Raised in New York by an American ethnomusicologist and Panamanian priest, Brown always opted for the path unknown. No stranger to the land of the surreal, the jazz percussionist’s idiosyncratic visions have prompted collaborations with the likes of Twin Shadow, Saul Williams, Jamie Lidell, Vulfpeck, Vijay Iyer, DJ Spooky and more.
Most recently he appears as the house drummer for Emmy award winning The Late Late Show with James Corden on CBS, with bandleader Reggie Watts, where he’s performed with the likes of Lady Gaga, Cher, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Nicole Scherzinger, Donald Glover, Ed Sheeran, Neil Diamond, Jeff Goldblum, Cyndi Lauper, Sting, Samuel L. Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Meghan Trainor, and more.
Normally a professor wouldn’t be on national TV every night of the damn week
Normally a drummer wouldn’t sing
Normally a producer doesn't
but Guillermo E. Brown as Pegasus Warning is all of these things
“It’s all about dreams”, he says.
Now, Brown presents Inspiration Equation, the first album in Pegasus Warning's ~scape trilogy. Inspiration Equation is a sequence of musical journeys through environments inside and outside the human body, and explores self/inner emotional landscape: fear, dreaming, love, hate, transformation. Written in response to the surreal and violent reality endured by BIPOC humans the world over, Inspiration Equation draws on the creative powers of collaborators including Wynne Bennett, Nia Andrews, serpentwithfeet, Biako, Mocky, Shoko Nagai, Keith Witty, Melanie Charles, Vicky Farewell, Solomon Dorsey, Tosstones, Nzingah Kalilah, Chris Williams, Bianca Gisselle, and Scotty Hard to address the ember of humanity that burns within us all. This is the Inspiration Equation you need to survive the present moment.
The record follows 2016’s staggering PwEP2, released on Brown’s own label, Melanin Harmonique Records. It received support from the likes of Afropunk, FADER, Interview Magazine, Pigeons & Planes, BBC1xtra, Red Bull Sound Select, Elton John and more. Lead single, “Building a Bridge” co-produced by Itai Shapira, was chosen as KCRW’s Tune of the Day and charted on US and Global Spotify charts.
Pegasus Warning has incited praise from NPR, The New York Times, Okayplayer, Brooklyn Vegan, and SPIN, as well as from with the likes of artist-visionary Wangechi Mutu (who directed his video for “Try So Hard") and filmmaker Harmony Korine (who dubs him the “male Chaka Khan”). Honing his craft while interning with Phillip Glass, Brown spent formative years in NYC making music with anchors of free jazz like David S. Ware, William Parker and Matthew Shipp.
He took those experiences, and the lessons from playing in a band with Dev Hynes, Chris Taylor (Grizzly Bear), and John Carroll Kirby (keyboardist/co-writer for Solange), collaborating on visuals with Ibra Ake (Childish Gambino/Atlanta), opening for Sonic Youth at Hammerstein Ballroom, and touring with Spoek Mathambo…and reframed them in collaborations. Collaborations like “Show You” — Baby Rose’s standout track from the Insecure soundtrack which features Brown as drummer/co-writer, and a forthcoming short film with multidisciplinary artist Alima Lee based on Inspiration Equation.
Brown is a graduate of Wesleyan University (BA) and Bard College (MFA). He was an adjunct professor at NYU at the Gallatin School for Individualized Study and Clive Davis Institute/Tisch (2006-2008) and Artist-In-Residence at Pacific Northwest College of Art (2010).
He is a recipient of the 2016 Creative Capital Award in Performing Arts for Bee Boy (3rd in the ~scape trilogy following Inspiration Equation), a recipient of Harvestworks New Works residency (2001), Van Lier Fellowship (2002), MAP Fund (2017), and a residency with director Charlotte Brathwaite and visual artist Abigail Deville at MIT’s Center for Art, Science, and Technology (2016-2017).
Pegasus Warning’s transcendental live shows have graced residencies at The Ace Hotel and Bowery Electric and seen various stages such as Terminal 5, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Bowl, The Roxy, and El Cid.
Embraced by some of music’s most seminal artists, Brown has opened for Prince with Jamie Lidell, Janelle Monae with Saul William, Max Roach and Cecil Taylor with David S. Ware Quartet, played in Philip Glass’ Tibet House concert benefit at Carnegie Hall, and performed at festivals worldwide, including Lollapalooza, Primavera, Cannes, Rock Al Parque in Bogota, Colombia, The Meadows Fest in Queens, New York, Jazz Em Agosto Lisbon: with George Lewis (MacArthur/Guggenheim recipient), Banlieues Bleues and Sons d’hiver in France, Jazzfestival Saalfelden in Austria, and Les Nuits Botanique in Belgium.
