ANITA BROWN JAZZ ORCHESTRA

A native of both northeasten Massachusetts and Metropolitan New York, Anita attended The Pingree School in South Hamilton, MA and later graduated from Andover High School, Andover, MA. Although the family moved to Long Island September 1977, she maintained strong ties with the New England area by the sea which she had called home for so long, enjoying the privilege of being awakened by the lobster trawlers' engines at dawn, just outside her bedroom window, on the southern Gulf of Maine coastline. In fall of 1977 she began studying with legendary jazz artist, Lennie Tristano. Her lessons mainly required her to sing with the recordings of Billie Holiday,accurately imitating Billie's phrasing and inflections. This led into singing the tenor sax solos of Lester "Prez" Young, striving for accuracy with his melodic choices, phrasing and vocal character. In 1978 Brown enrolled as a freshman at SUNY Old Westbury while living in Sea Cliff, read more...