JOHN BROWN QUINTET
This award-winning jazz group specializes in performing music from the time-honored Bebop and Hard Bop eras of jazz, bringing new life to some of the best-known classics from the Great American Songbook and introducing original music. The group garnered national attention when its first recording reached #8 on the national JazzWeek chart, and stayed in the top 50 for 16 consecutive weeks. Featuring the classic instrumentation of two horns in the frontline along with the rhythm section, the John Brown Quintet sets the standard for John Brown’s myriad ensembles.
Brown’s woody bass tones are resounding and full of soulful authority…brilliant bass solo…solidly swinging and full of deep feeling from start to finish. -Jazz Times
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MEET THE BAND
Ray Codrington
Ray Codrington is a native of Fayetteville, NC and is a graduate of Howard University. He has performed and recorded with Eddie Harris, the JFK Quintet, Larry Willis, Hugo Montinegro and Godfather II, and has headlined bands of his own in his nearly fifty-year career. The John Brown Quintet - Ray Codrington His career has taken him to the famed Apollo Theater in New York, the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C. and festivals and clubs all along the East Coast. Ray has also served as an adjunct professor at East Carolina University and remains in high demand among musicians in the Southeastern United States.
Brian Miller
Brian Miller is a native of Kinston, NC and is a graduate of North Carolina Central University. Brian was first exposed to music at his church and developed a strong passion for music at an early age. By the time he graduated from high school, he played saxophone, tuba, trumpet snare drum, bass clarinet and valve trombone. Brian MillerWhile a student at NCCU, he worked with jazz artists like Clark Terry, Slide Hampton, Maceo Parker, Grady Tate, and Nicholas Payton, and played at the Montreux and Vienne Jazz Festivals. Brian performed with the NCCU Jazz Band twice at the White House for President Bill Clinton, and the band has recorded his original composition, “Desmond Street.” He has also performed with Tom Browne at Blues Alley and remains in very high demand among jazz, gospel and R&B musicians alike.
Gabe Evens
Gabe Evens is a native of Chapel Hill, NC and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been called “an exceptionally sensitive, tasteful, swinging pianist.” While his style is original and personal, a deep sense of lyrical melody and a gentle yet precise rhythmic feel naturally draws listeners in. Gabe is also a composer whose tunes display a remarkable sense of geometry, humor, and surprise. The John Brown Quintet - Gabe EvensWherever Gabe is living, he is consistently sought out by the top-notch musicians and has performed extensively in North Carolina, New England and Spain with artists like Nnenna Freelon, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Carlos Deleon (former member of the Tito Puente band) and Lois Deloatch.
Adonis Rose
Adonis Rose, hailed by New Orleans Magazine as a “Contemporary Jazz All Star,” is one of the most sought after drummers in jazz today. He has played with some of the world’s most esteemed jazz artists, from nine-time Grammy winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis to three-time Grammy winning vocalist Dianne Reeves to jazz/pop entertainer Harry Connick Jr., himself a three-time Grammy winner. Indeed, Rose’s beats reach further than the jazz world. Pioneering rap group Public Enemy, soul diva Chaka Kahn and the late R&B chart-topper Gerald Levert have asked Rose to tour with them.
Born in New Orleans in 1975, Rose was practically raised to be a drummer. His father was a drummer and gave Adonis his first drum set when he was just 2 years old. Even before graduating from New Orleans’ Warren Easton High School, Rose was refining his skills at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) and jamming with the likes of Clyde Kerr (who headed the jazz program at the NOCCA) and Grammy nominee, Nicholas Payton. After graduating from high school in 1992, Rose toured with trumpeter Terence Blanchard. Rose received a four year scholarship to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music.
In the Spring of 2007, Rose released On the Verge, his third recording on the Criss Cross label, following 1998’s Song for Donise and 1999’s The Unity. The John Brown Quintet - Adonis RoseRose has spent the last few years playing and recording with trumpeter Nicholas Payton, Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, pianist Ellis Marsalis, and Harry Connick Jr. He recently created and played the drum arrangement’s for Spike Lee’s HBO documentary, “When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts.” Rose’s rhythms have been included on more than 30 recordings during the past decade. Now residing in Texas, Rose has recently founded The Fort Worth Jazz Orchestra, Inc. and serves as its Artistic Director. He has also released his first recording, Untouchable by Adonis Rose & the N.O. Vaders, for his own House of Swing Records.
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