Bio |
A series of somewhat unrelated events over the next few years led to a firm decision to pursue music as a career and also added variety to my life experience. I enrolled at Belmont and took a variety of classes in studio engineering, electronics, philosophy, and music. I was encouraged to perform my original piano compositions at Belmont recitals. After passing one electronics class I found a job as technician of an audio duplication plant. I was servicing high-end Studer recording equipment. It was a job that was above my training, but it was also a job that allowed me to grow and learn a variety of new skills. I moved into an apartment and after a year the company went out of business. For a period of time I took a variety of jobs from, keyboardist in a rock band, to part-time studio engineer. Throughout all these changes I was continuing to compose music. One Sunday afternoon I played a composition of mine at an open mic at the famous Exit/In which led to an amazing response from the crowd. It was my first standing ovation. That moment I felt as though I really had a future in my own music, but freelancing my music in Nashville was leading me to poverty. Soon life took another turn for me. My parents decided to move a small New Mexico town, and at the last moment I decided to move with them to assist in building their new home. While I worked for a year constructing a large adobe home, I attended Western New Mexico University (WMNU) and took music classes, and once again I found a local recording studio where I was welcomed as a part-time engineer (Rocky Mountain Audio). I also began playing in a series of country-rock bands. Strangly enough, one of these bands I played with opened for the rock band Head East. Connections that I made with a local musician opened up and opportunity in Tempe Arizona to produce music at Eldorado Studios for a cable television program called Fastrack. I moved to Phoenix and committed myself to the job. But soon I was devastated when the studio and the television show lost funding. After one cruel season in Phoenix I decided that I might as well move to Los Angeles to see if there was a future there for me there. I moved to Los Angeles in 1984 and immediately managed to get an ASCAP scholarship to study film scoring with Don Ray (CBS Television) at UCLA Extension. This led me to compose music on a regular basis. Some of this music I then used to audition for a position at a prominent jazz club-restaurant in Westwood Village My first attempt at as an original artist was a mixed bag. My album was distributed nationally throughout the Tower Records chain. Soon I elected to form my own group made up of some of Los Angeles' great jazz musicians, including Steve Baily and Jeff Kashiwa of Rippington's fame. I was playing with jazz heavies yet I to began to understand I knew next to nothing about jazz. I became bogged down with all the difficulties of running a band and making my way in Los Angeles. My music was marketed as New Age, but it was stylistically undeveloped and was very different from either New Age or Jazz. I was looking for a way to gain some stability. I took a steady gig as pianist in Ventura playing Sunday brunches at the Holiday Inn Beach Resort. There I met an artist named Cinder. She was a performer who regularly opened for concerts at there. We eventually formed a duo to open for Ronnie Milsap. As we built our duo, I continued to promote my album. But this period of time was marked by some hard lessons in music business. I discovered the record label was misrepresenting the number of copies that were in print and sold. Yet they had me over a barrel. The label offered a carrot in the form of management that promised a tour of colleges. Instead I was led to financial disaster in that I prepared for this tour by clearing my calendar. When no tour manifested, I was instead booked as a house musician at a small resort hotel in the high desert. I took the gig out of desperation and it removed me from the L.A. scene and my ability to approach the label on their indiscretion. Label support and royalties became nonexistent and I believed that it was necessary to go back to playing cover material. I intended to get back to original music sooner, but for the next eleven years Cinder and I toured the West Coast, Japan and Alaska. I learned to sing, because in a cover duo, it is necessary for both to sing in order to play the variety of material we were called upon to play. We eventually based ourselves in New Mexico. As time wore on, we played less on the road, and I began taking more university classes at WNMU. Due to my experience, I was hired by the WNMU Music Department as adjunct staff teaching private piano, classes in music technology, and as a musical director for two theatrical productions. The first production was The Wizard of Oz, where I auditioned a large cast of singers, and assembled and conducted a pit orchestra, The second production was an adaption of Euripides' tragedy, The Bacchae, for which I composed and conducted an original score. Eventually I decided that the music program at WNMU did not offer the course of study I really wanted, which was to study jazz and/or composition. My original motivation for being a musician and composer was calling me! In Los Angeles many of the best musicians I worked with hailed from the University of North Texas (UNT). So I ended my work at WMNU, broke off the duo and moved to Denton, Texas, where I then enrolled in the UNT Jazz program. I was transformed in many ways by my experience at UNT. Dan Haerle was my main teacher. I played in his jazz keyboard ensemble throughout my time there. There were many great musicians in that group including Norah Jones. And I was able to arrange and play in concert with such luminaries as Dave Leibman and Russ Ferrante (The Yellowjackets). I put myself through school with Wind Studies scholarships by playing piano in the Symphonic Band. I also earned some extra money playing contemporary country in the house band at Cowboys Red River in North Dallas, and also by playing with The Roof Raisers - a large upscale dance band. In those four intense years, I finished two degrees, a B.M. and a M.M. in Jazz Performance, and I also made a study of conducting and post graduate music education. At UNT I met a fine lady (and wonderful pianist) named Sarah Engledow, who I married. After graduating we lived in Denton for the next few years. During that time I was hired by the UNT Continuing Education Program as a class piano instructor which I taught from 2001-2005. I eventually stopped working for UNT because my own private piano studio became more lucrative. I also built up my own home recording studio where I began recording again. Meanwhile, I continued working steadily in the DFW area with several bands. These included Naked Lunch, a ten member Steely Dan tribute band, and a few gigs with the Dallas Jazz Orchestra. I was also hired by the University of North Texas Department of Dance and The Texas Women's University Dance Department as a dance accompanist. In 2004, I recorded and released my own CD called Opus 2, Limited Edition. I marketed this music via my own website, which I also designed (www.robertwbrown.com). During this period, I also played weekly at Fellowship Church, and I became a dedicated student of Kenpo Karate at Reding Martial Arts. In 2007, my wife Sarah earned her second Masters degree in Library Science. All at once, as we were expecting our first child, my father passed away and my wife was offered a librarian position at the University of Houston. Our family weathered major changes that year. We had our first child, a healthy and precious boy, and we moved to the heart of the Houston arts district. Once again I found students, but this time I found that professional musicians were willing to study jazz and composition with me. I was also hired by the prestigious Houston Ballet as a dance accompanist. Despite the success, my wife and I decided that inner city Houston was not where we wanted to raise our son. My wife applied for a position in my old stomping grounds of Middle Tennessee, and she was offered the position of Music Librarian at Middle Tennessee State University. Soon after arriving, I was fortunate to find music work with two fine organizations. I was hired by to play for the company and academy at The Nashville Ballet as a pianist. Additionally I continue to perform for the bi-yearly Tennessee Association of Dance State Ballet Conventions. More work fell into place in 2009 as I was hired as interim music director for First Church Unity in Brentwood and served as such for one year. We were then blessed with a second child we named Serena Soleil Brown. She is our little sunshine! Robert W Brown
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Copyright © 2012 Robert W Brown |