BIOGRAPHY
Born in Hartland, Wisconsin, Melanie Howell-Brooks lives in the Boston area and performs throughout New England and internationally. She enjoys playing across a variety of genres from jazz to classical, rock to pit orchestras. Most notably she has appeared with a number of world-class artists including Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Johnny Mathis, the Grammy-winning 8-Bit Big Band, Grammy-winning Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra, Jerry Bergonzi, David Liebman, Marshall Gilkes, Tiger Okoshi, Ran Blake, Walter Smith III, Antonio Sanchez, Miguel Zenón, Anat Cohen, Charlie Rosen, Steven Feifke, Bijon Watson, Mark Walker, and Oliver Lake. She also has appeared as a featured soloist with the Waltham Symphony Orchestra. While she predominantly appears on the baritone saxophone and bass clarinet, she also frequently plays other flutes, clarinets, and saxophones.
Ms. Howell-Brooks is an active musician in the Boston area and is a member of the Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, as well as smaller permutations of that group – Oddsong and the Jazz Composers Alliance Saxophone Quartet. She also performs with Grammy-nominated composer Mehmet Ali Sanlikol in his large jazz ensemble, Whatsnext?, Felipe Salles’s Interconnections Jazz Ensemble, The New England Jazz Collaborative, The Two Bari Band, formed alongside fellow baritone saxophonist Kathy Olson, and her own group called The Phoenix Fire Jazz Collective. She also performs with Lookie Lookie, a Cuban-Latin 60’s Bugalu band led by the Grammy-nominated Russ Gershon (Either/Orchestra) as well as the TubaFrau Hoffbrau Band, playing clarinet for their German Bravarian band repertoire. Other performance groups include appearances with the BT/ALC Big Band, as well as the Fernando Huergo Big Band.
Other more recent notable performances include recording/performances with Antonio Sanchez, Miguel Zenon, Anat Cohen (2023), and David Liebman (2016, 2019) under the direction of Ken Schaphorst with Mr. Sanlikol’s band, Whatsnext?. In 2017 she toured Turkey and Cyprus appearing at the Istanbul Jazz Festival with Whatsnext?,
As a multi-instrumentalist Ms. Howell-Brooks performs in pit orchestras including the North Shore Music Theatre and in other symphonic orchestras throughout the region. Her skills on soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophone as well as on clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, flute, alto flute, and piccolo have made her a versatile musician who enjoys performing in a wide range of styles. Many years ago she was also a showband musician for Carnival Cruise Lines.
She received her Bachelors of Music in Music Performance and Music Education from the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, WI where she studied with Steven Jordheim and John Harmon. Ms. Brooks also has a Masters in Jazz Performance from the New England Conservatory in Boston, MA where she studied with Jerry Bergonzi, Allan Chase, and John McNeil privately and performed in small groups led by the late Steve Lacy, Oscar Stagnaro, and Michael Cain, as well as the NEC Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Ken Schaphorst and the NEC Composers Orchestra, then under the direction of the late Bob Brookmyeyer.