YolanDa Brown

YolanDa Brown is a British saxophonist and composer from Barking, United Kingdom. Born in 1982 to Jamaican parents, she works across jazz, reggae and soul, and is also described as a British jazz urban contemporary saxophonist.

Education and early background

She attends Bancroft's School, Beal High School and the University of Kent in Canterbury, where she studies at Kent Business School. Her undergraduate master's dissertation focuses on combining soft systems methodology and discrete event simulation in an athletics club.

Broadcast work and public profile

Brown fronts a TV talk show on a Sky channel and appears in inspirational idents for BET, the Black Entertainment Television network.

Music career

As a performer, Brown moves from straight-ahead jazz to grime and appears alongside artists including Sway DaSafo, Bashy, Omar Lye-Fook, Soweto Kinch, Alexander O'Neal, Mica Paris, Terri Walker, Dean Fraser, Sonny Bradshaw and Desi Jones. She also works with Monty Alexander, Ramon Vallé, Michel Camilo, Hilario Duran, Dean Fraser, Sonny Bradshaw, Otis Williams, the Temptations and their manager Shelly Berger.

In late 2008 she tours the UK opening for the Temptations. In 2010 she performs at PanJazz, after the event moves from Lincoln Center in New York to the UK, and appears there with musicians including Etienne Charles and Leon Foster Thomas. She also gives a concert at IndigO2 at the O2 Arena in London. In February 2012 she releases her first album and continues as an independent artist, touring the UK and overseas in support of it, with concerts at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo alongside her full band and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.

Awards and honours

Brown wins the MOBO Best Jazz award in 2008 and is a UMA nominee. In 2009 she becomes the first musician to be nominated for the MOBO Best Jazz award in consecutive years, and the first to win it two years running. She also wins Best Jazz at the UMA awards in 2009.

On 2 December 2010 she receives an honorary Doctor of the Arts from the University of East London in a ceremony at the Barbican Theatre in London.

Ambassador and patron roles

Brown becomes a celebrity ambassador for The Prince's Trust charity. She is also a Yamaha endorsed artist, is appointed the UK’s class band ambassador in February 2011, and serves as a patron of the Mayor of London’s Fund for Young Musicians.