Biography

Brian Paulding is a trombone player, international tour manager, music educator, and composer. He is the cofounder and trombone player for Kotoko Brass, an instrumental Ghanaian dance band described by the Boston Globe as “propulsive, infectious party music.” He has performed to sold out crowds in Turkey, Germany, Georgia and across the USA at venues and festivals including the Blue Note (NYC), the Burlington Jazz Festival, and House of Blues Boston. In addition to a busy performance schedule, is on music faculty at Boston Arts Academy and is the Brass Instructor and Youth Latin Ensemble Director at Zumix, an award winning music and youth development organization in East Boston, MA.

In 2017, along with drummer Ben Paulding, Brian cofounded Kotoko Brass. Combining the brothers’ decades of varied musical experiences in performance, education, and ethnomusicology, the band melds the beautifully complex traditional drumming of Central Ghana, the sturdy bass and keyboards of the Caribbean, and the joyous horns of New Orleans. The band released their debut album, The Years of the Quiet Sun, in 2023 with a three week tour of Ghana which included performances at the Asante King’s palace and a collaboration with the dancers and singers of the Center For National Culture. The band has played throughout the northeast including performances at CRASHfest at House of Blues Boston, Drum Boogie Festival, and The Sinclair, and has shared stages with Red Baraat, Angelique Kidjo, and Femi Kuti.

Outside of his work with Kotoko Brass, Brian is an active freelance trombone player. He performs with Booty Vortex, Boston’s finest 70’s funk/disco band, as well as East Coast Soul, Massachusetts’ premier wedding band. As a sideman, Brian plays with VT soul singer Kat Wright, Brooklyn boogaloo band Spanglish Fly, and a wide variety of reggae, calypso, jazz, funk, and world music groups. From 2013 - 2016, he doubled as tour manager and trombone player for three international tours with Iyeoka and the Rock By Funk Tribe.

With a strong belief that youth music education needs more representation from educators experienced in culturally relevant music with multi-instrumental modern band skills, Brian is a passionate music educator and youth development worker. Since 2012, he has been the Brass Instructor and Youth Latin Ensemble coach at Zumix, an East Boston nonprofit organization dedicated to building community through music and creative technology. He is also full-time music faculty at Boston Arts Academy, teaching all wind instruments as well as directing the school Big Band and Brass Band. Brian is a Massachusetts Cultural Council Music Educators and Teaching Artist (META) fellow, and, in 2016 taught masterclasses in reggae and funk improvisation at the University of Trinidad and Tobago.

He is the composer and multi-instrumentalist behind DORCAS MORTON, a solo project in which Brian composes, plays all instruments, engineers and mixes all recordings. With eleven self-released albums, his ambient soundscape compositions have been featured in NPR’s Invisibilia podcast and Boston’s Illuminus Festival.

Brian holds an MA in Music Education from Longy School of Music, and a BA in Entrepreneurial Music Business/Management from Berklee College of Music with a minor in Africana Studies.