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July 2, 2009

Birthday party crashers welcome

For Andover alum who now conducts 17-piece jazz band

By Judy Wakefield

If summer traveling plans are bringing you in the vicinity of the Hudson River in New York on July 21, there's a 50th birthday party worth checking out.

Crashers from Andover are most welcome as this party in Nyack, N.Y. has strong ties to town. And it's free admission.

Anita Brown, a 1977 Andover High School graduate, is turning 50. The composer/arranger/conductor has a concert planned she hopes will also be a birthday bash that coincides with her town's jazz fest. Well known around metro New York because her 17-piece Anita Brown Jazz Orchestra band has been playing since 2000, she says some Andover music influences have stayed with her all these years.

"Singing alto in many different choruses of all sizes at AHS inspired me to pay close attention to the inside voices of harmony, as the outer voices (soprano and baritone in a chorus) were always 'too easy' for me to recognize," she wrote in an e-mail. "This fueled my drive to hear the inside voices of more thickly harmonized music, including the orchestral works of Bach and Stravinsky.

"As a senior, I was simply ecstatic to sing Stravinsky's 'Symphony of Psalms' with the enormous Northeastern District Chorus," she continued. "Still a great honor and since then Stravinsky has become my favorite composer."

Brown, now an adjunct staff member of the faculties at Sarah Lawrence College and New Jersey City University in Jazz Composition & Arranging, also recalled playing piano during study halls at Andover High.

"I was always allowed to come out of study hall and practice on one of the grand pianos in the department. I took full advantage of this privilege and also enjoyed a tremendous camaraderie with other pianists and talented instrumentalists in the department," she said.

Brown lived on Gemini Circle while in town and summered at Salisbury Beach. Her dad, jazz tenor Ted Brown, is now 81 and still "giggin'," she said. It was his computer job at Malden Mills in Lawrence that brought the family to Andover in 1969. Her entire family enjoys music. Younger brother, Jeff, plays drums and mom, Phyllis, is a pianist.

A new job in 1977 for Ted Brown caused the family to head for New York. But Anita Brown retains fond memories of Andover memories.

"I am so grateful for having such quality people in my life during such formative years," she wrote, "...including Bobby Brown who used to tape my waist-length hair to the back of my chair in seventh grade homeroom."

You can check out Brown's Web site at www.anitabrownmusic.com.

part of Nyack Jazz Week

Anita Brown Jazz Orchestra

(Brown is a 1977 Andover High grad)

Nyack, N.Y.

Tuesday, July 21, 7-9 p.m.

Admission is free; Bring a chair!

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Birthday party crashers welcome
by By Judy Wakefield , , Thu Jul 02, 2009, 04:58 AM EDT
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