Alison Brown

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Like James Taylor’s voice or B. B. King’s guitar, Alison Brown’s banjo is an instrument possessed of a unique sonic signature and an inescapable beauty.

—Billboard

Banjo music is seldom thought of as ‘mellow,’ or dare we say ‘pretty,’ but Alison Brown makes it so in the jazz-classical-pop-folk-Latin mix of the Alison Brown Quartet. As a true ground-breaker, [she’s] opening up whole new vistas for an instrument once solely associated with pickin’ ‘n’ grinnin’.

—USA Today

Alison Brown left a career in investment banking for a life as a banjo musician. Anyone who thinks this was a foolish move hasn’t heard her play.

—New Yorker

Grammy-winning musician and Grammy-nominated producer Alison Brown is one of the most multifaceted minds in roots music. Although she began her musical career as a teenager in the Southern California bluegrass scene, she has built a reputation as one of today’s most forward-thinking and innovative banjo players. She is renowned for taking the banjo far beyond its Appalachian roots by blending bluegrass and jazz influences into a sonic tapestry that has earned praise from national tastemakers.

On her new release, On Banjo, Brown continues her musical explorations on a set of original compositions that explore the range of the banjo. The album features an eclectic cast of collaborators that includes Steve Martin, the Kronos Quartet, Sharon Isbin, Anat Cohen, and Sierra Hull.

In 2019, Brown was inducted into the American Banjo Museum Hall of Fame. She sits on the Board of Governors of the Recording Academy and is the co-chair of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize.