Bio – Brent White is a lifelong Philadelphian, trombonist, composer, and Assistant Teaching Professor of Music at Drexel University. On the international scene, he has played with the Sun Ra Arkestra and accompanied John Legend, yet rooted locally, creating outreach programming for Philadelphia students through the Kimmel Cultural Campus, teaching jazz in the Philadelphia Prison System and with the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts. He draws on these experiences to realize his commitment to teaching, composing, and leading. Professor White is the Director of the Jazz Orchestra and Jazztet at Drexel University. He teaches music history and works as Coordinator of the Arts and Culture Hub at the University’s Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships.
As a 2022 Innovation Fellow through the Library Company of Philadelphia, Brent’s latest CD, “code-switching,” explored how Francis “Frank” Johnson (1792–1844)—a leading American musician pre-Civil War — and his band engaged in musical “code-switching” by performing the same compositions differently before Black and white audiences. Because there are no contemporary recordings of performances by Johnson, who lived only into the 1840s, White engaged in the creative reimagining of the dance tunes, marches, and other musical compositions for which Johnson was widely celebrated in his day. White partnered with Philadelphia guitarist Matt Davis to create new free-form jazz arrangements that reimagine the influence of Afro-Caribbean rhythms on Johnson’s music.