Arnold Lee Band

My name is Arnold Lee I am a professional musician, saxophonist and composer. I am the son of bassist/composer Bill Lee and Susan Lee. I was born in 1985 and I was home-schooled and grew up in Fort Greene in Brooklyn New York. I started playing drums when I was two years old. being home-schooled gave me the opportunity to travel with my dad on tour and be in the recording studios with him in the early 1990's. I am not sure if home-schooling is for everybody but I really liked it, it gave me a chance to hangout and be friends and really communicate with people of all ages. My friend Javon Jackson brought me an alto saxophone for my seventh birthday, I kind of already new the ambature for the saxophone from watching my friend Donald Harrison play. I play double lip (I think lol) I got that from Donald.

Also a vast part of my upbringing revolved around the FGC (fighting game community). Playing video games was one of the first things where I really began to focus and practice for hours at doing something I love, and being in the FGC really opened up my mind to be very open and caring. In the arcades where I played nobody cared about race, gender or sexuality they just wanted to know could you play and have a good time. With Marvel vs Capcom 2 I began to take it very seriously and I was playing on a profesional level, I would train in Chinatown Fair with Justin Wong and Sanford Kelly, I was up to practicing eighteen hours a day. So when I switched my focus over to music I kind of applied what I had already learned about my concept of practicing.

I graduated college from The Oberlin Conservatory of Music where I had the chance to study with my good friends Gary Bartz, Marcus Belgrave, Paul Samuels, Robin Eubanks, Dennis Reynolds, Dan Wall and Ralph Jones and I have also studied with Patience Higgins and I get tips sometimes from Branford Marsalis. I played some baseball in college at Oberlin for my first year and my a little of my second year, but my sophomore year is when I decided I that I want to be a professional musician, and I turned my focus to music. I didn't have to force it, it was just kind of natural.

I have had the opportunity to learn perform and/or record with Bill Lee Frank Wess, Wallace Roney, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Iron Solomon, Kassa Overall, Tecla, Sullivan Fortner, Marcus Strickland, Spencer Murphy, Eden Ladin, Jason Brown, Tivon Pennicot, Meeko Isreal, EJ Strickland, Antoine Roney, Kate Ettinger, Alex Overington, Clifton Anderson, Orrin Evans, Stacy Dillard, Be Steadwell, Lawrence Clark, Luques Curtis, Zacai Curtis, Eric McPherson, Nasheet Waits, Duane Eubanks, Emanual Ruffler, Bazaar Royale, Rashan Carter, Kush Abadey, Aruan Ortiz, Lenny White,UA, Meeko Isreal, Rafiq Bhatia, Alex Ritz, Jack Hill, Ben Wolfe, Donald Edwards, Christopher Mees, Nina Moffitt, Jonathan Barber.