New York City-based saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer: Winter happenings

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Thursday, November 10, 2011

Winter happenings

I'm writing this post in Dallas on a stop between Fayetteville, AR and College Station, TX. Nelo had a very fun show last night at George's Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville, and I feel lucky to get to play at venues like this. George's is a great room with great sound, they treat their bands right, and they get cool acts like Robert Randolph, Jeff Coffin, and Galactic. Fayetteville is a cool town overall, too, very beautiful and hip. Tomorrow we hit at Hurricane Harry's in College Station supporting Pat Green, and that's gonna be crazy... no idea what to expect, but it will be big.

Progress has several more shows before year's end, including one with Eddy Hobizal and Eli Haslanger, two of Austin's greatest musicians. Catch that at Momo's on December 8. Lots of other stuff going on, too.

CALENDAR
11/11: Nelo at Hurricane Harry's in College Station, TX, supporting Pat Green
11/17: Progress at the Flamingo Cantina, Austin, TX
11/19: Nelo at the House of Blues, Dallas, TX
11/30: Progress at Skinny's Ballroom in Austin, TX with Mente Clara
12/8: Progress at Momo's in Austin, TX with Eddy Hobizal and Palladium (Eli Haslanger)
12/15: Nelo at the Blue Light, Lubbock, 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.