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. She has built a reputation as one of today’s most forward-thinking and innovative banjo players, renowned for taking the banjo far beyond its Appalachian roots by blending bluegrass and jazz influences into a sonic tapestry praised by national tastemakers.

On her most recent album, On Banjo, Brown continued her musical explorations on a set of original compositions exploring the range of the banjo and featuring an eclectic cast of collaborators including Steve Martin, the Kronos Quartet, Sharon Isbin, Anat Cohen, and Sierra Hull. In March, Brown released the single “5 Days Out, 2 Days Back,” a collaboration with Steve Martin and Tim O’Brien.

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.