Pamela Fleming (born 10 October 1957) is an American musician who composes and plays

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

and flugelhorn. Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, her family moved to the suburb of New City, New York when she was a child. She grew up in New City and graduated from

Clarkstown High School North Clarkstown High School North is a high school located in New City, New York, United States, educating students in grades 9 through 12. It is one of two high schools in the Clarkstown Central School District (CCSD). Since 2006, North has offer ...

before attending the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music ...

. She graduated from Eastman in 1979 with a BM degree in music performance. Shortly after graduating, she formed Third Wind with Paula Kimper, another Eastman alumna. She also joined the ensemble Anomy, playing trumpet, synthesizer, and

spoken word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

. In 1985, she started an all-female

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

band, Steppin' Razor, with Jenny Hill and Nilda Richards. Steppin' Razor toured globally with

Burning Spear Winston Rodney OD (born 1 March 1945), better known by the stage name Burning Spear, is a Jamaican roots reggae singer-songwriter, vocalist and musician. Burning Spear is a Rastafarian and one of the most influential and long-standing roots ...

. In 1991, she started her own group, Fearless Dreamer. She also played with Natalie Merchant at the 1998

Lilith Fair Lilith Fair was a concert tour and travelling music festival, founded by Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Music Group's Dan Fraser and Terry McBride, and New York talent agent Marty Diamond. It took place during the summers of 1997 ...

. Fleming is a current member of blues/folk/world fusion/jazz group

Hazmat Modine Hazmat Modine is a musical group based in New York City and led by singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Wade Schuman. Their music is rooted in blues and also touches on folk, jazz and World music. The most recent lineup of the band circa ...

, playing trumpet on their second studio album, ''

Cicada The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into tw ...

''. She also plays with Metropolitan Klezmer and their all-female side project, Isle of Klezbos. With Metropolitan Klezmer, she also plays a

shofar A shofar ( ; from he, שׁוֹפָר, ) is an ancient musical horn typically made of a ram's horn, used for Jewish religious purposes. Like the modern bugle, the shofar lacks pitch-altering devices, with all pitch control done by varying ...

made from a

kudu The kudus are two species of antelope of the genus '' Tragelaphus'': * Lesser kudu, ''Tragelaphus imberbis'', of eastern Africa * Greater kudu, ''Tragelaphus strepsiceros'', of eastern and southern Africa The two species look similar, th ...

horn. Since 2006, she has played with the

Black Rock Coalition The Black Rock Coalition is a New York-based artists' collective and nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the creative freedom and works of black musicians. Founding and purpose The BRC was founded in 1985 in New York City by Vernon Reid ...

orchestra. She also played trumpet in the second incarnation of

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

, an all-female horn band first founded in 1972.

Discography

, '' People of the World'' (1986) *Burning Spear, '' Mistress Music'' (1988) *Burning Spear, '' Live in Paris Zenith '88'' (1989) * La Monte Young, ''The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer from the Four Dreams of China'' (1991) *

Dennis Brown Dennis Emmanuel Brown CD (1 February 1957 – 1 July 1999) was a Jamaican reggae singer. During his prolific career, which began in the late 1960s when he was aged eleven, he recorded more than 75 albums and was one of the major stars of lo ...

, ''Blazing'' (1992) *Primordial Source, ''Primordial Source'' (1995) *Primordial Source, ''Polarity'' (1996) * Metropolitan Klezmer, ''Yiddish for Travelers'' (1997) *

Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers was a Latin jazz, soul jazz and R&B group formed in 1959 by timbales player Henry "Pucho" Brown. Of the many musicians that worked in his group, Chick Corea is among them, Corea leaving prior to Pucho's recording ...

, ''Mucho Pucho'' (1997) *Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers,''Groovin' High'' (1997) *Chris Cunningham, ''Stories to Play'' (1998) *Fearless Dreamer, ''Fearless Dreamer'' (1998) * Firewater, '' The Ponzi Scheme'' (1998) *

Jimmy Scott James Victor Scott (July 17, 1925 – June 12, 2014), known professionally as Little Jimmy Scott or Jimmy Scott, was an American jazz vocalist known for his high natural contralto voice and his sensitivity on ballads and love songs. After ...

, ''Holding Back the Years'' (1998) *

Toots and the Maytals The Maytals, known from 1972 to 2020 as Toots and the Maytals, are a Jamaican musical group, one of the best known ska and rocksteady vocal groups. The Maytals were formed in the early 1960s and were key figures in popularizing reggae music. ...

, ''Ska Father'' (1998) *Mob Story, ''A Hip Hopera'' (2000) *Metropolitan Klezmer, ''Mosaic Persuasion'' (2001) *The Motives Project, ''So Much More'' (2001) *Nepo Soteri, ''Mother Nature'' (2001) *Rachelle Garniez, ''Crazy Blood'' (2001) *Terry Dame's, ''Monkey on a Rail'' (2002) *Afroditee, ''Sex in New York City'' (2003) *Isle of Klezbos, ''Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos'' (2003) *Metropolitan Klezmer, ''Surprising Finds'' (2003) *Rachelle Garniez, ''Luckyday'' (2003) *Stuffy Shmitt, ''Other People's Stuff'' (2003) *Bossa Nova Beatniks, ''Moonlit Bossa'' (2004) *Fearless Dreamer, ''Climb'' (2004) *Louis Atlas, ''Citizen of NYC'' (2004) *NYC Reggae Collective, ''AlieNation'' (2004) *Blue Number Nine, ''Living It Up in the New World'' (2005) *Stefanie Seskin, ''The Edge of Reason'' (2005) *Carla Lynne Hall, ''Supernova'' (2006) *

Easy Star All-Stars Easy Star All-Stars is a reggae collective founded in 1997 by Michael Goldwasser, Eric Smith, Lem Oppenheimer and Remy Gerstein of New York City-based Easy Star Records. The band is known for its reinterpretations of classic albums in reggae styl ...

, ''

Radiodread ''Radiodread'' is a 2006 tribute album by the Easy Star All-Stars that covers Radiohead's 1997 album ''OK Computer'' in reggae, ska and dub styles. History ''Radiodread'' producer and arranger Michael Goldwasser said: :''OK Computer'' has el ...

'' (2006) *

Corey Harris Corey Harris (born February 21, 1969, in Denver, Colorado, United States) is an American blues and reggae musician, currently residing in Charlottesville, Virginia. Along with Keb' Mo' and Alvin Youngblood Hart, he raised the flag of acoustic ...

, ''Zion Crossroads'' (2007) *

Gov't Mule Gov't Mule (pronounced "Government Mule") is an American Southern rock jam band, formed in 1994 as a side project of the Allman Brothers Band by guitarist Warren Haynes and bassist Allen Woody. Fans often refer to Gov't Mule simply as ''Mule'' ...

, '' Mighty High'' (2007) *Metropolitan Klezmer, ''Traveling Show'' (2007) *Easy Star All-Stars, '' Until That Day'' (2008) *Paprika, ''Pride of Brooklyn'' (2008) *Dub Poet Anton, ''What I Do'' (2009) *Easy Star All-Stars, ''

Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band ''Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band'' is a dub reggae tribute to the Beatles' album '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'', by the Easy Star All-Stars. It was released on April 14, 2009. Track listing #" Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club B ...

'' (2009) *Angela Johnson, ''It's Personal'' (2010) *Joseph Daley Earth Tones Ensemble, ''The Seven Deadly Sins'' (2010) * Natalie Merchant, ''

Leave Your Sleep ''Leave Your Sleep'' is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant. Produced by Merchant and Andres Levin, the double concept album is "a project about childhood" and is a collection of music adapted from 19th and 20th ...

'' (2010) *Paprika, ''Are We in Rio Yet'' (2010) *Easy Star All-Stars, '' First Light'' (2011) *

, ''

'' (2011) *Ananda Rasa Kirtan, ''Mulani Dub Kirtan'' (2013) *Sean McMorris, ''Lo & Behold'' (2013) *Angela Johnson, ''Naturally Me'' (2014) *Isle of Klezbos, ''Live from Brooklyn'' (2014) *Pamela Fleming's Dead Zombie Band, ''Rise and Dance'' (2014)

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, Pamela American women composers American women jazz musicians American jazz composers Women jazz composers American jazz trumpeters American reggae musicians 1957 births Living people Jazz musicians from New York (state) Musicians from New York City 20th-century American composers 21st-century American composers 20th-century trumpeters 21st-century trumpeters 20th-century American women musicians 21st-century American women musicians 20th-century women composers 21st-century women composers Women trumpeters 20th-century jazz composers 21st-century jazz composers