Collection: Brandon Coleman

Brandon Coleman grew up in South Central Los Angeles, learned to play in the church, and studied at the Colburn School under jazz educators Clay Jenkins and Lee Secard before beginning a career as a touring and session musician in the early 2000s. Kamasi Washington, his longtime friend and the person who introduces him onstage as "Professor Boogie," brought him into the West Coast Get Down collective, and Coleman's keyboards and keytar became a signature texture of the WCGD live show across years of touring that took the group to the Hollywood Bowl, the Royal Albert Hall, NPR's Tiny Desk and The Tonight Show. The influences he names are specific and honest about what he is: Herbie Hancock, Prince, George Duke and Roger Troutman, which places him in the funk and R&B lineage as much as in jazz. His debut "Self Taught" (2015) preceded his Brainfeeder signing. "Resistance" (Brainfeeder, 2018), described by the label as "a 2018 funk odyssey," built his lineage argument explicitly, tracing a dynasty from George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic through Zapp to Dr. Dre and Dam-Funk, while bringing in collaborators including Patrice Quinn, Thundercat and the Brainfeeder family. He had connected with Flying Lotus at a "Suite for Ma Dukes" rehearsal and Coleman subsequently appeared on Flying Lotus's "Until the Quiet Comes" and "You're Dead!" as well as collaborating on music for the Blade Runner soundtrack. "Interstellar Black Space" (Brainfeeder, 2022) pushed further into astral jazz-funk territory. He remains active as a leader, WCGD member, music director and visual media composer.