New York City-based saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer: Brian's positive note of the day. And summer tour dates!

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Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Brian's positive note of the day. And summer tour dates!

I'm in the middle of the laborious but rewarding process of booking shows for Progger's summer string of album release shows and it's gotten me thinking about the extremities of the music business. As musicians-- and this applies to all artists, regardless of medium-- we encounter a lot of obstacles blocking our goals, and overcoming them requires tremendous energy and creativity. Finances are usually the most obvious and intimidating problems, and they don't go away easily, particularly if you're trying to get an exciting new project off the ground. As scarce as money is in the arts, what makes matters even more challenging is the profusion of negativity among artists and musicians themselves. Our communities can get horribly caught up in competition, trash-talking, infighting, and other sorts of destructive nonsense that make goals that are already challenging even tougher to realize, needlessly.

But as I'm sitting down to go over dates and plan a string of summer shows with two great bands-- The Funky Knuckles and The Indie Revenge-- I'm reminded that there are musicians and audiences out there who bring enough brilliance, positivity, and love to our world that it makes up for the nonsense. As heavy as the obstacles can feel at times, there does exist a force of creative humanity that has more passion than the obstacles can block. We owe our favorite music to this energy, from Bach and Mozart to the Beatles, Miles Davis, Parliament/Funkadelic, and D'Angelo, and there are audiences out there who are thirsting just as passionately for new beauty. As apathetic as so much of our world can seem sometimes, the beautiful people who hunger for and aim to help this new art and music find its footing are not to be taken for granted. My friends who are helping to make these shows happen, from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia to Washington DC, Philly, and New York, I appreciate you very much, and you're a huge part of what makes life good. Life is good, indeed.

So here are the shows in the works so far!

Summer 2014
May 10: Progger at Rockwood Music Hall stage 2, New York, NY
May 28: Progger at the Grape Room, Philadelphia, PA

July 28: Progger and the Funky Knuckles at the Free Man, Dallas, TX

July 29: Progger and the Funky Knuckles at One2One, Austin, TX

July 30: Progger and the Funky Knuckles at Gasa Gasa, New Orleans, LA

July 31: Progger and the Funky Knuckles at the Thirsty Hippo, Hattiesburg, MS

August 1: Progger, the Indie Revenge, and the Funky Knuckles at 529, Atlanta, GA

August 2: Progger, the Indie Revenge, and the Funky Knuckles in Athens, GA (tbd)

August 3: Progger, the Indie Revenge, and the Funky Knuckles in Nashville, TN (tbd)

August 4: Progger, the Indie Revenge, and the Funky Knuckles in Asheville, NC (tbd)

August 5: Progger, the Indie Revenge, and the Funky Knuckles at the Pour House, Roanoke, VA

August 6: Progger, the Indie Revenge, and the Funky Knuckles in New York (tbd)

August 7: Progger, the Indie Revenge, and the Funky Knuckles in Washington DC (tbd)

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.