New York City-based saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer: All Texas, all July

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Sunday, July 3, 2011

All Texas, all July

The summer is never predictable in terms of where and when a musician plays, but I have some exciting shows coming up nonetheless. Not a lot of travel outside Texas in the near future, but plenty of action in the enormous freeway triangle that connects Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio.

Denitia Odigie is an awesome singer, songwriter, and guitar player from New York, and I get to play with her on the tenth at 718 Lounge. If you're looking for some hip music to check out on a Sunday night, you definitely need to come hear this chick. She's bad.

7/8: Nelo at the House of Blues, Dallas, TX
7/9: Nelo at the House of Blues, Houston, TX
7/10: Denitia Odigie at 718 Lounge (S. Congress), Austin, TX
7/14: Nelo at Continental Club, Austin, TX
7/16: Nelo (opening for Pat Green!) at River Road Ice House, New Braunfels, TX
7/20: Monster Big Band at the Elephant Room, Austin, TX
7/28: Nelo (ACOUSTIC) at the Cactus Cafe, Austin, TX
8/4: Florence Vineyard, Florence, TX

Bio

Initiate third-person voice.

Brian Donohoe was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and took an early interest in composing and performing on the piano, woodwinds, and guitars. Originally inspired by soundtracks from movies, cartoons, and video games, he soon became fascinated with British and American rock, pop, soul, funk, and jazz. By high school he was playing bass in rock bands, piano and saxophone in jazz and funk bands, and clarinet in the Albuquerque Youth Symphony.

While attending the University of North Texas College of Music jazz studies program, Brian recorded and toured internationally with the Grammy-nominated One O’Clock Lab Band and won Down Beat Magazine awards as a soloist and band leader. He developed friendships with the UNT community that would eventually evolve into the Grammy-winning group Snarky Puppy under the direction of Michael League. He also worked with prominent members of the Dallas music scene, including Robert “Sput” Searight (Snoop Dogg/Kendrick Lamar), Shaun Martin (Kirk Franklin/Kim Burrell), TaRon Lockett (Erykah Badu/Funk Apostles), Wes Stephenson (The Funky Knuckles), and Bobby Sparks (Prince/Marcus Miller).

After composing music for and performing on three Snarky Puppy albums, Brian moved from Dallas to Austin, spending several years as a touring and session musician while forming and developing his own group, Progger. He currently serves as Progger’s band leader, saxophonist, keyboardist, and primary composer.

In 2013, Brian relocated to New York City while keeping ties to Austin and Dallas strong. In 2016, Progger released its third record, “Scattering,” under the auspices of Ropeadope Records, using musicians from both Texas and New York. “Scattering” was released to warm critical reception by the international jazz and progressive music communities, and it continues to garner praise in publications and podcasts in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

In addition to Progger and Snarky Puppy, Brian has performed and recorded with many critically acclaimed artists including Okkervil River, Myron Butler & Levi, Nelo, Bill Laurance, The ClubCasa Chamber Orchestra, and The MK Groove Orchestra. His compositions appear in multimedia productions around the world.