Bio

I was born in L.A. The family spent 8 years there then moved to Sacramento, near the American River. I grew up on 70s FM, hip-hop, country, hard-rock, easy listening and hard-bop. At 15 my hero was Louis Armstrong, then Duke, then Miles ... Lennon, Dylan etc.

In college in Santa Cruz CA, I was in a hardcore group called Pops' Last Band named after an old transient friend who died down in the river. That group planted the seed for Santa Cruz Gospel Choir. Since then I've put out a few solo albums and also put in 3 years with Jackpot.

In 2007, I got together with some friends to record an album of songs evoking eras spoken of nostalgically in the pop-culture trade. Aficionado was recorded in 10 days, mostly on tape and with minimal overdubs. It sounds good in the car and on home hi-fi speakers.

In '08, Happy Mayfield released it's first EP with the and is currently working on the second one.

2010 should be a big year. In addition to the Happy Mayfield EP, the Western Family Orchestra will be producing a radio program for KVMR in Nevada City, CA, with a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to develop national programming. All this and more can now be tracked at brahmapura.com