| Eden Brent | |
| Background: | solo_singer |
| Birth Date: | 16 November 1965 |
| Birth Place: | Greenville, Mississippi, United States |
| Instruments: | Piano, vocals |
| Genre: | Blues, boogie-woogie |
| Occupations: | Musician |
| Years Active: | 1994–present |
| Label: | Yellow Dog Records |
| Website: | edenbrent.com |
Eden Brent (born November 16, 1965, in Greenville, Mississippi, United States) is an American musician on the independent Yellow Dog Records label. A blues pianist and vocalist, she combines boogie-woogie with elements of blues, jazz, soul, gospel and pop. Her vocal style has been compared to Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie and Aretha Franklin. She took lessons from Abie "Boogaloo" Ames, a traditional blues and boogie woogie piano player and eventually earned the nickname "Little Boogaloo."
In 2006, she won the Blues Foundation's International Blues Challenge. Along with other awards, Brent garnered two 2009 Blues Music Awards - one for Acoustic Artist of the Year, the other for Acoustic Album of the Year (Mississippi Number One). At The 14th Annual Independent Music Awards in 2015, Eden Brent won the award in the "Holiday Song" category for "Valentine".
Eden Brent was born in 1965 and raised in Greenville, Mississippi, where she attended Washington School. https://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/mississippi-musicians/eden-brent Brent studied jazz and music at the University of North Texas, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Music.
When she was 16, Eden Brent met the late blues pioneer, Abie Ames, and began to teach herself how to play his style. Brent has said,
"By the time I was 19, I’d nearly become sort of a groupie. I’d go hear him and request certain songs because I wanted to hear them and sort of watch over his shoulder a bit and watch the way he was playing. Sometimes I’d request the same thing over and over and then go home and try to learn it. Finally, after a few failures of not being able to pick it up on my own I was bold enough to ask him to teach me."[1]In 1985, Ames took her under his wing for 16 years, nicknaming her Little Boogaloo.[2] This apprenticeship advanced Brent’s talents. She was featured alongside Ames in the 1999 PBS documentary, Boogaloo & Eden: Sustaining the Sound, and in the 2002 South African production Forty Days in the Delta.[3]
Since launching her career, Eden travels the United States and abroad performing in festivals like Notodden, the Chicago Blues Festival, Cognac's Blues Passions, and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. She's a frequent piano bar host aboard the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise.[4]