Forget Schwab’s, Jazz Phenom Brown Was Discovered at School Assembly

Vernell Brown Jr. sat in at the piano one day last year for an absent friend during a Hamilton High School assembly called “Grammys in the Schools.” Brown played so well that his talents were immediately recognized by the president and CEO of A & M Records, Jerry Moss, who was in the audience. And now Brown has an album quickly making its way up the jazz charts.

Talk about your fairy tales.

“I wasn’t even scheduled to perform that day,” says Brown, 19, who is represented by the William Morris Agency, has a contract with A & M to record two more albums, just returned from a European tour and plays “Rhapsody in Blue” with the Southwest Community College Symphony Orchestra on Sunday as part of the L.A. Festival.

Brown’s album is “Total Eclipse,” produced by jazz musician Stix Hooper of the Crusaders. Brown composed all of the songs. The cut “August” was written in his dreams, he says. “I woke up one morning, heard most of the melody in my head, went to the piano and wrote it down.”

Composing music and recording albums is quite an accomplishment for someone who’s only been playing the piano seriously for three years. Brown’s fairy tale had a real-life beginning that started at age 4 with lessons on the piano as well as drums. The piano was not his favorite instrument so he concentrated on the drums until he was introduced to the violin as an 8-year-old. His instructor thought he was a natural violinist. He later became obsessed with the piano while attending the Los Angeles County High School of Performing Arts. From there, he transferred to Los Angeles’ Hamilton High School Music Academy, where he graduated in 1989.

Says Vernell: “I mainly concentrated on the drums until I was 16.”