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All Music Guide:
Progressive bluegrass banjoist Alison Brown made her name not only as a virtuosic instrumentalist, but as an accomplished, jazz-influenced composer, a combination that earned plenty of comparisons to Béla Fleck and David Grisman. Brown began playing the banjo before reaching her teens and developed quickly, winning numerous contests and even getting a chance to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. She was also an excellent student, and temporarily left music to attend Harvard University; following graduation, she worked as an investment banker for a couple of years, but quit to pursue music. Brown gained her first wide exposure as a member of Alison Krauss' Union Station, covering the banjo slot from Krauss' 1987 debut album through 1990. That year, she departed to record her own debut, the entirely instrumental Simple Pleasures, for Vanguard, and also spent some time as the musical director for folkie Michelle Shocked. Brown's 1992 follow-up, Twilight Motel, was jazzier and more eclectic, and 1994's Look Left displayed her increasing interest in world and ethnic music. 1996's The Alison Brown Quartet refocused on her jazz sensibility and found her switching to guitar on a few tracks; it was also her last album before moving to the Compass imprint, for which she debuted in 1998 with Out of the Blue. 2000's Fair Weather featured a duet with Béla Fleck on "Leaving Cottondale," which won Brown a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental. Her follow-up album, Replay, was another of her jazzier outings. Brown sang about parenthood and musicianship on Stolen Moments, which arrived in spring 2005. She released Evergreen, a collection of holiday music with Joe Craven in 2007, followed by Company You Keep in 2009.
Wikipedia:
Alison Brown (born August 7, 1962) is an American banjo player and guitarist known for a soft nylon-string banjo sound. She has won and has been nominated on several Grammy awards and is often compared to another banjo prodigy, Béla Fleck for her unique style of playing. In her music, she blends jazz, bluegrass, rock, blues as well as other styles of music.
Early life
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Brown learned to play guitar at eight and banjo at ten. When she was twelve, she met fiddler Stuart Duncan. In the summer of 1978, Brown traveled across the country with Duncan and his father, playing at festivals and contests. She won first place at the Canadian National Banjo Championship, which helped her land a one-night gig at the Grand Ole Opry.
Harvard University and Northern Lights
In 1980, Brown went to Harvard university, where she studied history and literature. After graduating from Harvard, she earned an MBA from UCLA.
In 1982, while still at Harvard, Brown helped to reunite the Northern Lights band after a 5 year hiatus, she become a band member until 1984, when she moved back to California. Brown worked for two years with Smith Barney in San Francisco, and then took a break to pursue her music interests.
Union Station and other collaborations
In 1987, Alison Krauss asked Brown to join her band, Union Station. Brown spent three years with Krauss. In 1990, she moved to Tennessee, and was named International Bluegrass Music Association Banjo Player of the Year in 1991. The 1990 album I've Got That Old Feeling, which Brown played banjo on, won a Grammy award.
In 1992, Brown became the band leader for Michelle Shocked. This experience led Brown to merge bluegrass with jazz and folk idioms, in a manner similar to those of Béla Fleck and David Grisman.
Compass Records
In the early 1990s, Brown and her husband, bass player Garry West, started their own record label, Small World Music. This company eventually led to the launch of Compass Records in 1995, an internationally recognized label, which has such artists as Victor Wooten, Colin Hay, Catie Curtis, Lúnasa, Martin Hayes, Jeff Coffin, Russ Barenberg, Darol Anger and others.
Grammy awards
In collaboration with Béla Fleck, she won the 2000 Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance. She participated in Alison Krauss’s Grammy-winning album I've Got That Old Feeling, and received a Grammy nomination for her own recording, Simple Pleasures (1990). In 2001 she won the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance for her song "Leaving Cottondale" from the album Fair Weather.
Alison Brown and Quartet today
Stolen Moments (2005), in Brown’s estimation, is her most musically successful record to date. "For the first time, I feel like I’ve created a true hybrid sound that suggests its influences – bluegrass, jazz, celtic music – but when taken as a whole isn’t any one of these things." – Brown's words about the album on the group's official webpage. In 2007, Brown was honored as one of Irish America magazine's Stars of the South. Her last album, The Company You Keep (2009) follows this trend of mixing different acoustic genres resulting in fresh-sounding new hybrids.
Alison Brown continues touring with her band, Quartet internationally. As a famous Harvard University alumna, she was invited to play at the inauguration of Harvard's new president, Drew Faust.
