Album Notes

WENDELL BROOKS
ARTIST BIO

Wendell Brooks is an accomplished actor/singer/multi-instrumentalist who hails from Houston, Texas. He has performed with numerous artists, including Mick Jagger, Jonathan Butler, Will Downing, Melba Moore, and recently Simon Phillips, of The WHO and TOTO. As an actor, he appeared on Broadway in New York’s Negro Ensemble Company’s staging of Pearl Cleage’s PUPPETPLAY, in a scene opposite Phyllicia Rashad (then Phyllicia Ayers-Allen) for which he received rave reviews from NY theatre critic Clive Barnes. Wendell also portrayed a compassionate vagrant in the motion picture JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS.

Wendell’s musical credits are equally prodigious. His saxophone playing can be heard in a scene from Spike Lee’s DO THE RIGHT THING along with late acclaimed jazz artist and trumpeter Mark Ledford on the superstar reggae band Steel Pulse’s Can’t Stand The Heat. As a saxophonist, singer, keyboard player, he has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan with Will Downing, Jonathan Butler, D’atra Hicks, Sony Recording Artist Toshinobu Kubota, and Simon Phillips. Just a few of the recordings that Wendell can be heard on are SYMBIOSIS, ANOTHER LIFETIME, OUT OF THE BLUE (all with Simon Phillips), I’M IN LOVE (with Melba Moore), WILL DOWNING, COME TOGETHER AS ONE (with Will Downing), and many others too numerous to mention here. Wendell writes, arranges, composes, and performs music of all styles and has a song TV credit to add to his achievements, as Hallmark used one of his songs WHEN YOU DON’T EXPLAIN for the 2003 Valentine’s Day special. Wendell’s instrumental skills include voice, all saxophones, flute, clarinet, piano, keyboards, and acoustic guitar (which he’s never played publicly, but plans to on the release of his new album in 2008).

Wendell Brooks has a personal philosophy of demonstrating God’s love to people of all cultures. His love for people is evident to all who come to his performances. His performances draw crowds who feel his heart through his music. Wendell says, ”I don’t believe in pushing my beliefs on others. I just believe that the best sermons are the ones people see, not just what people say, so I do my best to be one of God’s love letters to others through my actions.” Whether he’s playing solo track dates, singing with other bands or both with his own 5 and 8-piece ensembles, Wendell Brooks is a musical force to be experienced by all.