Spring Newsletter

April 27, 2025

Dear Friends,

It's been a little while since ABJO's last gig. I'm happy to announce that we will be playing inNyack, NY this summer and hope you will save the date!

I also have a new and unique project that I hope might interest you. Scroll down to learn more!

Meanwhile...

SAVE THE DATE!

Anita Brown Jazz Orchestra

Jazz In The Garden

at

The Edward Hopper House

82 No. Broadway

Nyack, NY 10960

Thursday

July 24, 2025

7:00 - 9:00 pm

BRING A CHAIR!

This year

Anita Brown Jazz Orchestra  

is celebrating 25 years

since its debut performance in

the original Cutting Room in NYC!

Scroll down for information about

a new and different project!

With deepest gratitude,

Anita

Anita Brown

Composer/Teaching Artist

~ NEW PROJECT ~

This is a one-tune, quick-record project!

I have composed a new tune (with lyrics) in the R&B idiom that is an activist outcry for freedom, compassion, love, decency, respect, diversity, equality and inclusion.

I am at the threshold of my intention to record and release this tune as quickly as possible. I would like for proceeds from the sale of this tune to benefit organizations that are helping The People during this difficult moment in our nation's history. If it becomes a positive exclamation during the celebration of our 250th Birthday, that would be great too, but secondary to my intent.

My plan is that all related musical tasks will occur between June and September.

The tune has been composed and registered.

The track will utilize a 4-5 piece rhythm section, a 4-5 piece horn section and a main vocalist, with the intention of having a whole bunch of friends add to that unison vocal track.

I will need to pay for recording studio time (record, mix, master) and musicians' rehearsal and studio time.

If you feel as I do, that we each need to do whatever we can do to honor our democracy, I hope you will consider joining me by donating to this project.

I often feel as though I can't do much to affect change personally, but here is what I can do: I can rehearse, record and use this tune that I composed to speak as an activist anthem and generate positive energy for decency and respect.

Most monetary donations are tax-deductible as described below. Friends who may be interested in turning their donations into an artistic statement may donate any amount by clicking the DONATE button under this block.

Donations in excess of $1000 will require an afadavit from Fractured Atlas. Just email me and I'll send it.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration! I hope some of you will think seriously about coming aboard for this project.

Updates forthcoming...

~Anita

Anita Brown, Composer/Teaching Artist is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Anita Brown, Composer/Teaching Artist must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only, and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

A few rehearsal photos by Kevin Albinder

Click our new QR Code, or check it with someone else's phone!

Please join our

Team of Patrons for American Cultural Development

in support of rehearsals, performances

and the elusive recording project.

Thank you for your time, consideration and support of

my artistic endeavors. 

ABJO at Birdland & rehearsal photos by Kevin Albinder

NEWS & VIEWS

“Disarming charts... reveal myriad details of subtle wit and flexible spirit...using brass with the acumen and majesty of Johnny Richards...and wave-like riffs that break into Mingus-like backbeat.”

--Fred Bouchard, DownBeat Magazine

“[Anita’s] compositions are marvelous tone poems...and the band performs them beautifully. Serious, beautiful writing and a wonderful group. [This] band is in the same category as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and Maria Schneider.”       

--Marvin Stamm, Trumpet Artist

 “I’ve known Anita for a long time and have been very interested in how she’s developed into an important writer.”       

--Lee Konitz, NEA Jazz Master: Alto Saxophonist

 “[Anita] is better than she thinks she is…”   

--Bill Finegan, Iconic Composer & Co-Leader: The Sauter Finegan Band   

 “[Anita] has a unique ear for dissonance and seems to me less beholden to some of [the] models. She has swallowed and legitimately incorporated her influences and sounds only like herself.”  

--Larry Kart, Author of Jazz In Search of Itself

“A loving, caring band making great music together. Fantastic arrangements. Anita’s charts blew me away!”

--Sheila Jordan, NEA Jazz Master: Vocalist

“Exquisite is not enough of an adjective. Words not enough. Brilliant.”

--Greg Adams, Trumpet Artist/Arranger: Tower of Power

My heartfelt thanks to my most recent

Patrons of American Cultural Development:

Patricia Prudente (who also booked us in the Steinway Hall Rotunda on W. 57th St. years ago) and repeat patrons Harold & Lois Sewing, Honorable Harriet D. Cornell,

Dick Lieb, Craig Rizzo and Dave Foster.

All current donations are contributing to this performance. Thanks so much!

Gratitude for Past and Repeating Patrons 

Producer’s Circle Contributor Larry Kart, author

Patrons Harold & Lois Sewing, Jeff Brown, The New York Yankees, Nick Zagoreos

Friends Rockland County’s retired Rockland County Legislature Chair the Honorable Harriet D. Cornell, Patricia Prudente-Korn of Steinway & Sons, jazz icons Joe & Judi Lovano, Lee Konitz, Ted Nash, Dave Pietro, Charles Pillow, Diane Moser, arranger Dick Lieb, composers Maria Schneider, Lorraine Whittlesley and John Tabacco, Dr. Paula Carmichael, Dawn Levesque, Craig Rizzo, Dave Foster, Nancy Vasst-LaPorte, The Seacoast Jazz Society, USMC Band Public Affairs CWO Bill Perry, The USMC Silent Drill Platoon, Washington, DC, Leprechaun Buses, Broadway producer Gary DiMauro, Joe Raposo, Jr., UMiami’s Dr. Margaret Donaghue Flavin, Dr. Mark DeVoto, CalMart Enterprises, Barry’s Estate Jewelry, Hudson House of Nyack, Didier Dumas Patisserie, Alan & Kelly Axelrod, Time Warner Grants, to name a few.

Anita Brown, Composer/Teaching Artist is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Anita Brown, Composer/Teaching Artist must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only  and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

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Fiscal Sponsorship for Anita's 2019 & 2022 NYSCA Individual Artist Composer Commissions by The Hart Island Project (Hart Island Suite) and Fractured Atlas (Red Moon Rising), respectively. The biographical information in this email

is not promotional material for the performance of either work.