Tipped as a player to watch by the New York Times, Brandon Woody has garnered a huge reputation well before releasing an album, through his fiery live performances and his work with his band Upendo. Aptly, the name is the Swahili word for “love”, something that courses through Woody’s music, his work with his band and collaborators and his approach to life.




As we talk, his enthusiasm rises as he discusses the love for the important people in his life that drives him. “Love is such a multifaceted idea. You know? It’s like, how do you love on your mom? How do you love on your brother? How do you love on your sister? You want to honour the folks in your life, right?”



Alongside love, there’s another aspect to how Woody sees his creativity, his art and indeed his life and that’s struggle – it’s in the learning and mastery of his instrument, it’s in getting by every day and it’s in his history. Of his music, he says: “It feels like Black struggle and Black success. And it feels like my ancestors.”

Woody’s personal story is indivisible from his music. It runs through it, and he sees his art as an extension of himself. For all his talk of struggle, the music is joyous and uplifting – something that is incredibly important to him as a musician and a composer. “My story isn’t the struggle, it’s what happens on the other side. Music saved my life.” Woody is referencing the focus and aspiration that it gave him as a young person, before adding: “It kept me out of getting into other things.”

Speaking to Woody, it becomes abundantly clear why he named the album “For The Love Of It All” – it’s about embracing the ups and downs of life, reflecting on struggles but facing adversity with joy. His enthusiasm and passion for the music and for life itself are infectious.

Woody’s philosophy comes through in all his compositions, but there’s one that feels like a personal manifesto and which he has described as “the essence of the band – lead single “Real Love Part 1”. “I halfway wrote it in college,” he says. “I had this very open melody. I came back to Baltimore after dropping out and wrote it properly with Troy [Long – pianist in Upendo].” The track is built on a hopeful rising melody that for Woody feels like he’s “reaching for something” every time he plays it. 

Any listener coming to Brandon Woody’s music for the first time will feel the influence of modern jazz history and the greats whose work he has taken on board. But this is no exercise in nostalgia, as his work is also extremely forward-looking, coming off as a fresh and distinct take on post-bop fundamentals.

One of the most significant factors that shaped him as an artist and a bandleader has been the Baltimore scene. As a young child, he attended a jazz summer camp at the Eubie Blake Cultural Centre, a local institution named for a home-grown musical legend. It was here that he met saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Craig Alston, whose influence would be profound. “I always felt he was like a guardian angel in my life. Craig introduced all types of Black music to me at an early age. We were going through the music of Quincy Jones and Miles Davis, Michael Jackson and Freddie Hubbard.”

Alongside Alston, trumpeter Theljon Allen has been another inspiration from Baltimore. Woody met him at a jam session during his high school years. “I just heard him playing and I was like, man, this is such a distinct sound. It made me not only fall in love with his sound, but then also fall in love with myself.”

Bringing together Woody’s influences, from those classic artists he was introduced to by Craig Alston to the players and luminaries he has crossed paths with to date, such as Ambrose Akimusire and Stefon Harris, “For The Love Of It All” captures a moment in time for the artist. It’s a mirror held up to his journey.



He deliberately didn’t sit down to make a record with a concept in mind. He wanted it to feel “natural”, as he puts it. With a large body of work already written and his creative juices flowing all the time, the future is looking bright for Woody. Spurred on by his love for Baltimore, his band and contemporaries and the sheer joy of the music, he will surely continue to develop his characteristic and uplifting sound.

For now, the immediate future holds the album release and extensive touring plans in the US and beyond. He brims with excitement when discussing where 2025 will take him – motivated as ever by the love of it all.


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Andrew Taylor-Dawson is an Essex based writer and marketer. His music writing has been featured in UK Jazz News, The Quietus and Songlines. Outside music, he has written for The Ecologist, Byline Times and more.

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_{Header image: Brandon Woody. Photo: Deandre Mitchell.}