Artists Showcase Featuring

Mr. Thom Brownlee, Jr., Saxaphonist

Born in New York (Harlem), NY 1951 and raised in Wilson, NC. Mr. Brownlee was “programmed” while in diapers as his Dad (also a saxist) listened to Be-Bop and Big Band Swing. Although he started playing drums at the age of only 12, and then switched to saxophone when his next door neighbor in the Bronx (Bevin Turnbull) had a drum set when he came home for 1965 Summer vacation. 

His Dad bought an alto sax from a pawn shop (Beuscher) and introduced basic fingering and embrochure. After weeks of playing along with R&B 45’s Thom returned to Wilson, NC and began playing 4 nights a week in a band (The Uniques) at 14 yrs old. Having to juggle playing football and playing the sax through high school, and during college days at Shaw University. 

Thom attended a 12wk Allied Health Summer Program for Minorities at UNC School of Medicine , then on to Officers Training School/Pilot’s Class in Nov. 1973. Thom soon moved to Dallas, Texas from Buffalo, NY in 1980, where he began sitting in at Mr. C’s Oyster Bar in the West End with Larry “T-Byrd” Gordon’s Band (later joining as a member), also with other local bands and groups such as: Linny Nance and Network, Little Joe Blues, Shelly Carroll, and Rodney Bowens.