Kenneth Brown II Discusses His Musical Journey On The LA Jazz Scene
Kenneth Brown II performing live.
“I really love Quincy Jones and Wynton Marsalis, I really dig the composition styles of Joe Henderson and Freddie Hubbard. I also really hold onto Duke Ellington and Count Basie; just to name a few and keep it concise on what my composition style and my music identify, it’s multifaceted from different genres of black American music as well as some hints of classical.”
By: Vince Wilson
We talk with Inglewood native Kenneth Brown II, an up-and-coming Jazz Musician on making his way through the Los Angeles Jazz Scene. We get into his residency at Miracle Theatre, his debut album The Rise, and what it’s like scoring a film.
Kenneth Brown III live creating music.
We talked with Kenneth Brown II in an exclusive interview, check it out below!
Vince: Kenneth Brown II.
Kenneth: Yes sir.
Vince: So when did you first start playing the trumpet?
Kenneth: I believe around 8 years old. I read this book called Trumpet of the Swan, I was kind of inspired by the plot, where this swan uses a trumpet to speak and communicate with the other swans- so I was like, let me play the trumpet real fast.
Vince: When you first started playing music was it a hobby or was it something you took very seriously initially?
Kenneth: I took it seriously from the jump. I started playing in Church when I was 10. Shoutout to Second Montgomery Baptist Church for allowing me to play. Growing up music was sort of an escape from reality. I was often bullied in elementary going into middle school, so I always listened to music. I’ve always practiced. Really growing up I didn’t have a music program in schools until I went to Hamilton in High school. My talent was stacked, I wasn’t the best in the class, more in the middle of the pack type, but I just kept getting better and better. My father always said to ‘focus on being the best me,’ and that’s what I did.
Vince: So you weren’t like a prodigy by any means, you really put the work in?
Kenneth: Yeah I put in the fundamental work, and I have perfect pitch. That doesn’t really mean everything, but my work ethic and my ear are definitely my biggest strengths.
Vince: So You’re an Inglewood Native?
Kenneth: Born and Raised.
Vince: What part of Inglewood?
Kenneth: Crenshaw and Florence area.
Vince: What do you feel about the changes in Inglewood lately?
Kenneth Brown II practicing his craft.
Kenneth: You know it’s been good and bad. The gentrification is the bad part, and you know a lot of people are starting to come through, which is it’s just the traffic and the housing prices, you know, it’s abysmal.
Vince: Yeah traffic is crazy. And staying in Inglewood, that’s how I got to discover you, through your residency at Miracle Theatre in downtown Inglewood. How did that come about?
Kenneth: Well it started in 2020 when I began doing Frontyard concerts and I used to livestream it. So a colleague of mine got wind of it, he was the executive director of the Miracle Theatre and he was putting together a backyard concert there during peak COVID, a very interesting time. About two years later, the owner, Owen Smith, hits me up and asks if I can do a show there at a specific time and date. I said yes, went well, he asked if I could do it the next month, and here we are 9, 10 shows later.
Vince: So you started out basically doing backyard and front yards, building in the community?
Kenneth: Yeah first my house and another friend’s house, then View Park, a couple of people in La Dera. And it was just a great experience for me not just as a musician but also learning to be a leader and how to manage things.
Vince: So you came out with an album in 2022, The Rise album, how did that happen?
Kenneth: It actually started with my friend in college Joshua Childress, he was like Yo we should record something together. A few months passed and finally, I was like okay but let’s put our all into it. So we had a meeting and drafted up some songs, I had one I had written and a couple I had co-written with Joshua. Someone else we recorded with also contributed a song which was Lone Monk and everything turned into a 7 album EP. So it was like a collaboration thing. When it came out I was like Okay cool, now it’s back to getting this degree.
Vince: How did you and Joshua meet?
Kenneth: We met at this Jazz festival in 2016 while in high school. Then I met him again in 2018 for a scholarship competition, and then like a year or so later we found each other on socials.
Vince: Since he plays the saxophone, he’s like the Shadow Henderson to your Bleek Gilliam?
Kenneth: (Chuckling) Yeah pretty much.
Vince: My favorite tracks on the album, Lone Monk like you just mentioned, Blue Magic, Canters Blues Take 2. Do you have any favorite tracks from the album?
Kenneth: Honestly it’s Footsteps, Set the tone, and Life. I put so much influence onto those tunes, I like to play Footsteps a lot at my residency, but besides that, all the tunes are really great and fun.
Vince: So what’s your writing process like?
Kenneth: It starts with an idea, whether it’s a bass line, a melody, or a chord progression. I even asked some on scratch paper, like if I wanted to make a beat.
Jazz Thursdays @ The M Bar featuring Kenneth Brown II (Set I)
Vince: Where do you draw inspiration from?
Kenneth: It’s things in my life in particular but it’s also artists and people, so I really love Quincy Jones and Wynton Marsalis, I really dig the composition styles of Joe Henderson and Freddie Hubbard. I also really hold onto Duke Ellington and Count Basie, just to name a few, and keep it concise on what my composition style and my music identify, it’s multifaceted from different genres of Black American music as well as some hints of classical.
Vince: Speaking of Black American music, It’s the 50th year of Hip-Hop, what do you feel about Hip-Hop’s relationship with jazz?
Kenneth: It’s all connected, jazz is really the mother of all Black American music. For instance, with Kendrick Lamar and his relationship with Terrance Martin whos also a jazz musician as well as Thundercat or Kamasi Washington to Pimp a Butterfly, it’s connected with Nas sampling Ahmad Jamal and all that.
Vince: What do you feel about the Los Angeles jazz scene?
Kenneth: It’s thriving, but in my honest opinion there’s more emphasis on who knows who, and that’s great because you have to be out there, but there is a sense of complacency and mediocrity In terms of the whole music scene.
Vince: What city has the best jazz scene in your opinion?
Kenneth: New York hands down. New York or New Orleans. LA is more known for the studios, the big movies, and the big TV shows.
Vince: Speaking of TV and the movies, would you ever do film scoring?
Kenneth: Yeah I actually recently just did one that went well.
Vince: So do you watch the film and then you get inspiration to make the music?
Kenneth: Yeah I watch the film and I ask them, Hey is there a way for you to describe the scenes and give me any musical or personal adjectives off of that, They gave me that, I talked with my friend Derek Butler, and just got really into the process of writing it out. They loved the songs and everything, it’s set for a couple of film festivals so far.
Vince: So what are your musical plans for the future?
Kenneth: In terms of the artist side of things I do have a few more projects that I’m working on, and in terms of performing I’m just gonna keep expanding, doing this and that.
Right now I’m finishing my degree at UCLA for my masters. I just started an LLC, Kenneth Brown LLC, shot out to that, and continue to be the best musician I can be, and hopefully teach someday.
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