Bassist, composer, educator and actor John Brown is a native of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and currently resides in Durham, NC. He is a graduate of the School of Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the School of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. John currently serves as Director of the Jazz Program and Associate Professor of the Practice of Music at Duke University, and he has served on the faculties of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Central University and Guilford College (NC). He has been performing professionally since his teens and has performed in the US & abroad with artists like Wynton Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Delfeayo Marsalis, Elvin Jones, Nnenna Freelon, Diahann Carroll, Rosemary Clooney, Nell Carter, Lou Donaldson, Slide Hampton, Nicholas Payton, Frank Foster, Larry Coryell, Cedar Walton, Fred Wesley and Mark Whitfield, as well as giving regular performances as a substitute with the North Carolina Symphony since 1992. John also has a Grammy® nomination for his performance and co-writing on Nnenna Freelon’s 1996 Concord release, Shaking Free, and recently earned his membership the Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG) for his role in the feature film, Bolden. His extensive experience includes performances at notable venues like Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Blue Note, Blues Alley, and the Hollywood bowl and at major jazz festivals like the Playboy Jazz Festival, the JVC Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Free Jazz Festival (Brazil) and Jazz e Vienne (France). He actively performs internationally as a sideman & a leader, and gives education residencies across the nation.

John is a member of the AFM (American Federation of Musicians), SAG (Screen Actor’s Guild), NARAS (National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences), Jazz Education Network (JEN), and his groups are listed on the Southern Arts Federation & the North Carolina Touring Artist Directory. John officially endorses Acoustic Image Amplifiers, AMT Microphones and Warwick basses, amplifiers and loudspeakers.