Donald Ray Brown is an American jazz pianist.

Brown was raised in Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

, where he learned to play trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

 and drums in his youth. From 1972 to 1975 he was a student at Memphis State University, by which time he had made piano his primary instrument. He joined Art Blakey

Art Blakey

Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....

's Jazz Messengers from 1981-82, then took teaching positions at Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...

 from 1983 to 1985 and the University of Tennessee

University of Tennessee

The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...

 from 1988. Brown has recorded extensively for labels such as Evidence, Muse

Muse Records

Muse Records was an American record label which released jazz and blues music.Muse was founded in the early 1970s by Joe Fields, who had previously worked as an executive for Prestige Records in the 1960s...

 and Sunnyside

Sunnyside Records

Sunnyside Records is an American jazz record label.Sunnyside was founded in 1982 by Francois Zalacain and Christine Berthet. Its early releases consisted primarily of piano solo material and ensembles without drums, but in later years has broadened its selection of material.-Artists who have...

. {(Space Time Records)}

Discography

• The Sweetest Sounds (Evidence Records, 1988)
• Early Bird (Sunnyside Records
  Sunnyside Records
  Sunnyside Records is an American jazz record label.Sunnyside was founded in 1982 by Francois Zalacain and Christine Berthet. Its early releases consisted primarily of piano solo material and ensembles without drums, but in later years has broadened its selection of material.-Artists who have...
  
  , 1988)
• Sources of Inspiration (Muse Records
  Muse Records
  Muse Records was an American record label which released jazz and blues music.Muse was founded in the early 1970s by Joe Fields, who had previously worked as an executive for Prestige Records in the 1960s...
  
  , 1989)
• Cause & Effect (Muse, 1991)
• People Music (Muse, 1991)
• Send One Your Love (Muse, 1992)
• Cartunes (Muse, 1993)
• Piano Short Stories (Space Time Records, (1996)
• Seasons of Ballads (Space Time Records, 1997)
• Wurd on the Street (Space Time Records, 1998)
• Enchante! (Space Time Records, 1999)
• French Kiss (Space Time Records, 2000)
• At This Point in My Life (Space Time Records, 2001)
• Autumn in New York (Space Time Records, 2002)
• "Continuum" (Space Time Records, 2004)
• The Classic Introvert (Space Time Records, 2004)
• Fast Forward to the Past (Space Time Records, 2008)