Sasha Brown is a guitarist and composer most-widely known for his work with Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds, a band he was in from its inception until his final show with them at Irving Plaza in New York on Nov 12, 2016. While he was with the Dirty Birds, the band released 3 full-length studio albums, an EP, and a live concert DVD/double album. He toured extensively with the band – six years on the road for 250 days a year, performing over 1000 shows in 47 states, as well as in China, Guatemala, and Canada. The band performed everywhere from Madison Square Garden to the Fillmore in San Francisco, as well on the Today Show and NPR’s Tiny Desk, and was a fixture on the festival circuit — Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Mountain Jam, Summer Camp, and Firefly, among many others.
[with Heather Christian & the Arbornauts]Since 2008, Brown has also collaborated extensively with composer/performer Heather Christian, both as a member of her band (Heather Christian & the Arbornauts) and as part of the band performing her scores for new works for theater. Christian’s band has released 8 recordings since 2011, including 6 EPs in 2016 alone. Among those is Long Arc, an acoustic EP he and Christian co-wrote and recorded in two days in June 2016. The record was dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the proceeds from which are donated to the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The band’s next record, Hymn, is currently being mastered at Abbey Road studios and will be released this year. Brown and Christian are collaborating on a score for a blues requiem mass as part of a theatrical work written by Christian which will debut in previews in summer 2017.
Christian composed the score for Lemon, a quirky, indie feature film directed by Janicza Bravo, which features Brett Gelman, Judy Greer and Michael Cera. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, and after showing at Austin’s SXSW Film Fest and the Rotterdam Film Fest, wasacquired by Magnolia Pictures for distribution. Brown plays on the soundtrack for this film, as well as Christian’s score for Bravo’s extremely dark short film “Gregory Go Boom” (also featuring Michael Cera), which was the 2013 Sundance Film Festival selection.
[other associations]Brown is also featured on recordings by:
-singer/composer Sunny Kim‘s art-rock project “Myth of Mitch: Android Ascension”
–Krystle Warren’s record “Love Songs“,
-trombonist Ryan Snow’s “Pull: Suffer Some” and their live-improvised score to the animated short “The Hungry Boy“,
-a forthcoming album & DVD by the Andrew D’Angelo Big Band
[solo artist / leader work]Brown is currently writing and recording music for an assortment of new projects as well as composing scores for film and several theatrical productions currently in development. He can be seen performing throughout the US in a variety of projects across many musical genres.
In April 2017, Brown released Caveat Emperor: 4 Troubled Mind Improvisations 4 Troubled Times, inspired principally by the political landscape in America. May it be suggested that those wishing to support Brown in his work use that record as a digital tip jar and/or directly support his work released through his Bandcamp page…