Originally from Canada, Gordon Brown began playing alto (poorly) at the age of 12. He later moved to the Dallas area for high school where he was first introduced to jazz and (after much improvement) landed his first lead chair in the school big band. Several summer jazz camps, numerous winter music festivals, countless private lessons, and guest spots with the Dallas Jazz Orchestra and the UNT Alumni's "Holiday Inn" Tuesday Night Big Band later, he packed his bags and headed down to Austin where he naturally... pursued degrees in both Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Texas.
Upon arrival, he immediately reclaimed "his" lead chair - now with the University's prestigious jazz ensemble and held it for his 5 year tenure there (which is considered by most to be some kind of record). During this time he got to hang with Bob Brookmeyer, Conrad Herwig, Phil Woods, Michael Brecker, Rick Margitza, Randy Brecker, Wynton Marsalis, and Wessell "Warmdaddy" Anderson. Outside of school he was a member of the Majestic Pimp Coalition and was a founding member of the hit 8-piece cover band Siringo Pass which still occasionally plays reunion shows when the moon is full and the planets are well aligned.
Having obtained his bachelor degrees in Austin, he then moved to Atlanta to pursue a Masters in Computer Science (of course!) at Georgia Tech where he immediately reclaimed "his" lead chair once again. One university band lead chair wasn't enough, however, and he was offered to moonlight playing lead with the Georgia State University big band as well. With GSU director Dr. Gordon Vernick's absolute and baseless faith in his abilities, he was further molded into a jazz musician and was recorded for the first time with the University's big band (and will forever be indebted to "Doc" for the opportunity). During this time he got to hang with Kevin Hays, Don Braden, Nicholas Payton, and Kenny Garrett. He also was given what he considers the best gig in the world: playing *the* saxophone chair in the 10-piece Atlanta Falcons house cover band where he was responsible for blowing solos from the sidelines to crowds of 70,000+ fans every home game during the commercial breaks over the 2004 regular season. That was the year that Michael Vick was supposed to take Atlanta to the Superbowl. But then Vick got injured, contracted herpes, and got into considerable trouble with the SPCA.
After graduate school, Gordon moved to Seattle for his first real day job at Microsoft in 2005. Soon thereafter, he founded his first small jazz group, Toaster Child , which featured his original compositions and arrangements. Today, as a former lead player of both the Critical Mass Big Band and the elite Music Works Jazz Orchestra , he continues to informally jam with the members of Toaster Child, plays lead for the Jazz Police , and is a regular with the Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra .
He's available for gigging, subbing, and teaching. His blog lives here .
Finally, he'd like to express his regret in using the 3rd person for his own bio and wishes he wrote the above at a more reasonable time of day rather than at 3:46am.