the guidance of Steve Ramsdell and Nicole Mitchell. Kevin graduated from Wheaton College in 2009 with a BM.Kevin has been a presence on the Chicago jazz scene since May of 2009. He has had the opportunity to play with musicians such as Phil Woods, Jeff Hamilton, Jimmy Greene, Jon Irabagon, Tim Ries, Kelly Sill, Steven Hashimoto, Justin Dillard, Rajiv Orozco, Tim Seisser, Ben Scholz, Lucas Gillan, Karl Kohut, Curtis Nowosad and others. Currently he performs in the jazz fusion group Mosaik consisting of Andy Schlinder, Preyas Roy, Alex Wing and Nils Higdon. The group performs a number of Kevin's original compositions that involve irregular meters, odd meters, metric modulations, and complex harmonic progressions. Kevin has had the opportunity to get lessons with Rez Abbasi, Steve Coleman, John Patitucci, Gary Smulyan, Bob Palmieri, Scott Hesse, Michael Allemana, and Steve Hashimoto; he has also participated in workshops with Steve Coleman, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Gary Smulyan and Gene Bertoncini. Kevin has also performed at some of Chicago's top jazz venues such as the Jazz Showcase and the Green Mill. He has performed at the Iowa City Jazz Festival and the Chicago Jazz Festival.Kevin Brown is known for his specialization in fretless guitar.

The idea started in high school with Kevin's love of Jaco Pastorius. After having a fretless guitar made he grew to love the sound and the challenge of the uncharted territory. Being inspired by the music that Bach wrote for solo violin and solo cello, he is convinced that similar intonation can be achieved on fretless guitar for both chordal and melodic passages. Kevin has a masters degree in Jazz Composition from DePaul University where he studied with Tom Matta, Bob Lark, Bob Palmieri and Ron Perillo.
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