Guillermo E. Brown, a drummer, emerged as a result of his association with
David S. Ware and other free jazz musicians from New York. As a solo artist and in his work with artists such as
Spring Heel Jack and
Matthew Shipp, he has attempted to combine free and traditional jazz playing with electronic music, hip-hop, and ethnic musics.
Brown was born into a musical family in New Haven, CT, in 1976. He grew up around jazz, hip-hop, and rock, and he became involved with ambient and techno after hearing
DJ Spooky.
Brown replaced
Susie Ibarra in the
David S. Ware Quartet before the recording of
Ware's
Surrendered in 2000. He also played on 2001's
Corridors & Parallels, the first
Ware album to feature
Matthew Shipp on synthesizer. In 2001,
Brown also played on
Rob Reddy's Seeing By the Light of My Own Candle and
Roy Campbell's
It's Krunch Time, as well as on
Masses, an album that featured many New York free jazz musicians improvising over backing tracks created by the electronic duo
Spring Heel Jack. In 2002,
Brown appeared on
DJ Spooky's
Optometry;
Shipp's jazz/hip-hop album
Nu Bop; and he played with
William Parker's big band,
the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra.
Brown also released his solo debut,
Soul at the Hands of the Machine, an album even more eclectic than those on which he had previously appeared. ~ Charlie Wilmoth