T Oyelola
Black Grape Productions Limited
Email:
management@yolandabrown.co.uk
Phone: +44 (0)7931 131 372 or +44 (0)7944 758 438
Web: www.yolandabrown.co.uk
PICTURES OF YOLANDA BROWN LIVE IN CONCERT ON DECEMBER 8TH 2007 AT CADOGAN HALL IN SLOANE SQUARE LONDON
Influences
Dad (Islavuelta & early saturday morning track reviews - lol!), Mum ("I love this track... can you play it?!?"), Monty Alexander, Michel Camillo, Kenny Garrett, Kirk Whalum, Musiq SoulChild, Luther Vandross, Charlie Hunter, Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, Mike Philips, Courtney Pine, Andre 'SaxMan' Brown, Grover Washington Jr., Candy Dulfer, Fela Kuti, The Temptations, Donnie McClurkin, Kirk Franklin, Habana Son Club, Dean Fraser, Soweto Kinch, Ibo Cooper, T, E.DD.IE.
Sounds Like
...take a jug of Jazz, two teaspoons of Soul and a twist of RnB,... then add a cup full of Gospel, a sprinkle of Reggae and a pinch of Latin... served with Raw Emotion... -- There you have the YolanDa Brown sound...
... take a jug of Jazz, two teaspoons of Soul and a twist of RnB... then add a cup full of Gospel, a sprinkle of Reggae and a pinch of Latin... served with Raw Emotion... -- There you have the YolanDa Brown sound
Think saxophones, and most of us will immediately start thinking of jazz, specifically trad jazz. No bad thing, maybe, as there are few instruments as beautiful as the saxophone, and few sounds as effortlessly beautiful as jazz, but YolanDa Brown is someone who has made the instrument truly her own, a miraculously gifted saxophonist fluent in a whole lot more than just that one genre.
As her two EPs to date, July 2007's Finding My Voice and August 2008's A Step Closer, so volubly attest, here is an artist who takes jazz and introduces it to all sorts: to soul, to R&B and gospel, to loping reggae and infectious Latin. She can sound at once emotionally raw and incontestably infectious, and she can make it sound like no one else on earth.
For the past three years now, she has performed with some of the music world's most respected artists, and her name on the bill alone can sell out all sorts of venues.
She has won a prestigious MOBO Award, has presented an arts show on television, and is currently putting the finishing touches to a debut album which will firmly establish her on modern music's cultural map. Right now, YolanDa Brown is a star in waiting. She won't have to wait very much longer.
"I think the first time I heard music I was still in the womb," YolanDa says, laughing loudly. "It was always on in the house. My father [who worked in advertising] wasn't a musician himself, but he played the hi-fi very well indeed. He introduced me to all kinds of music, and so I didn't really have a choice, I suppose. I was hooked from the youngest age."
Born in Barking 26 years ago, YolanDa started to study her passion early on. At six, she was regularly seated at the piano, going diligently through the keys until she understood it intrinsically.
By seven, she was giving the violin a go, then the drums. She loved the recorder, the oboe, and by 13 had settled on the saxophone. She refused to take lessons, however, simply because the saxophone to YolanDa was somehow instinctual. She simply knew how to play it, naturally, as if she were born to do so. Pretty soon, she became something of a prodigy.
"I'm not sure why the saxophone of all instruments appealed to me most," she admits, "but I just felt at home with it somehow. I loved the music it made."
Normally when someone finds themselves through a musical instrument, it is at the cost of their studies. They perform so poorly elsewhere in school that, say, the guitar is the only way they can find of expressing themselves. Not YolanDa. YolanDa was as good in the classroom as she was in the music room.
She excelled in all subjects, even the unpopular ones like maths and science. She became head girl, and sailed through her GCSEs, her A-levels, and on into university, where she completed a Masters in Management Science, as well as a Masters in Social Research Methods and has even begun to study for her PhD at the University of Kent.
During the latter course, she even spent a year studying it in Spain, where she also picked up the language. A career in high-level business clearly beckoned, but as she says herself, "I simply couldn't imagine myself spending life in an office. Music was still my overriding love. As long as it could pay the rent, I was going to pursue it for all I was worth."
In her early 20s, she started to play live, her natural gift bringing her to the attention of all sorts of artists who promptly invited her out on the road with them. Over the past few years she has played with Alexander O'Neal, Mica Paris, Omar, Soweto Kinch and Sway. She learned plenty with each, but it also whet the appetite of someone who didn't just play an instrument but also wrote her own songs. By 2006, she was ready to launch herself as a solo artist.
With no record deal on the table and having never tried to set out by herself before, you'd expect the prospect would have confounded her, but YolanDa simply employed her smarts.
By the time she came to headline her debut concert, at London's Mermaid Theatre in July 2007, it was completely sold out. In centre stage, she proved an absolute natural, someone who could command the limelight all by herself, and who could play the saxophone like someone possessed.
From there, she ventured out into the world. She has played at jazz venues in Miami, and at the Frankfurt Auto Show. She has appeared at the Rotterdam Carnival and at Spain's IslaVuelta's Festival. She has played before the High Commission and at the Ocho Rios Festival in Jamaica. For 18 months, she hosted her own talk show - entitled, confusingly, Esther (after a character in the Bible) on Passion TV and last year she toured the UK with The Temptations. She ended 2008 by picking up a MOBO Award for Best Jazz Act.
"I was honoured, of course I was," she says of her cherished statuette, "but now I'm very much focused on establishing myself for what I really am, someone who refuses to be hemmed in by any one musical genre. I don't listen to just one kind of music, so I don't see the need to play just one kind of music. It's all fair game to me, as far as I'm concerned."
She started 2009 as she means to go on: on a high, accompanying Errol Brown on his swansong tour. "A lovely man," she says. And now, as she is considering further TV opportunities, putting the finishing touches to her debut album and meeting with any record company interested in signing up a genuinely cross-cultural artist, she is also currently teaching Business at Kent University. Why? Simply because she can, and because she has the most extraordinary drive, not just to achieve but also to share her vast knowledge.
You don't come across many people as extraordinary, and motivational, as YolanDa Brown, which is why she is one of a kind. She very probably runs on rocket fuel.
"Do I sleep?" she asks, giggling. "Not much, but then I don't need many hours. I've got too much I want to prove right now, I suppose, and so I'm doing my best to do just that."
Right now, she is everybody's best kept secret, an industry buzzword. Pretty soon, YolanDa Brown will be instantly recognizable. She might just turn out to be a national treasure, this one. Watch this space.
PRESS REVIEWS
“Bright young saxophone talent – sounding somewhere between Stan Getz and Courtney Pine (minus the showboating chops) –
Brown's music is an accessible mix of classic jazz tones with a twist of R&B and funk.
Something of an unusual 'crossover' star in the making (she's not a singer for starters)”
-- TIME OUT
“A name you are going to hear you are going to hear lots and tonnes and loads about in the not too distant future”
-- BBC London
“One to look out for in 2008”
-- Choice FM View YolanDa Brown's EPKPictures of YolanDa Brown Launching the Mazda 6 at the Frankfurt Auto ShowPictures of YolanDa Brown signing copies of her debut EP "Finding my Voice" at The Jerk CookoutPictures from YolanDa Brown Live in Concert 21st July 2007... at The Mermaid Theatre
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YolanDa Brown Live at Jazz Cafe Dec 11th & 12th's Friend Space (Top 19)
YolanDa Brown Live at Jazz Cafe Dec 11th & 12th has 3665 friends.
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Hi, Thanks for joining my "Myspace Friends, always nice to make new friends. Please be sure to visit my Profile and my website; www.manneringmedia.co.uk
Any comments are most welcome. Always happy to chat....
Hey Here is the latest release from FAADA! the link to listen to the clips and also purchase are below the picture....Oh! and here is the link for the FAADA site with the rlease page! http://www.faada.co.uk/?page_id=569
Greetings marvellously talented lady.. fans, I wish you all the best to make good things happen. If you don't know already, The XY (Electro funk/pop) are releasing flight in sight on November the 16th. Slowly but surely the people are starting to take note of the X Why movement. Feel free to watch the video tell a friend leave a comment if you wish.
PATCH WORK PRODUCTION présente:
Vendredi 23 octobre 2009 à la JAVA (PARIS 10)
BIONIK & Soljah Band + Selecta K-Za
Après avoir sillonné le monde au coté de Sergent Garcia,
BIONIK, accompagné par le Soljah Band,
débarque sur les planches Parisiennes avec son album solo.
Fort de son dernier concert dans la capitale au Cabaret Sauvage avec Anthony B en juillet dernier, BIONIK viendra vous présenter son nouvelle album "Balata".
Un rendez vous à ne pas manquer pour tous les amateurs de Reggae Music et des Antilles !
Le Warm Up sera lui assuré par Selecta K-Za (Génération FM),
Pionnier incontournable de la scène Reggae !
Dès 20h30
8€ en prévente
(Réseaux FNAC, Ticketnet et Digitick)
10€ sur place
LA JAVA, 105 rue du faubourg du temple
75010 PARIS - Métros Belleville / Goncourt
01 42 02 20 52
Fashion Designers & Craft makers, Young Awards and Showcase takes place on Saturday 31st October 200, 4:00 pm – 8:00pm at the Novotel London St. Pancras 100 -110 Euston Road London NW1 2AJ The Theme this year is 'Homage to a Fashion Leader'
A FASHION NETWORKING EVENT NOT TO BE MISSED!
Tickets:£12.50 in advance plus Booking fee and £16 at the door For tickets and information Call: Mobile: 07940 647 102/ Tel: 020 8986 8411
We have volunteering opportunities for: Presenters Comperes Music technicians Models Hair stylists Make up artists Photographers Film Crews Public relations officers or companies Male and Female stewards 07940 647 102 Send CV to youngdesignerawards@hotmail.com
Hello everybody. Hope all is well with you and yours. Groove Daddy is playing Saturday 9-5-09 at the Oasis Restaurant. This is a nice venue that overlooks Lake Travis. The Oasis is a Austin landmark known for the best sun sets is Texas. If you don't have plans please come out to support Groove Daddy. We are playing from 7pm to 10pm which would be good for you early birds.
Oasis on Lake Travis (512) 266-2442 6550 Comanche Trl, Austin, TX 78732 Get directions Cross Streets: Between Oasis Bluff Dr and RR-620 www.oasis-austin.com
The International Model Search in partnership with the organisers of the Young Designer Awards are looking for very statuesque and striking models. Girls should be 5 ft 9 and taller without shoes, Guys should be 6ft and taller
To register to take part in the International Model Search email: bfdn_pr@hotmail.com write International Model Search in subject line, send a photo and your statistics and your modelling CV. Please note to enter the competition regardless of your level of experience you will you be expected to attend the competitions models training course. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to call Joanna Marcella on 07940 647 102
Soul Liberation Funk and Chyna Productions Presents to you SOUL HOUSE
We have Singers, Rappers, Poets, Dancers....And if you are an artist or musician yourself then we also have the open mic/jam session...If you've got a gift, get involved!
Soul house is held at Dogstar, 389 Coldharbour lane, Brixton, SW9 8LQ
Next show is the 3rd of September
Our featured acts this month are…
Hayley C Kadija Kamara Deke Walker Steve Keith Black Jack (Street dancing) D’Anthony
This is not an event to be missed!
As we have always said *Bless the mic or be blessed by it*
Just stopping through to see how things are coming along with you. Certainly hope all is going well. I'm excited to share with you my director Evan Winter's exclusive world premiere music video for Pop Sensation Brittani Senser featuring Bobbi Valentino. You can check it out at:
Thank you for being a friend on the Official David Mensah myspace.
Check out the brand new album playing now on the player below.
David's new album "Music is the Food of
Love" is due for digital release in the UK
and USA on 31st August 2009 and will be available on
iTunes, Amazon and all good download
stores through VME Records. You can also order
the CD from CD Baby.
Drop us a comment and let us know what you think. We would love to hear from
you.
Join the mailing list above for a chance to win signed CD's, posters and other
goodies from David Mensah.
Pictures of YolanDa Brown signing copies of her debut EP "Finding my Voice" at The Jerk Cookout
Pictures from YolanDa Brown Live in Concert 21st July 2007... at The Mermaid Theatre
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