Jazz pianist Donald Brown was born in Desoto, Mississippi, on March 28, 1954.
After honing his skills at college in Memphis, where he switched his primary
instrument from trumpet to piano, he served a brief stint in Art Blakey’s Jazz
Messengers (alongside Wynton and Branford Marsalis), and from there on out
pursued simultaneous careers as an educator and as a musician. Shortly after
their time together in the Jazz Messengers, Wynton Marsalis recorded Brown’s
composition “Insane Asylum”, which was nominated for a Best Jazz Instrumental
Performance (Soloist) in 1986.
By the mi...