Tom Brown
Like you, multi-gold album artist and Billboard “Best Of” awards recipient Tom “Jamaica Funk” Browne has an unstoppable passion for new music, one that has kept him on tour and in the recording studio of late. Is it timelessness that keeps the music flowing? Indeed!
With over three decades of recordings and sharing the concert stage with luminary figures of jazz music, Tom Browne continues to captivate listeners as an entertainer who has successfully mixed stage presence and musical artistry with a sincere audience connection and warmth. “People don’t just come to hear your music,” says Browne, “they come to connect with you!”
Tom is perhaps best known for what music icon George Benson said of his “believability in any musical style; his ability to communicate!” This ability to emerse ones-self into the musical era, style and dreamscape of a composition, and then artistically create as though you are perfectly at home in that location, is a rarity among musicians. Perhaps this ability is resultant of Browne’s upbringing near Jamaica, New York where greats like Count Basie lived on one block and James Brown on another. “It was the merger of so many musical influences and styles that created the Jamaica scene, and certainly my approach” says Browne.
Tom has certainly worked with the industry’s best and brightest, having shared the concert stage with Bob James, Dave Grusin, Najee, Roy Ayers, Joe Sample, Melba Moore and a host of others. Sought early on by Columbia Records, Warner Brothers and CTI, Browne was introduced (by Earl Klugh) to Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen, and subsequently signed his first recording contract with the newly formed GRP Records label. GRP and Browne produced some of the labels best hits including Funkin’ For Jamaica, Thighs High, Fungi Mama, Let’s Dance and Secret Fantasy. To date, Tom has over sixteen solo projects on the market, including the very recent Neo-Soul/Jazz sizzler entitled Legacy, released in mid 2016. (The Legacy project did extremely well on the charts, and had Browne up for Grammy nomination consideration in several categories.) His NEW CD "Come What May" is due in early 2019, with the first single "Mi Amor" scheduled for March 4, 2019 release.
Today, Tom Browne can be found on tour regularly. After selling out late summer concerts in The United Kingdom (Pizza Express and CLF Arts Cafe) and The Netherlands (North Sea Jazz Club), he went on to headline The Capital Jazz Cruise, Oxnard and Hub City Jazz Festivals, all receiving glowing reviews.
Ronnie Laws
Born and raised in Houston, Texas Laws is the fifth of eight children. He started playing the saxophone at the age of 11.[2]
He attended Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, for two years.
During 1971 Laws journeyed to Los Angeles, California to embark upon a musicial career. He started off by performing with trumpeter Hugh Masekela. Within 1972, Laws joined the band Earth, Wind & Fire where he played saxophone and flute on their album Last Days and Time. After 18 months with EWF he went on to become a solo artist.[2]
During 1975 Laws issued his debut album entitled Pressure Sensitive on Blue Note Records.[3] The album reached No. 25 on the Billboard Top Soul Albums chart.[4]In 1976, Laws went on to release his second LP Fever.[5] The album reached No. 13