Geroge Brandon

1947 - 2014

About

George Brandon was born into a Black working-class family in Newark NJ. His father was a steelworker who drew, painted and sculpted in his spare time; his mother a factory assembly line worker who later trained and worked as a home health aide. His education in music is both informal and formal (institutional.)

His early musical education was informal: rooted in the neighborhood children’s games that required an integration of physical movement, verbal rhymes and tricky rhythms; the congregational singing of the Baptist church in which he was brought up; and guitar lessons from his father. His early formal musical education took place in the Newark public schools where he learned to read music notation, received rudimentary instruction in music theory and took up the trombone. Upon the recommendation of a high school music teacher, he began to study the trombone formally with Samuel Lilienstein who was then a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. He continued with Lilienstein for about a year and a half until family finances were disrupted by the closure of the factory where his father worked, and they could no longer afford to pay for lessons.

During his high school years, Brandon was active as a performer. Public school teachers booked him in ensembles that played for weddings, dances, church services, and special events such as holiday oratorios and concerts for seniors at nursing homes for all of which he was paid. The music for these engagements was eclectic and varied from big band swing to rhythm and blues and rock ‘n’ roll, to European art music from the classical and romantic eras to Broadway show tunes.

When Rutgers University’s Institute of Jazz Studies opened, he joined the Academy of Improvisation formed by IJS Director Chris White. Not long afterwards he became a charter member of New York City’s Jazzmobile Workshop which he attended for several years studying jazz trombone, composition and arranging with Frank Foster, Jimmy Heath, and Curtis Fuller, and performing with the Workshop’s ensembles in concert halls and on television. In 1978, he applied for and received an NEA Travel Study Grant to study privately with composer and theorist George Russell, a turning point in his development.

As a jazz musician, Brandon performed with the big bands of Frank Foster, Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy Heath, Jaki Byard, Makanda Ken McIntyre, and Julius Hemphill. He also toured with venerable master Calypsonian the Mighty Sparrow and his 25thAnniversary Revue and played in both contemporary classical chamber ensembles and salsa bands.

For 35 years he co-led summer workshops on African-American Congregational singing at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, Esalen, the Naropa University and internationally with Ysaye Barnwell former director of the acclaimed acapella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock. He has also served as a cultural consultant to theatre companies, museums, the Center for Black Music Research, and the Smithsonian Institution. He has lectured and performed internationally.

Around 2011 he began to experience spinal cord problems that eventually put an end to his performing as a trombonist. These issues continue to this day, and he has focused his involvement with music on jazz and contemporary classical composition and conducting and leading his own ensembles. Brandon’s compositions have also been performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Face the Music, vocal soloists Andrew White and Corrine Byrne, guitarist Donovan Mixon, the Divergent Studio Woodwind Quintet, and the Numinous Chamber Orchestra.

Related Information

https://www.navonarecords.com/artists/george-brandon/

Works by Geroge Brandon