Through connections to David S. Ware and additional New York free jazz figures, drummer Guillermo E. Brown first gained notice. In solo projects and collaborations with artists including Spring Heel Jack and Matthew Shipp, he has pursued fusions of free and conventional jazz approaches with electronic music, hip-hop, and ethnic traditions.
Born in 1976 in New Haven, CT, into a musical household, Brown encountered jazz, hip-hop, and rock during his formative years, later exploring ambient and techno after an introduction to DJ Spooky's recordings. He joined the David S. Ware Quartet as Susie Ibarra's replacement ahead of the 2000 sessions for Ware's Surrendered. Brown also contributed to the 2001 album Corridors & Parallels, Ware's first to include Matthew Shipp on synthesizer. That same year he appeared on Rob Reddy's Seeing By the Light of My Own Candle, Roy Campbell's It's Krunch Time, and Masses, a project uniting numerous New York free jazz musicians who improvised over backing tracks supplied by the electronic duo Spring Heel Jack. In 2002 Brown took part in DJ Spooky's Optometry, Shipp's jazz/hip-hop album Nu Bop, and performances with William Parker's large ensemble the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra. He simultaneously issued his solo debut Soul at the Hands of the Machine, a recording that exceeded his earlier work in stylistic range.
