By Dee Dee McNeil
January 1, 2026
With a population of nearly 96,000 people, Compton might be known for gang violence, but it’s also known for its famous citizens representing successful, diverse creativity. The all-star talent produced in this area of the Los Angeles basin is impressive!
For example, Kendrick Lamar, a GRAMMY winning rapper and producer is a Compton native. So is Dr. Dre (founder of the record label Aftermath Entertainment and a music pioneer). The infamous Suge Knight along with Eazy-E, both founders of successful Record companies are products of the city of Compton. Comedian and actor, Anthony Anderson was born in Compton and famous actor, Kevin Costner, grew up in Compton City. The dynamic singer and protegee of Quincy Jones, Siedah Garrett also flourished in Compton and my friend, another GRAMMY Award winning artist, blues singer, composer, and guitarist, Keb Mo is a Compton native. So is actress, Niecy Nash. Now, let me introduce you to the latest name on the “Compton’s Finest” list. It’s drummer, composer and arranger, Brandon Sanders.
Brandon is tall with a basketball player stature. In fact, he was once a part of the team at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California. Later, he joined the University of Kansas basketball team, where he took a spot on the Jayhawks’ practice squad. This was before he considered becoming a musician.
Music was always prevalent in Brandon Sander’s life. His mother, Pamela (maiden name Price), was a music lover who studied classical violin in high school. His biological father was a trumpet player. The man he calls dad, his stepfather, James McCreight, played trombone in the army band. He served our country during the Viet Nam War. Brandon’s great Aunt, Ann Parker, was an opera singer in Chicago who studied at Julliard. So, there has been a bright halo of music surrounding his life since childhood.
Brandon arrived in Compton, California at 22 months old in 1972. His family settled down on the historic Central Avenue. He recalls all through his childhood, his stepfather playing the 24-hour jazz station, KKGO. When Brandon was just a small boy, his dad often discussed music with him while playing records from his extensive jazz collection. The child’s maternal grandmother (Ms. Ernestine Parker) owned a jazz club in Kansas City. She too shared her extensive jazz knowledge with young Brandon, who spent most summers in Kansas City with his beloved grandmother. She knew many popular jazz artists personally, because they performed at her Casablanca Jazz club. Grandmother Ernestine told him stories about those jazz men and their music. She played Brandon albums by organist Jimmy Smith, guitar master, Grant Green, and sax man, Lou Donaldson.
In fact, it was his grandmother who first supplied a teenaged Brandon with two turntables and a mixer once Brandon told her he wanted to be a DJ. She also was the person who bought her grandson his first drum kit once he expressed an interest in becoming a drummer. Grandmother Ernestine was always Brandon’s biggest cheerleader until her death in 2013. On his second album titled “The Tables Will Turn,” Brandon celebrated his grandmother with a blues-based tune called, “Miss Ernestine.”
That turntable and mixer gift may have saved Brandon Sanders from gang affiliation. Instead of embracing the street life, he stayed busy playing music at parties and pursuing his basketball dreams. Brandon’s parents made sure he stayed occupied with sports and music. They enrolled him in the Girls and Boys Club to occupy his idle time and to keep him off those Compton streets. Too often, gangland characters are looking to recruit neighborhood boys. They didn’t want their son to fall prey to gang activities.
At one point, in his late teens, Brandon’s grandmother suggested he come back to Kansas City, Kansas and attend college. She was wise and worried about those dangerous Compton influences. Ms. Ernestine suggested that Kansas University might like to enlist his basketball skills. She finally persuaded her grandson to return home.
“I didn’t start playing the drums until I got to Kansas University. When I was a teenager, I played basketball through middle school and high school. Then I went to Kansas University, as a ‘walk-on.’ When my eligibility was up, I said man – what am I going to do? These drums were at my church, and I started trying to figure out how to play the drums. I attended Victory Bible Church. The pastor was Leo Barbee Jr., in a town called Lawrence. It was the same town where Kansas University was located. I would go to his church every day after class, just to try and figure out how to play those drums.
“I loved the saxophone. My grandmother would tell me stories about people like Stanley Turrentine playing in her jazz club. So, I was drawn to the saxophone, as far as listening to jazz. Then, one day these drums were just sitting at my church. I said man, let me figure out how to play these drums. It was like a ‘calling!’
“Now, this is my third album release. As of December 19th, it’s #3 on the radio airplay jazz charts. We got 3-1/2 stars in Downbeat. So big progress is happening!” He tells me enthusiastically.
In Kansas, Brandon received his Masters degree. He put that degree to work, first in Kansas City, later in New York, where he worked in public and charter schools as a social worker, before landing a job at the Master School in Dobbs Ferry. He became a full-time counselor, also coaching basketball and tennis. Although he loved his social worker position, that whole time he was practicing his drums and squirreling money away from his day-job to support a dream of recording his own band.
“I used my money from working and made my own demo recording. I called Willie Jones III and asked him, what’s next? He said man, you have to shop it around. So, I called this record label, Savant, and told them what I had. We negotiated a deal and that’s how my first record got released. People would say, Man – you can’t do that! But I think outside the box. I do what needs to be done. Sometimes I say I make up my own rules. Because If I want to get something done, I just do it and take the risk.”
Brandon Sanders is what some call a late bloomer. He was twenty-five when he decided to pursue drumming, much to the shock of friends and acquaintances who thought he was crazy.
Steadfast on his pursuit of music, August 25, 2023, his first album was released titled “Compton’s Finest.” To the amazement of everyone, including Brandon, it hit #1 on the JazzWeek charts.
True, he landed that record deal in an unorthodox way. But Brandon has his own way of doing things. He surrounded himself with the best musicians, rode the practice-train night and day ‘til the wheels fell off, and made his dream come true.
There are a long list of people who have supported, inspired and encouraged this drummer. He praises Mr. Broadus, a teacher at Willowbrook Junior High School in Compton who was their choir director.
“I wasn’t playing an instrument then, but he always kept us kind of interested in music somehow,” Brandon recalls the teacher who worked hard to offer youth an alternative path away from street life and inadvertently a musical alternative.
“I did study with Smitty Smith, Kenny Washington and Joe Morello, but the biggest influence has probably been Lewis Nash and Willie Jones III. They have opened up so many doors,” Brandon shares, praising Nash who let him stay in his apartment when Sanders first landed in NYC, and Willie Jones III who produced all three of his albums.
His relationship with professor and jazz ambassador Richard Wright in Kansas City made an indelible impression on Brandon’s mindset, his life, and his career.
“Richard Wright was a professor of mine. When I first got to Kansas University I took a class, ‘Introduction to Jazz’ and man, he had all these jazz records. I took every class he taught. He was so knowledgeable. He passed away in 1999, but he was truly influential in my life, not just in playing music. He had this massive record collection. Every day, before class, I would go in there and listen to all his records. I would sit on the floor and listen, before he even got to his office, so I could hear his blue Note records. ‘ Cause he had everything you could think of in terms of the jazz legacy. He was a great great man, Richard Wright,” Sanders asserted.
“Another inspiration was my drum teacher in Kansas City, Todd Strait, who used to play with Marian McPartland and John Cushon, who was married to singer, Oleta Adams.
“I studied with Joe Lovano. When I was in his class, I really wasn’t supposed to be. You see, Berklee College has a rating system in place. I had ratings lower than what his class demanded. Surprisingly, one day he heard me playing down the hall. I was in the practice room and he said, man I need a drummer for my class. I’m thinking, I’m not ready for that. But he persuaded me. He said afterwards, hey man, I want you to stay in the class. And that’s how I wound up taking his class. He turned me on to people like Elvin Jones. He called my attention to how he plays the cymbal beat, how he spurs on the soloist, that kind of stuff. He showed me how to ‘comp’ behind players. I just talked to Joe a couple of weeks ago. Yes, he was a great influencer, him and Billy Pierce. I was in the Billy Pierce’s class too, and I was in the Art Blakey Ensemble at the same time.”
I asked Brandon Sanders about his composer skills. I’m always interested in how drummers compose, wondering if they use guitar or piano to pluck out the melodies. Brandon’s response surprised me.
“So, I use the drums pretty much. I make up the rhythms in my head. Then, I start singing the melody on top. First, I play the licks that I want. Then I’ll start writing the tune down. On some of the tunes I write, I’ll start singing lyrics. Have you heard my tune called Miss Ernestine?” he asks me. I nod yes.
Suddenly, the drummer breaks into song, sharing his catchy lyrics with me, offering a surprisingly good vocal presentation of the song he composed in tribute to his grandmother.
The new release by Brandon Sanders is titled “Lasting Impression.” His band is made up of iconic players like Eric Reed and Tyler Bullock on piano, Warren Wolf on vibraphone, Stacy Dillard on tenor saxophone, Eric Wheeler and Ameen Saleem on bass, and one of my favorite young jazz vocalists, Jazzmeia Horn is featured. They open with a tune Bobby Hutcherson composed called “8/4 Beat.” The energy emanating from these magical musicians sets the tone. From the first Straight-ahead slap of the Sanders drumsticks, the band is off and running. The tune showcases the talented Stacy Dillard on tenor saxophone and the flying fingers of Eric Reed caressing the piano keys. It features a brilliant Warren Wolf on vibes. I’m hooked right from the first few minutes of their opening song.
Sanders has composed the title tune, ‘Lasting Impression” and it swings hard from top to bottom. Right away, I fall in love with the bebop melodic structure of this Sander’s original. His ensemble plays every note with warmth, energy and camaraderie.
“Whether I was playing basketball or playing the drums, it meant getting up at 5 or 6 o’clock in the morning and practicing all day. I still feel like I’m catching up with the great drummers who have been doing this all their lives, like Lewis Nash, Kenny Washington or Willie Jones,” Sanders shares his determination to be the best he can be.
“Eric Reed listened to my tune ‘Lasting Impression’ and he’s the one who suggested, hey man, let’s start this off with a two-feel and on the next chorus we’re going to swing.”
Notably, Brandon Sanders is an inspired and gifted composer. His original titled “Tales of Mississippi” is one of my favorites on his new record release. I asked him what inspired that tune.
“Well, we have family down there, so I’ve been down there visiting. We talk about all the racism and that kind of stuff that you hear about Mississippi, but there’s a lot of stories that have gone unheard down there. Sometimes I think Mississippi gets a bad rap, ‘cause there’s a lot of beautiful people that have come out of Mississippi like Muddy Waters. The goal was to say hey, you know I’ve seen some things, good and bad, but there’s still some beauty in Mississippi,” Brandon affirms.
Sanders has a way of taking pop tunes and reinventing them with jazzy arrangements. I asked him if he was the one who arranged “Human Nature” and Michael Jackson’s hit record, “Can’t Help It” (that Stevie Wonder wrote with talented vocalist Susaye Greene). It features the inventive vocals of Jazzmiea Horn.
“Yes – I did the arranging. Me and Willie did the arrangements on Human Nature. Can’t help It, that’s one of my favorite tunes of all time,” Brandon tells me with sincerity.
Jazzmiea appeared on his “Compton’s Finest” premier album too. Brandon invited her back and features her on this “Lasting Impressions” album. She sings the Stevie Wonder, Morris Broadnax and Clarence Paul tune “Until You Come Back to Me” and she also makes the standard “Our Love is Here to Stay” shine.
I ask the busy drummer, what’s next for Brandon Sanders?
“This year we go back in the studio in March. Every day I set up a list of things that I want to do. I always read, pray, workout, practice. Every day, in that same order. Because to do this, you’ve got to be disciplined. That’s what a lot of people don’t understand. When you’re pursuing your mission and you have a purpose, a ‘calling’ – that’s what you’ve got to do to accomplish your ultimate goal.”
Clearly, Brandon Sanders can check the box that says, “Mission Accomplished!”
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