Meet Brandon Rose

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Rose.

Hi Brandon, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story. 
I started playing the bass at the age of 5. My dad ran sound at my home church, and I would always go there early for the praise team’s soundcheck. For some reason, I would always lock eyes with the bass player, Henry Robinson, and eventually built up the courage to ask my dad for a bass guitar as a Christmas gift. He looked at me and said, “What you don’t do with a bass,” and I boldly said, “Imma play it.” From there, I started taking lessons from Henry and began playing for my church’s kids’ choir and mass choir on Sundays. My long-time mentor, Kerry Lacy, was always encouraging me to get my music theory, and reading chop together, and when it came time for college, he suggested I check into the Michigan State University jazz studies program. I was a Michigan fan, so the sound of Michigan State anything was not the most appealing. But I listened and met with Rodney Whitaker, who is the bass professor and director of jazz studies at MSU. He expressed that they would love to have me in the program, but I would have to learn the upright bass. I was not excited about that at all, but I was up for the challenge, and it has been the best decision I’ve made. Thanks to that decision and listening to mentors like Professor Whitaker, Kerry Lacy, Marcus Miller, and all the faculty at MSU, I have become a more versatile threat as a doubler. Now, I am a working musician, touring with different artists, recording, producing, and composing for various projects, including personal projects. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It hasn’t been the smoothest road by any means. Early on in my development, I was learning a lot at a rapid pace, so during that time, it seemed easy. I faced my biggest challenge when starting my collegiate studies at Michigan State University. I hadn’t played upright bass before I started my studies at MSU, maybe a couple of times just to tickle the strings, but never anything serious. I also wasn’t the biggest fan of jazz, and I didn’t know much about the history. Because electric bass came so easily to me and I was getting notice from high-profile musicians, I figured learning upright would be the same. I was sadly mistaken. I would see a lot of my colleagues advancing and getting called for gigs that I wanted to be on or making certain ensembles within the jazz program that I really wanted to be in. Seeing that and realizing how far behind I was forced me to shift my energy into working hard at mastering my craft. Learning upright has been the most rewarding thing I’ve done in my life because it was the first time that I truly worked for something and put my all into it to see the results I wanted to see. The road still isn’t smooth, but the roadblocks have been lifted, and now I’m faced with “a good problem to have” of determining what’s next. I am grateful to have options. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Primarily, I am a bassist, playing both electric and upright bass, traveling the world playing for various artists and styles of music but specializing in jazz, R&B, gospel, hip-hop, and pop. I can be heard on Dan Wilson’s latest album “Things Eternal,” as well as Xavier Davis’ song “Vika” and Randy Napoleon’s song “Fanogram.” The fun part about being a freelance musician is that you can do a lot of different things. One of my recent experiences has been with my first Broadway production. I was fortunate enough to be the bass player for the pre-Broadway show entitled “A Wonderful World,” a musical about the life and genius of Louis Armstrong. In addition to playing bass, I am also a producer, composer, singer, rapper, and performer. I most recently composed and recorded the music for the Michigan State football team’s hype video that’s played at every home game. That’s probably my proudest moment as of now, but I’m sure I’ll have something to top that in the near future. 

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up, I was shy and scared of everything. If a leaf scraped across the ground, I would scream; that’s how scary I was. I always wanted to be part of the cool crowd and found that my ticket into that crowd was through laughter. I became the typical class clown, the loud and obnoxious one, the life of the party, always making people laugh and feeling good about themselves. Still to this day, I’m the funny one in the crew, the main jokester. I was a big fan of Michael Jackson (still am) and always wanted to be famous like him. I also had big dreams of being in the NBA, but my height had something to say about that. Music was always a side thing, something that I was just good at and was always there. I didn’t start taking it seriously until my first year of college. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.brandonrosemusic.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandonrosemusic/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrandonRoseBass
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHenoAQc9Srhz969kdP_znQ

Image Credits
Alirna Korieva
Isaiah Johns