b. Sheree Sarah Brown, 25th December 1955, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Los Angeles-based Sheree Brown recorded two albums, in the early Eighties, both for the Capitol imprint.
'Straight Ahead' was released in 1981 and included the songs 'You'll Be Dancing All Night' and 'It's A Pleasure'.
'The Music' followed in 1982 and included 'Happy Music', 'Got To Get Away' and 'On My Way Home' (featuring Stevie Wonder on harmonica).
Both albums were showcases for her songwriting abilities, with 'It's A Pleasure' recognized as her finest moment, and later re-recorded by Frances Nero.
Straight Ahead - 1981 / The Music - 1982
She has also worked closely with long time friend Patrice Rushen (co-writing both 'Haven't You Heard' in 1979 and 'Watch Out' in 1986).
Sheree has also been a backing singer with Fire Fox and Marilyn Scott.
Her Capitol albums featured the artists Patrice Rushen, Syreeta, Paulinho Da Costa, Steve Khan, Larry Williams, Stevie Wonder, Paul Jackson Jnr and Abraham Laboriel.
Through the nineties Sheree Brown continued to work and is considered as being one of the finest session musicians within the industry.
Sheree co-wrote (with Patrice Rushen and Naughty By Nature) the 1994 gold-selling single, 'Groove Thang', performed by Zhané on their album of the same name.
She also co-wrote 'Not Just One In A Million' and 'Closer To You' with Patrice Rushen, both songs taken from the 'Hollywood Shuffle' film soundtrack.
In the year 2001, Sheree and Patrice Rushen began work alongside some young, new musicians calling themselves SBPR (Sisters Being Positively Real a.k.a. Sheree Brown Patrice Rushen).
The project was entitled 'Beautiful Woman, The Album'.
SBPR - Beautiful Woman, The Album - 2001
The album came out on Sheree's own Brown Baby Entertainment Group Records.
Sheree has performed a One-Woman USO Tour in Germany, Egypt, Israel and Italy, as well as performances at Hollywood's famed House of Blues, The Conga Room and Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.
She has sung background vocals on albums by Patrice Rushen and Syreeta Wright, and on soundtrack albums for the films 'Congo' and 'The Air Up There'.
She has also hosted the House of Blues popular weekly 'Gospel Brunch'.
In the wake of the September 11th tragedy of 2001, Sheree produced a music video for the SBPR song, 'Wish I Could Fly Away', for the Police Activities League (PAL), to honour those officers who lost their lives during that disaster
She is also a music educator at the elementary school level (1st through 5 th grade), along with her current work teaching songwriting and choral performance to sixth through tenth grade students at Community Harvest Charter School in Los Angeles, California.
Sheree has also collaborated with her husband, minister and educator, Douglass Johnson, Sr., and artist Pixote Hunt, in co-writing the children's book series, 'Zhakanaka', and the accompanying music CD.
The first book of the series, titled 'Zhakanaka-The Word', was released in February 2004.
A new solo project entitled '83 was released in 2004, along with the re-issue of the SBPR set from 2001. The album containing new bonus tracks.
In 2011, Sheree released her first studio album for 7 years, in the form of 'Messages From The Heart'.
In 2013, the album saw a U.K. release on Expansion Records.
'83 - 2004 / messages from the heart - 2011
straight ahead/the music - 2011 / messages from the heart - 2013
Albums:
solo:
Straight Ahead (Capitol Records 1981)
The Music (Capitol Records 1982)
as SBPR (Sisters Being Positively Real):
Beautiful Woman, The Album (Brown Baby Entertainment Group 2001)
solo:
'83 (Brown Baby Entertainment Group 2004)
Messages From The Heart (Brown Baby Entertainment Group 2011)
Messages From The Heart (Expansion Records 2013)
Messages From The Spirit...The Collective (Expansion Records 2021)
