Keyboards and Vocals | b. early 1980s

Brandon Coleman grew up in South Central Los Angeles, learned piano in the church, and studied at the Colburn School under jazz educators Clay Jenkins and Lee Secard. He began as a touring and session musician in the early 2000s before joining the West Coast Get Down, where Kamasi Washington, his longtime friend and collaborator, introduces him onstage as "Professor Boogie." Coleman's keyboard and keytar work became a signature element of the WCGD live experience across years of touring. His stated influences run through Herbie Hancock, Prince, George Duke and Roger Troutman, placing him equally in funk and jazz territory. He met Flying Lotus at a "Suite for Ma Dukes" rehearsal organised by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and subsequently appeared on FlyLo's "Until the Quiet Comes" and "You're Dead!" and contributed to his Blade Runner score work. His Brainfeeder debut "Resistance" (2018) built an explicit lineage from Parliament-Funkadelic and Zapp through to contemporary LA music, with contributions from Thundercat, Patrice Quinn and other Brainfeeder collaborators. "Interstellar Black Space" (Brainfeeder, 2022) extended the astral and jazz-fusion dimension of that approach. His brother is musician Marcus Coleman. Coleman serves as music director for Hollywood Bowl productions and continues to compose for visual media alongside his performance career.