Donald Brown (musician)

Donald Ray Brown (born March 28, 1954) is an American jazz pianist and producer.

Brown was born in Hernando, Mississippi and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, where he learned to play trumpet and drums in his youth. From 1972 to 1975 he was a student at Memphis State University, by which time he had made piano his primary instrument. He was with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers from 1981 to 1982, then took teaching positions at Berklee College of Music from 1983 to 1985 and the University of Tennessee from 1988. Brown has recorded for Evidence, Muse, and Sunnyside.

As performer

• The Sweetest Sounds (Evidence, 1988)
• Early Bird (Sunnyside, 1988)
• Sources of Inspiration (Muse, 1989)
• Cause & Effect (Muse, 1991)
• People Music (Muse, 1991)
• Send One Your Love (Muse, 1992)
• Cartunes (Muse, 1993)
• Piano Short Stories (Space Time, (1996)
• Seasons of Ballads (Space Time, 1997)
• Wurd on the Street (Space Time, 1998)
• Enchante! (Space Time, 1999)
• French Kiss (Space Time, 2000)
• At This Point in My Life (Space Time, 2001)
• Autumn in New York (Space Time, 2002)
• Continuum (Space Time, 2004)
• The Classic Introvert (Space Time, 2004)
• Fast Forward to the Past (Space Time, 2008)
• Born to be Blue (Space Time, 2013)

With Art Blakey

• Killer Joe with George Kawaguchi (Union Jazz, 1981)
• Keystone 3 (Concord Jazz, 1982)
• Feeling Good (Delos, 1986)

As producer

With Kenny Garrett

• African Exchange Student (Atlantic, 1990)
• Black Hope (Warner Bros., 1992)
• Triology (Warner Bros. 1995)
• Songbook (Warner Bros., 1997)
• Beyond the Wall (Nonesuch, 2006)
• Seeds from the Underground (Mack Avenue, 2012
• Pushing the World Away (Mack Avenue, 2013)
• Do Your Dance! (Mack Avenue, 2016)

With Scott Tixier

• Cosmic Adventure (Sunnyside, 2016)