Anthony Brown (jazz musician)

Anthony Brown is an American jazz percussionist, composer, bandleader, ethnomusicologist, and educator. He is known for leading, performing, and recording with the Grammy-nominated Asian American Orchestra since its founding in 1998. His compositions blend jazz instruments and improvisation with traditional Asian instruments and sensibilities, and include musical scores for documentary films, for theatrical and dance premieres, and for spoken word and poetry presentations.

From 1992 to 1996, Brown served as a curator and founding director of the Smithsonian Institution's Jazz Oral History Program. Subsequently, he served as a Smithsonian Associate Scholar presenting concerts and lecture demonstrations for Smithsonian Cultural Festivals nationally, and as the principal interviewer of NEA Jazz Masters for the Jazz Oral History Program until 2012. Brown taught as a visiting professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley, and is professor emeritus of the California Jazz Conservatory.

In 2023, Brown served as a U.S. State Department Cultural Ambassador in Thailand – an honored tradition for jazz musicians including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Brubeck, et al.