Frumiesha Brown
San Anselmo, CA
Frumiesha (Fru-mee-sha) Brown is an African American designer, quilter, historian, and fashion anthropologist born and raised in Newark, NJ. At a very young age, her upbringing in the African American church created a pathway for her to explore her ability to design. Brown's process involves reimagining fabrics and constructing new designs. This concept allowed her to begin an apprenticeship with Costa Rica–based Fidencia Dressmaking company. After working for several years as an apprentice, Brown established her own alteration design company, Brown Dezign, and continued freelance work creating custom-made clothing with Lea Couture in Marin, CA. Before attending fashion design school at City College of San Francisco, she studied cultural anthropology at William Paterson University and received her BA degree in cultural anthropology in 2004. Conducting field work in urban cities, Brown interviewed various African Americans to gain a deeper understanding of the modern cultural implications of slavery in American society. The interviews she conducted are found in the popular podcast New Era. In 2016, Brown cofounded Transcending Arts LLC, which derived from the cultural concepts explored by the Jaimeo Brown Transcendence band. That experience further inspired her passion for quilting and understanding the earliest cultural symbols of African American culture. Gee's Bend in Alabama was the central source of inspiration for Jaimeo's music and Frumiesha's quilts. As a result of this collaboration, Frumiesha developed a mosaic of visual artwork including wall quilts, quilted clothing, quilt necklaces, and other quilted products to visually demonstrate her passion for African American art, history, and technology. She believes that designing garments can be a way to tell people who you are. She likes to think of her design as a connection between the colorful past and the vibrant future.
Photo by Paul Stonehouse.
​​Jaimeo Brown Transcendence is the collaboration between Jaimeo Brown, coproducer/guitarist Chris Sholar, saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, and visual designer Frumiesha Brown.
Jaimeo Brown Transcendence Feat. Chris Sholar and Jaleel Shaw Blue Note Milano 20/05/18
Jaimeo Brown Transcendence - Full Performance (Live on KEXP)
Jaimeo Brown Transcendence - Be So Glad (Official video)
Jaimeo Brown Transcendence - For Mama Lucy (Official video)
Jaimeo Brown Transcendence
Jaimeo Brown has established himself as one of the preeminent conceptualists, composers, and drummers and has worked with artists such as Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, Q-Tip, and Bobby Hutcherson.
Frumiesha (Fru-mee-sha) Brown is an African American designer, quilter, historian, and fashion anthropologist.
Producer Chris Sholar is one of the most in-demand guitarists in the world of hip hop and R&B. He has worked with top names in the music industry ranging from Jay-Z to Stevie Wonder.
Alto and soprano saxophonist and bandleader Jaleel Shaw has four recordings as a leader and has performed with Roy Haynes, Dave Holland, Roy Hargrove, Christian McBride, Nate Smith, and more.
Transcendence utilizes early African American art through the use of archival recordings and early African American imagery as source material to create new multimedia presentations. Using an African American lens, the artists seek to highlight the ways people around the world have used creativity, ingenuity, and available technology to create new models of music, culture, and education for their community. The current project will manifest into a new album entitled Street Cries. Street cries, also called "street hollers" played an important role in the evolution of Black music in America. The goal of the project is to show the significance of street cries in modern contemporary music and culture through multimedia performances and presentations. Education plays a vital role in the artists' vision, and concerts would always be coupled with educational clinics for kids and adults.
Jazz, Multimedia Performance, Music, Performing Arts
Jaimeo Brown Transcendence is the collaboration between Jaimeo Brown, coproducer/guitarist Chris Sholar, saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, and visual designer Frumiesha Brown. Their creative process consists of utilizing early African American art through the use of archival recordings and early African American imagery as source material to create new multimedia presentations. Using an African American lens, they seek to highlight the ways people around the world have used creativity, ingenuity, and available technology to create new models of music, culture, and education for their communities. They have produced two albums entitled Jaimeo Brown Transcendence (2013) and Transcendence Work Songs (2016) and are pursuing the next album entitled Transcendence Street Cries.
Jaimeo Brown
Jaimeo (jah-mayo) Brown has established himself as one of the preeminent conceptualists, composers, and drummers in the New York music scene and has worked with artists such as Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, Q-Tip, Bobby Hutcherson, and Wynton Marsalis. A graduate of the vaunted jazz education program at William Paterson University, Brown was awarded the prestigious Ralph Bunche Fellowship, allowing him to attain his master's degree at Rutgers University. Brown's performance ensemble Transcendence combines African American work songs and spirituals with his own contemporary composition, combining cutting-edge technology with time-honored cultural and musical materials to produce a revolutionary, unique live music and recorded experience. Brown's research work and music were featured in 2018 at the Library of Congress, and he was honored to receive recognition for Jazz Innovation of the Year at the Jazz FM Awards in London. As a bandleader he has been featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vice, Billboard, DownBeat, The New York Times, The Guardian (UK), and Modern Drummer magazine. Brown serves as a Jazz Ambassador for the US State Department and shares his extensive experience as a performer and educator with students across the US, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Photo by Rebecca Meek.
Chris Sholar
Producer Chris Sholar is one of the most in-demand guitarists in the world of hip hop and R&B. He has worked with top names in the music industry ranging from Jay-Z to Stevie Wonder and performed everywhere from Carnegie Hall to the Super Bowl. Over the past 20 years, Chris has traveled the world touring and recording with countless artists including Beyoncé, Esperanza Spalding, Q-Tip, Raphael Saadiq, Mariah Carey, Queen Latifah, and Whitney Houston. In 2012 he won a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "No Church in the Wild" (Kanye West, Jay-Z), and in 2022 he won a Grammy Award in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category for his guitar work on Esperanza Spalding's album Songwrights Apothecary Lab. In recent years he has been exploring the healing power of music and meditation, infusing the intersection of beats, soundscapes, and spoken word. His diverse musical experiences and interests result in a fresh, unique take on meditation music.
www.chrissholar.com
Jaleel Shaw
Alto and soprano saxophonist and bandleader Jaleel Shaw won the 2014 DownBeat Critics Poll for Rising Star–Alto Saxophonist. He is a longtime member of the Roy Haynes Quartet, Tom Harrell's Colors Of A Dream, and has performed with Christian McBride, Jason Moran, the Mingus Big Band, Pat Metheny, Stefon Harris, Roy Hargrove, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Jimmy Cobb, and others. Shaw's debut album, Perspective (2005), received rave reviews from The New York Times and Jazzwise magazine, and All About Jazz named the album one of the top five debut albums of 2005; his composition "The Heavyweight Champion" also received an ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award. In 2006, Shaw joined the Roy Haynes Quartet and was featured on the legendary drummer's Grammy-nominated album Whereas. Two years later, Shaw founded his record label, Changu Records, on which he released his second album, entitled Optimism. The album received reviews from The New York Times, DownBeat, and All About Jazz, among others. That same year, he received his second ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award for his composition "The Flipside" and was nominated for the Jazz Journalists Association's Up & Coming Jazz Artist Award. Shaw was among the musicians listed in the 2011 JazzTimes magazine's Readers' Poll for Alto Saxophonist of the Year, sharing the honor with Phil Woods, Lee Konitz, Bunky Green, and Kenny Garrett. In 2013, he released his third album of original compositions entitled The Soundtrack of Things to Come (Changu Records). Shaw's most recent recording, Echoes, is a solo saxophone project that has received rave reviews, including a four-star DownBeat magazine review.
www.jaleelshaw.com