The little girl from mid-island Jamaica played the family piano at age 5 and by late teen she knew exactly what she wanted to be in life, a musician. Her parents being academicians counseled on the fickleness of the music business suggesting instead a career in medicine.
KathyBrown was performing small gigs throughout medical school all the time honing her piano playing skills, then she discovered jazz and found her niche. “My music is definitively a crossover between jazz and indigenous forms of music whether it is reggae, Latin and afro-Brazilian styles”.
Today, KathyBrown M.D. pianist, composer, bandleader, recording artist is a consummate jazz pianist with a CD Kathy Brown: A Musical Journey and lead her KathyBrown & Friends band, a favourite on the Jamaican jazz landscape.
The Jamaican pianist’s intense desire to play overseas got on the road in August 2007 when she was invited to play at the Island Soul Festival in Toronto, Canada. And, so began a musical journey that has taken her to Suriname, Antigua & Barbuda, Grand Cayman, Austria, New York, and Florida where she appeared with outstanding cabaret singer Sabrina Williams at Bistro Soleil on Marco Island, Naples prior to a raved performance at the Jazz Gallery at Miami jazz radio WDNA 88.9FM.
Dr. KathyBrown appeared several times at the Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival opening for Roy Ayres (2007) and Latin music heartthrob Jon Secada (2010), Ocho Rios International Jazz Festival, and Port Royal Music Festival. She has shared stage with Jamaica’s great guitarist Ernest Ranglin, famed trumpeter Mickey Hanson, Japanese multi-reedist Hiroaki Honshuku, and veteran bassist for Monty Alexander and music producer Glen Browne.
With jazz a spatter on the Jamaica music landscape, KathyBrown, the All About Jazz musician, avidly seeks opportunities to perform her “true crossover” of “different music style” to audiences overseas.
OFFBEAT means unconventional; not conforming to norm. JamaicaMusic Offbeat presents music unconventional to popular Jamaican music which is largely traditional reggae and its dancehall derivatives. It places in the spotlight Jamaican musicians, home and abroad, who are creators/players/performers of improvised and other non-traditional music, the venues and shows that indulge in improvised music. It also features similar musicians and jazz related entities beyond the Jamaican shores.
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