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https://soundprojections.blogspot.com/2016/09/charles-brown-1922-1999-legendary.html

PHOTO: CHARLES BROWN (1922-1999)

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/charles-brown-mn0000805298/biography

Charles Brown
(1922-1999)
Artist Biography by Bill Dahl

Blues ballad singer/pianist is a key transitional figure between 1940s cool jazz-influenced R&B and rock 'n' roll.

How many blues artists remained at the absolute top of their game after more than a half-century of performing? One immediately leaps to mind: Charles Brown. His incredible piano skills and laid-back vocal delivery remained every bit as mesmerizing at the end of his life as they were way back in 1945, when his groundbreaking waxing of "Drifting Blues" with guitarist Johnny Moore's Three Blazers invented an entirely new blues genre for sophisticated postwar revelers: an ultra-mellow, jazz-inflected sound perfect for sipping a late-night libation in some hip after-hours joint. Brown's smooth trio format was tremendously influential to a host of high-profile disciples -- Ray Charles, Amos Milburn, and Floyd Dixon, for starters.

Classically trained on the ivories, Brown earned a degree in chemistry before moving to Los Angeles in 1943. He soon hooked up with the Blazers (Moore and bassist Eddie Williams), who modeled themselves after Nat "King" Cole's trio but retained a bluesier tone within their ballad-heavy repertoire. With Brown installed as their vocalist and pianist, the Blazers' "Drifting Blues" for Philo Records remained on Billboard's R&B charts for 23 weeks, peaking at number two. Follow-ups for Exclusive and Modern (including "Sunny Road," "So Long," "New Orleans Blues," and their immortal 1947 Yuletide classic "Merry Christmas Baby") kept the Blazers around the top of the R&B listings from 1946 through 1948, until Brown opted to go solo.

If anything, Brown was even more successful on his own. Signing with Eddie Mesner's Aladdin logo, he visited the R&B Top Ten no less than ten times from 1949 to 1952, retaining his mournful, sparsely arranged sound for the smashes "Get Yourself Another Fool," the chart-topping "Trouble Blues" and "Black Night," and "Hard Times." Despite a 1956 jaunt to New Orleans to record with the Cosimo's studio band, Brown's mellow approach failed to make the transition to rock's brasher rhythms, and he soon faded from national prominence (other than when his second holiday perennial, "Please Come Home for Christmas," hit in 1960 on the King label). Occasionally recording without causing much of a stir during the '60s and '70s, Brown began to regroup by the mid-'80s. One More for the Road, a set cut in 1986 for the short-lived Blue Side logo, announced to anyone within earshot that Brown's talents hadn't diminished at all while he was gone (the set later re-emerged on Alligator). Bonnie Raitt took an encouraging interest in Brown's comeback bid, bringing him on tour with her as her opening act (thus introducing the blues vet to a whole new generation or two of fans). His recording career took off too, with a series of albums for Bullseye Blues (the first entry, 1990's All My Life, is especially pleasing), and more recently, a disc for Verve.

In his last years, Brown finally received at least a portion of the recognition he deserved for so long as a genuine rhythm and blues pioneer. But the suave, elegant Brown was by no means a relic, as anyone who witnessed his thundering boogie piano style will gladly attest; he returned in 1998 with So Goes Love before dying on January 21, 1999.

https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/charlesbrown

Charles Brown, 1922-1999

Charles Brown was born on September 13, 1922 (some sources give the year as 1920), in Texas City, Texas. His mother died when he was a baby, and he was raised by his grandparents, who made him learn to play the piano and the church organ. He stuck to his education, and eventually earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry with the intention of teaching the subject in school. However, after he joined the large migration of Texas blacks to Los Angeles during World War II, he quickly became aware of the jazz and blues scene taking shape there, and decided that he might do better to put his musical abilities to work.

Brown entered an amateur hour competition at Los Angeles's Lincoln Theater, a blues live performance mecca. Ironically he did not win the contest with a blues song but did a great interpretation of “Claire de Lune.” and for his encore followed with “Rhapsody in Blue.” On stage, Brown impressed the guitarist Johnny Moore, who was looking for a pianist-vocalist to complete his new group, the Three Blazers. Brown got the job and became the front man for a new kind of blues act, one that offered music of considerable complexity, and borrowed harmonies and instrumental techniques from the world of jazz without losing the directness and emotional depth of its rural blues roots.

When in the summer of 1945 Charles Brown recorded “Driftin’Blues,” it immediately expanded the language of the blues, shading it with an air of sophistication. This song was a huge hit running well into 1946. Charles was still in the Three Blazers, and continued with them for several more records then in 1949 he decided to go out on his own, as he realized that it was his songs that were making them popular in the R&B circuit.

He signed with Aladdin Records and put out “Get Yourself Another Fool,” “Trouble Blues,” and in 1950 another Charles Brown classic “Black Night.” He had arrived Big Time! He was constantly at the top of the R&B charts and kept it up through 1952. With such success on the radio and record charts, he was very much in demand as a performer and was popular on tour as well. He continued with Aladdin until 1956, the year he released “Merry Christmas Baby,” the perennial blues Christmas ballad. He followed this with “Please Come Home for Christmas.”

The laid-back, sophisticated style of cool blues singing Brown inspired a host of later performers as well, especially a young Ray Charles who was living out in Los Angeles during the Charles Brown glory years. His only rival on the scene would have been T-Bone Walker, who was a star about the same time, and even T-Bone picked up on some of his style of vocalizing. Blues giants B. B. King and Bobby “Blue” Bland, both mastered Brown's knack for infusing music with jazz subtlety without losing the blues feel, and Ivory Joe Hunter who went on to crossover into popular and even the country music with his smooth crooning blues. But Charles Brown was in a class by himself, and has remained as such ever since.

Brown's career went into decline during the rock and roll era, when white singers such as Elvis Presley modeled major elements of their styles on Brown's own, while black audiences moved on to the more modern sounds of Ray Charles and other pioneers of soul music.

His activity in the ‘60’s was sporadic at best. He was still able to get some gigs, but it was tough for him. His recordings with labels as Mainstream, Bluesway, and Jewel, went largely unnoticed. He surfaced in Kentucky playing in a gangster operated club, but things were drying up for the one time star. By the late ‘60s and into the ‘70s Brown, despite his wide knowledge of musical genres as varied as jazz, gospel, and classical, was reduced to scratching out an existence by playing piano bar dates in venues as far as Anchorage, Alaska, and working for a janitorial service. An appearance at the 1976 San Francisco Blues Festival did not kick start his dying career, and by the early 1980s, Brown contemplated retirement. “I figured that at my age, I should give it up because most of the people who knew me and my music were dead and gone,” he told Down Beat. But he was gradually drawn back into the field of active performing in the late 1980s, appearing at a series of dates with guitarist Danny Caron, who became his music director during the second phase of his career.

His comeback started in 1986 when he recorded “One More for the Road,” for Blueside. This was a well done album that did get some attention with the die hard blues aficionados, and consequently was reissued on Alligator in 1989, promoted properly and put Charles back on the road.

Brown recorded the “All My Life” album for the Bullseye label in 1990, assisted by Dr. John, with a producer and lineup of musicians that were also fans of his music, and gave him and the record the respect merited. He continued with Bullseye into 1994 and was in top form throughout. The records did a respectable showing in sales and he found a new market as well.

He appeared at such prestigious jazz venues as New York's Blue Note and Hollywood's Vine Street Bar and Grill. At the latter show, blues-rock vocalist and guitarist Bonnie Raitt about to embark on a major comeback of her own career was in attendance. Having idolized Brown for some years, she was thrilled to meet him in person, and the encounter led to an invitation for Brown to open for Raitt on the tour she undertook in connection with her multiplatinum “Nick of Time” album. Charles Brown was back!

The exposure Brown received nearly equaled that which he had enjoyed in his heyday, and new recording and performing opportunities began to flow the his way. His albums “Just a Lucky So and So,” “These Blues,” “Honey Dripper,” and 1998's “So Goes Love” (the last three recorded for the jazz- oriented Verve label) showcased his nearly undiminished keyboard and vocal skills.

In 1999 Brown was scheduled to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But he had been in declining health for several years, and before he could receive this honor in a life that had received shamefully few of them, Charles Brown died of congestive heart failure in Oakland, California, on January 21, 1999.

Charles Brown was one of the best, and original singers in the history of Rhythm and Blues.

Source: James Nadal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Brown_(musician)

Charles Brown

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brown performing in 1996

Tony Russell "Charles" Brown^[1] (September 13, 1922 – January 21, 1999) was an American singer and pianist whose soft-toned, slow-paced nightclub style influenced West Coast blues in the 1940s and 1950s. Between 1949 and 1952, Brown had seven Top 10 hits in the U.S. Billboard R&B chart.^[2] His best-selling recordings included "Driftin' Blues" and "Merry Christmas Baby".^[3]

Early life

Brown was born in Texas City, Texas. As a child he loved music and received classical music training on the piano.^[4] He graduated from Central High School in Galveston, Texas, in 1939 and Prairie View A&M College in 1942 with a degree in chemistry. He then became a chemistry teacher at George Washington Carver High School in Baytown, Texas, a mustard gas worker at the Pine Bluff Arsenal at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and an apprentice electrician at a shipyard in Richmond, California, before settling in Los Angeles in 1943.^[1]

Career

Early success with Johnny Moore

In Los Angeles, an influx of African Americans from the South during World War II created an integrated nightclub scene in which black performers tended to minimize the rougher blues elements of their style. The blues-club style of a light rhythm bass and right-hand tinkling of the piano and smooth vocals became popular, epitomized by the jazz piano of Nat King Cole. When Cole left Los Angeles to perform nationally, his place was taken by Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, featuring Brown's gentle piano and vocals.^[5]

The Three Blazers signed with Exclusive Records, and their 1945 recording of "Drifting Blues", with Brown on piano and vocals, stayed on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart for six months, putting Brown at the forefront of a musical evolution that changed American musical performance.^[6] Brown led the group in a series of further hits for Aladdin over the next three years, including "New Orleans Blues" and the original version of "Merry Christmas Baby" (both in 1947) and "More Than You Know" (1948).^[7] Brown's style dominated the influential Southern California club scene on Central Avenue, in Los Angeles, during that period. He influenced such performers as Floyd Dixon, Cecil Gant, Ivory Joe Hunter, Percy Mayfield, Johnny Ace and Ray Charles.^[5]

Solo success

In the late 1940s, a rising demand for blues was driven by a growing audience among white teenagers in the South, which quickly spread north and west. Blues singers such as Louis Jordan, Wynonie Harris and Roy Brown were getting much of the attention, but what writer Charles Keil dubs "the postwar Texas clean-up movement in blues" was also beginning to have an influence, driven by blues artists such as T-Bone Walker, Amos Milburn and Brown. Their singing was lighter and more relaxed, and they worked with bands and combos that had saxophone sections and played from arrangements.^[8]

Brown left the Three Blazers in 1948 and formed his own trio with Eddie Williams (bass) and Charles Norris (guitar). He signed with Aladdin Records and had immediate success with "Get Yourself Another Fool" and then had one of his biggest hits, "Trouble Blues", in 1949, which stayed at number one on the Billboard R&B chart for 15 weeks in the summer of that year. He followed with "In the Evening When the Sun Goes Down", "Homesick Blues", and "My Baby's Gone", before having another R&B chart-topping hit with "Black Night", which stayed at number one for 14 weeks from March to June 1951.^[7]

His final hit for several years was "Hard Times" in 1951. Brown's approach was too mellow to survive the transition to the harsher rhythms of rock and roll, despite his recording in Cosimo Matassa's New Orleans studio in 1956, and he faded from national attention.^[4] Though he was unable to compete with the more aggressive sound that was increasing in popularity, he had a small, devoted audience, and his songs were covered by the likes of John Lee Hooker and Lowell Fulson.

His "Please Come Home for Christmas", a hit for King Records in 1960, remained seasonally popular.^[3] "Please Come Home for Christmas" had sold over one million copies by 1968 and was awarded a gold disc in that year.^[9]

In the 1960s Brown recorded two albums for Mainstream Records.

Later career

In the 1980s Brown made a series of appearances at the New York City nightclub Tramps. As a result of these appearances he signed a recording contract with Blue Side Records and recorded One More for the Road in three days. Blue Side Records closed soon after, but distribution of its records was picked up by Alligator Records. Soon after the success of One More for the Road, Bonnie Raitt helped usher in a comeback tour for Brown.^[10]

He began a recording and performing career again, under the musical direction of the guitarist Danny Caron, to greater success than he had achieved since the 1950s. Other members of Charles's touring ensemble included Clifford Solomon on tenor saxophone, Ruth Davies on bass and Gaylord Birch on drums.^[3] Several records received Grammy Award nominations. In the 1980s Brown toured widely as the opening act for Raitt.

Tributes and awards

Brown was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1996^[11] and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.^[12] He was a recipient of a 1997 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the highest honor in the folk and traditional arts in the United States.^[13]

Brown was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album three times: in 1991 for All My Life, 1992 for Someone To Love and 1995 for Charles Brown's Cool Christmas Blues.^[14] Between 1987 and 2005, he was nominated for seventeen Blues Music Awards (formerly known as the W. C. Handy Awards) in multiple categories, with a win in the Blues Instrumentalist: Piano/Keyboard category in 1991, and wins in the Male Blues Vocalist category in 1993 and 1995.^[11]

Death

Brown died of congestive heart failure in 1999 in Oakland, California,^[15] and was interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery, in Inglewood, California.^[10]

Discography

Releases by Brown with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers are located in that discography.

As leader

Drifting Blues (Score, 1957)
Sings Christmas Songs (King, 1961)
The Great Charles Brown That Will Grip Your Heart (King, 1963)
Boss of the Blues (Mainstream, 1964)
Ballads My Way (Mainstream, 1965)
Legend! (Bluesway, 1970)
Blues 'n' Brown (Jewel, 1972)
Great Rhythm & Blues Oldies Vol. 2 Charles Brown Blues (Spectrum, 1974)
Merry Christmas Baby (Big Town, 1977)
Music, Maestro, Please (Big Town, 1978)
Please Come Home for Christmas (Gusto, 1978)
One More for the Road (Blue Side, 1986)
All My Life (Bullseye Blues, 1990)
Someone to Love (Bullseye Blues, 1992)
Blues and Other Love Songs (Muse, 1992)
These Blues (Gitanes/Verve, 1994)
Just a Lucky So and So (Bullseye Blues, 1994)
Charles Brown's Cool Christmas Blues (Bullseye Blues, 1994)
Live (Charly Blues, 1995)
Honey Dripper (Gitanes/Verve, 1996)
So Goes Love (Verve, 1998)
In a Grand Style (Bullseye Blues, 1999)

Aladdin releases

3020 "Get Yourself Another Fool" (RR609) b/w "Ooh! Ooh! Sugar" (RR608), 1948, released 1949 (Billboard R&B chart #4)^[7]
3021 "A Long Time" (RR617) (Billboard R&B chart #9) b/w "It's Nothing" (RR612), 1949 (Billboard R&B chart #13)^[7]
3024 "Trouble Blues" (RR613) b/w "Honey Keep Your Mind on Me" (RR600), 1949 (Billboard R&B chart #1, 15 weeks)^[7]
3030 "In the Evening When the Sun Goes Down" (RR611) b/w "Please Be Kind" (RR616), 1949 (Billboard R&B chart #4)^[7]
3039 "Homesick Blues" (RR603) b/w "Let's Have a Ball" (RR677), 1949 (billed as Charles Brown & His Smarties) (Billboard R&B chart #5)^[7]
3044 "Tormented" (RR673) b/w "Did You Ever Love a Woman" (RR679), 1949, released 1950
3051 "My Baby's Gone" (RR1521) b/w "I Wonder When My Baby's Coming Home" (RR604), 1950 (Billboard R&B chart #6)^[7]
3060 "Repentance Blues" (RR1522) b/w "I've Got That Old Feeling" (RR1529), 1950
3066 "I've Made Up My Mind" (RR1528) b/w "Again" (RR1520), 1950
3071 "Texas Blues" (RR1525) b/w "How High the Moon" (RR607), 1950
3076 "Black Night" (RR1619) b/w "Once There Lived a Fool" (RR1623), 1950, released 1951 (Billboard R&B chart #1, 14 weeks)^[7]
3091 "I'll Always Be in Love with You" (RR1621) b/w "The Message" (RR1648), 1950, released 1951 (Billboard R&B chart #7)^[7]
3092 "Seven Long Days" (RR1620) b/w "Don't Fool with My Heart" (RR1527), 1950, released 1951 (Billboard R&B chart #2)^[7]
3116 "Hard Times" (RR1752) b/w "Tender Heart" (RR1750), 1951, released 1952 (Billboard R&B chart #7)^[7]
3120 "Still Water" (RR1751) b/w "My Last Affair" (RR602), 1951, released 1952
3138 "Gee" (RR1523) b/w "Without Your Love (RR1531), 1950, released 1952
3157 "Rollin' Like a Pebble in the Sand" (RR2018) b/w "Alley Batting" (RR674), 1952
3163 "Evening Shadows" (RR2017) b/w "Moonrise" (RR1650), 1952
3176 "Rising Sun" (RR2019) b/w "Take Me" (RR676), 1952, released 1953
3191 "I Lost Everything" (UN2125) b/w "Lonesome Feeling" (UN2127), 1953
3200 "Don't Leave Poor Me" (UN2126) b/w "All My Life" (RR1649), not released
3209 "Cryin' and Driftin' Blues" (RR2212) b/w "P.S. I Love You" (RR2215), 1953 (billed as Charles Brown with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers)
3220 "Everybody's Got Troubles (RR2254) b/w "I Want to Fool Around with You" (RR2257), 1953, released 1954 (billed as Charles Brown with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers)
3235 "Let's Walk" (RR2253) b/w "Cryin' Mercy" (RR2214), 1953, released 1954 (billed as Charles Brown with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers)
3235 "Let's Walk" (RR2253) b/w "Blazer's Boogie" (111B) (re-release) 1953, released 1954 (billed as Charles Brown with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers)
3254 "My Silent Love (RR2255) b/w "Foolish" (RR601), 1953, released 1954 (billed as Charles Brown with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers)
3272 "Honey Sipper" (RR2328) b/w "By the Bend of the River" (RR2329), 1954
3284 "Nite After Nite" (RR2331) b/w "Walk with Me" (RR2332), 1954, released 1955
3290 "Fool's Paradise" (CAP2486) b/w "Hot Lips and Seven Kisses (Mambo)" (CAP2484), 1955 (billed as Charles Brown with Ernie Freeman's Combo)
3296 "My Heart Is Mended" (CAP2483) b/w "Trees, Trees" (CAP2487), 1955 (billed as Charles Brown with Ernie Freeman's Combo)
3316 "Please Don't Drive Me Away" (CAP2489) b/w "One Minute to One" (CAP2488), 1955, released 1956 (billed as Charles Brown with Ernie Freeman's Combo)
3339 "I'll Always Be in Love with You" (NO2725) (re-recording) b/w "Soothe Me" (NO2726), 1956
3342 "Confidential" (NO2754) b/w "Trouble Blues" (reissue), 1956
3348 "Merry Christmas Baby" (NO2730) (re-recording) b/w "Black Night" (reissue), 1956
3348 "Black Night" (reissue) b/w "Ooh! Ooh! Sugar" (reissue), 1957 (post-Christmas re-release)
3366 "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie" (NO2727) b/w "Please Believe Me" (NO2728), 1956, released 1957
3422 "Hard Times" (reissue) b/w "Ooh! Ooh! Sugar" (reissue), 1958

Imperial releases

5830 "Fool's Paradise" (reissue) b/w "Lonesome Feeling" (reissue), 1962
5902 "Merry Christmas Baby" (reissue) b/w "I Lost Everything" (reissue), 1962
5905 "Drifting Blues" (reissue) b/w "Black Night" (reissue), 1963
5961 "Please Don't Drive Me Away" (reissue) b/w "I'm Savin' My Love for You" (RR2330), 1963

East West (Atlantic subsidiary) release

106 "When Did You Leave Heaven" (EW-2753) b/w "We've Got a Lot in Common" (EW-2755), 1957, released 1958

Ace releases

561 "I Want to Go Home" (with Amos Milburn) (S-253) b/w "Educated Fool" (with Amos Milburn) (S-254), 1959
599 "Sing My Blues Tonight" (S-843) b/w "Love's Like a River" (S-844), 1960

Teem (Ace subsidiary) release

1008 "Merry Christmas Baby" (A-1113-63) b/w "Christmas Finds Me Oh So Sad (Please Come Home for Christmas)" (A-1114-63), 1961, released 1963

King releases

5405 Charles Brown, "Please Come Home for Christmas" (K4912) b/w Amos Milburn, "Christmas Comes but Once a Year" (K4913), 1960
5439 "Baby Oh Baby" (K4992) b/w "Angel Baby" (K4993), 1961
5464 "I Wanna Go Back Home" (with Amos Milburn) (K10607) b/w "My Little Baby" (with Amos Milburn) (K10608), 1961
5523 "This Fool Has Learned" (K10892) b/w "Butterfly" (K10893), 1961
5530 "It's Christmas All Year Round" (K10897) b/w "Christmas in Heaven" (K10947), 1961
5570 "Without a Friend" (K10983) b/w "If You Play with Cats" (K10984), 1961
5722 "I'm Just a Drifter" (K11405) b/w "I Don't Want Your Rambling Letters" (K11406), 1963
5726 "It's Christmas Time" (K10898) b/w "Christmas Finds Me Lonely Wanting You" (K10950), 1961, released 1963
5731 "Christmas Questions" (K10954) b/w "Wrap Yourself in a Christmas Package" (K10956), 1961, released 1963
5802 "If You Don't Believe I'm Crying (Take a Look at My Eyes)" (K11687) b/w "I Wanna Be Close" (K11689), 1964
5825 "Lucky Dreamer" (K11688) b/w "Too Fine for Crying" (K11690), 1964
5852 "Come Home" (K11691) b/w "Blow Out All the Candles (Happy Birthday to You)" (K11692), 1964
5946 "Christmas Blues" (K10948) b/w "My Most Miserable Christmas" (K10955), 1961, released 1964
5947 "Christmas Comes but Once a Year" (K10951) b/w "Bringing In a Brand New Year" (K10949), 1961, released 1964

Mainstream release

607 "Pledging My Love" (R5KM-7389) b/w "Tomorrow Night" (R5KM-7390), 1965

Ace release

775 "Please Come Home for Christmas" (92772-A) (reissue) b/w "Merry Christmas Baby" (92772-1B) (reissue), 1966

King releases

6094 "Regardless" (K12330) b/w "The Plan" (K12331), 1967
6192 "Hang On a Little Longer" (K12723) b/w "Black Night" (K12724) (re-recording), 1968
6194 "Merry Christmas Baby" (K12725) (re-recording) b/w "Let's Make Every Day a Christmas Day" (K10946), 1968
6420 "For the Good Times" (K14276) b/w "Lonesome and Driftin'" (K14277), 1973

External links

Charles Brown at AllMusic
"Charles Brown". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/25/arts/charles-brown-76-blues-pianist-and-singer.html

Charles Brown, 76, Blues Pianist and Singer
by PETER WATROUS
January 25, 1999
New York Times

Charles Brown, the singer of the hit ''Merry Christmas Baby'' and a member of Johnny Moore and the Three Blazers, died on Thursday in Oakland, Calif. Mr. Brown, who was 76 and lived in Oakland, was to have been inducted into the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame in March.

The cause was congestive heart failure, said a spokesman at his management company.

Mr. Brown, toward the end of his career, had benefited from a revived interest in his art, partly helped by support from the singer Bonnie Raitt. But in the 1940's and 1950's, Mr. Brown, as part of the Three Blazers and on his own, was a star in the new black music that was coming out of postwar Los Angeles. Though in the last part of his career Mr. Brown played the role of the blues pianist and singer, he was, as so many of the musicians in the rhythm-and-blues scene, well versed in jazz, gospel and classical music.

Mr. Brown also had a bachelor's degree in chemistry, which led him to seek work in California during World War II. He landed in Los Angeles, abandoned chemistry and took work as an elevator man near Central Avenue, Los Angeles's center of jazz and rhythm-and-blues. He won a spot at the amateur hour at the Lincoln Theater, much like the Apollo's in Harlem, and in the audience were Mr. Moore, a guitarist, and his friend Eddie Williams, a bassist. They needed a pianist and singer, and hired Mr. Brown. The group became the Three Blazers.

The group became one of the premier examples of the new, sophisticated rhythm-and-blues that was replacing jazz as popular music among blacks. Like Nat (King) Cole's trio (which featured Mr. Moore's brother Oscar on guitar), the group mixed swing, blues and often-advanced harmony, and placed Mr. Brown's voice out in front. In 1945 they recorded Mr. Brown's composition ''Drifting Blues,'' which became a hit, and in its introspective, sophisticated way became a template for a new style.

Mr. Brown's singing, casual and with a drawl, was intimate and in the jazz crooning tradition, even if the group's sound was deeply based in blues. One sign of the influence of Mr. Brown is that Ray Charles's early recordings are a direct imitation of his style; others are that Frankie Laine and Kay Starr were regulars at Mr. Brown's recording sessions, and scores of rhythm-and-blues singers based their careers on his style.

In 1948, Mr. Brown went on his own and began recording under his name; a year later he married the rhythm-and-blues singer Mabel Scott. In 1951, he had a hit performing ''Black Night,'' and in 1952 he had another with a tune written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, ''Hard Times.''

For the next several decades, Mr. Brown's style, replaced by more modern black music, fell out of favor, and by the 1970's Mr. Brown was working as a teacher and janitor. By the end of the 70's, European record companies were interested in him, and his career flourished. Until recently, Mr. Brown spent much of his time touring and recording. In the early 1990's, he toured as Ms. Raitt's opening act, and that brought him to a new market.

There are no survivors.

http://www.texascity-library.org/history/development/charles_brown.php

Texas City History
Charles Brown, blues musician

Charles Brown was born in Texas City, Texas, on Sept. 13 in either 1920 or 1922. His mother died while Brown was still an infant, so Brown was raised by his grandparents, Swanee and Conquest Simpson, also of Texas City. Brown's grandmother had high standards for her grandson, and insisted that he learn to play the piano and attend college, after which she hoped he might become a schoolteacher (Deffaa, 1996). Swanee Simpson began Charles' musical education herself, exposing him to gospel, jazz, and classical music. He also took lessons from a local teacher, Mrs. Wallace, in addition to Janice Felder and Cora Gamble of Galveston (Tosches, 1999). Much of Brown's early performing experience was at the Barbour's Chapel Baptist Church, where he played the piano and sang (Deffaa, 1996). A nearby uncle taught Brown guitar, kazoo, and blues singing. Brown attended Central High School in Galveston. By that time, he was playing the piano in Galveston clubs along with two teachers from Central High, Fleming Huff and Costello James (Tosches, 1999).

After spending a summer as an orderly at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Brown attended Prairie View A&M, where he majored in chemistry and math and minored in education. Upon completing his degree in 1942, Brown briefly taught school at Carver High School in Baytown but then left to join the civil service as a junior chemist in Pine Bluff, Ark. (Tosches, 1999). Unsatisfied with the work environment in Arkansas, Brown decided to move to Los Angeles, Calif., to try his hand as a professional musician. When he first arrived in L.A., Brown worked as an elevator operator in the Broadway Department Store (Deffaa, 1996). He supplemented his income by playing piano in a local church. Brown regularly played piano in various night clubs, and by the end of 1943 he was playing the International House, a popular night spot for blues music, near Chinatown (Deffaa, 1996).

Johnny Moore first heard Brown play at an amateur night contest hosted by LA's Lincoln Theatre (Deffaa, 1996). Impressed by Brown's ability, Moore recruited him as a pianist and vocalist in his group, Johnny Moore's Three Blazers. The Three Blazers signed a contract with Philo Records executives Sammy Goldberg and Eddie Mesner to record Brown's "Driftin' Blues." The record sold more than 350,000 copies, making it the highest-selling album the group ever recorded; unfortunately, the band's contract with Philo Records did not include royalties, so the Blazers only received a total of $800 for their efforts. "Driftin' Blues" appeared on the Billboard Race Charts (which was the precursor to Billboard's R&B charts — the name was changed in 1949) for 23 weeks in 1946 and peaked at #2 (Deffaa, 1996). The record also received a Cash Box award that same year. The band played the Apollo Theatre in New York City and then toured the United States from 1946-1948. During that time the band released the following songs which also appeared on the Billboards Race Chart (Deffaa, 1996):

1946: "Driftin' Blues", "Sunny Road", and "So Long"
1947: "New Orleans Blues" (13 weeks), "Changeable Woman Blues", and "Merry Christmas Baby"
1948: "Groovey Movie Blues", "Jilted Blues", "More than You Know", and "Lonesome Blues"
1949: "Where Can I Find My Baby"

Charles Brown left the Three Blazers in 1949 to pursue a solo career. He released a number of solo recordings including, "Get Yourself Another Fool," "Black Night," "Hard Times" and "Trouble Blues" (Nothing, 1993). Brown's seasonal hit, "Please Come Home for Christmas," released in 1960, remained a holiday favorite for several decades.

Despite Brown's early success in the music industry, the 1960s and 1970s were a difficult period in his professional life; he barely scraped by as a musician (Russell, 2006). Things looked up for Brown in the 1980s when he was rediscovered by blues listeners after participating in a tour orchestrated by Bonnie Raitt, a contemporary blues musician. Brown's earlier material was re-released, and he recorded new records, including All My Life, which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1990 (Nothing, 1993). In 1988 he was featured in the PBS documentary "The American Experience: That Rhythm, Those Blues." He received the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1997. That same year he also received the W.C. Handy Award, which is now known as the Blues Music Award. In 1999, the same year as his death, Brown was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

References

http://rubbercityreview.com/2010/09/charles-browns-blues/

Charles Brown’s Blues
September 17, 2010
Rubber City Review

Call it “supper club blues” if you want. Just don’t call it second-rate.

Charles Brown is one of those artists who helps make the case that blues is a diverse art form – with the opposite end of the spectrum being someone like, say, helmeted wildman Bob Log III… someone who writes a song called Boob Scotch, and it requires no metaphorical analysis whatsoever.

Brown, on the other hand, wrote and performed blues that could be described as urbane and at times elegant, but rarely without substance. And the best of his songs convey a depth of feeling that can match anything in the John Lee Hooker catalog… Black Night

Born in Texas City, TX, in 1922, Brown was classically trained on the piano as a child. Then he got a taste of the good stuff – especially after he moved to Los Angeles during World War II and was exposed to the city’s bustling, blues-based nightclub scene. At that time, R&B and blues legends like Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker, Wynonie Harris and Pee Wee Crayton were rockin’ the clubs along L.A.’s Central Avenue. And Brown combined that visceral sound with his more refined tendencies, creating a unique melding of sophistication and soul that defined his music over the next five decades.

Brown’s classic stuff was recorded from 1945 up to the heyday of rock ‘n roll in the mid-‘50s, and mostly on the L.A.-based Modern and Aladdin labels. You can hear a strong Nat King Cole influence in these recordings, with a heavy emphasis on softly crooned ballads. And that was the intended effect – Brown started out as a piano player for guitarist Johnny Moore, whose brother, Oscar, played guitar for Cole. Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers were hoping to capture some of that “Sepia Sinatra” magic themselves, with that same warm and accessible sound.

But Brown was far bluesier than Cole. As R&B legend Johnny Otis points out in his book “Upside Your Head! Rhythm and Blues on Central Avenue,” Brown’s career was launched by a tune that had very little to do with the Cole songbook (Otis played drums on this milestone session with Brown): “At first, Charles was reluctant to record ‘Driftin’ Blues’ because it was based on a gospel song his grandmother had taught him. We had a hard time convincing him that it was alright to adapt a gospel song to a blues love song. When he finally agreed, he poured his heart into the record – not in the Nat King Cole manner – but in that deep and soulful style that soon had many young R&B singers trying to sound like him.” Driftin’ Blues

One of those young singers was Ray Charles, and it’s interesting to listen to Charles’ early recordings on the Swing Time label. Apparently, Ray Charles had bet the house on Charles Brown, just as Brown did with Cole: Blues Before Sunrise/Ray Charles

Brown had a great run during the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, becoming one of the most popular artists of the era. He scored number one R&B hits with Trouble Blues and Black Night, and several of his other tunes – including Hard Times, Seven Long Days, Get Yourself Another Fool and, of course, Driftin’ Blues – cracked the top 10. In his book “The Real Rhythm and Blues,” British music writer Hugh Gregory underscores the significance of Driftin’: “…it made the blues cool – the blues would no longer be associated with down-home hicks from the sticks.” An arguable point, but still valid.

Charles Brown, the lean years

But the arrival of rock ‘n roll in the mid-‘50s didn’t bode well for Brown, who suddenly found himself on the wrong end of the youth curve. He made a few game attempts to toughen up his sound – recording one session in 1956 with the crème de la crème of New Orleans musicians, including the great Earl Palmer on drums and the powerful horns of Lee Allen and Red Tyler. And although the session was a success from a creative standpoint, songs like I’ll Always Be In Love With You didn’t exactly light up the charts: I’ll Always Be In Love With You

One thing that sustained Brown through the Sixties and Seventies was his fortuitous decision to record a couple of Christmas novelty songs. The first, Merry Christmas, Baby, was recorded in 1956 near the end of his tenure with Aladdin records, and the second was waxed in ’61 on the Cincinnati-based King label. Here’s a taste: Please Come Home For Christmas

So although these holiday songs kept him booked and on the road over the next couple decades, he became sort of a footnote in the history of R&B – a towering figure to other legends like Johnny Otis and Ray Charles, but largely unknown in the public eye.

All that changed in 1989, when an album he cut for the obscure Blue Side label was picked up by Alligator Records, which was riding high with a string of blues-based albums that sounded like they were recorded with an Eighties rock rhythm section. Brown’s album, “One More For The Road,” was a complete throwback – unlike anything else on Alligator’s catalog. And it set the stage for one of the most remarkable second acts in music history.

Brown eventually signed on to the Bullseye label, a blues subsidiary of Rounder Records. And it probably had a lot to do with the strength of “One More For The Road” – as well as the unqualified support of long-time fan Bonnie Raitt, who later toured and recorded with Brown. One could argue that he had emerged from the lean years as an even stronger and more formidable talent. His voice certainly had more edge and weight, and his piano playing had evolved from satisfying to awe-inspiring. Listen to the incredible opening to I Stepped in Quicksand. I Stepped in Quicksand

There’s a lot to love from this second phase of Brown’s career, but I’m partial to his 1990 release, “All My Life,” which includes a fine guest appearance by Dr. John. Credit goes to guitarist Danny Caron, who served as Brown’s arranger and musical director throughout the comeback, and Bullseye producer/fellow keyboard player Ron Levy, who resisted the temptation to make Brown sound even remotely contemporary. “All My Life” is a wide-ranging album that moves from unaccompanied ballads to full-blown R&B gems like this one, with Dr. John on organ: That’s A Pretty Good Love

Brown was signed by the Verve jazz label in ’94 and released three more albums before he passed away in 1999. Their most obvious strengths are Brown’s voice and piano playing, both of which had only gotten better with age. I’ll close with this cut from his first Verve release, “These Blues” – a great example of the cool sound of Charles Brown:

A Sunday Kind of Love

https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/charles-brown

Courtesy of the Rock Hall Library and Archive
1999

Category: Early Influences

Charles Brown was a major musical figure in the pre-rock and roll era of the late Forties and early Fifties.

As a member of Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers and also as the leader of his own trio and a solo artist, the West Coast-based singer/pianist recorded a string of R&B hits in his self-described “blue ballad” style. These included three of the most popular R&B singles of the era: “Driftin’ Blues,” “Trouble Blues” and “Black Night.”

Often cited as an influence upon Ray Charles, Brown performed in an intimate, mellow style that, because of its polish and sophistication, has been referred to as “nightclub blues” or “cocktail blues.” Brown also became known for his seasonal-themed blues songs, particularly “Merry Christmas Baby” and “Please Come Home for Christmas.” Though his roots were in Texas, Brown came to epitomize a smooth, mellow blues style that became identified with the West Coast.

During the late Forties and early Fifties, Brown was the most popular blues singer of the day.

Brown earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and worked as a schoolteacher and chemist before opting for a career in music. In 1943 he headed west and settled a year later in Los Angeles, where he joined Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers. Featuring Brown on piano and Moore on guitar, the trio patterned itself after Nat King Cole’s trio, which included Johnny’s brother Oscar. Recording for a variety of labels, Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers found success with “Driftin’ Blues,” “New Orleans Blues,” “More Than You Know” and “Merry Christmas Baby,” to name just four of the 13 Top Ten R&B hits the trio had with Brown before he left to form the Charles Brown Trio in 1948. While at Aladdin Records, Brown had huge hits with “Trouble Blues” and “Black Night,” which topped the R&B charts for 15 and 14 weeks, respectively.

Brown’s mellow blues stylings fell out of favor during the rock and roll revolution of the Fifties, but he continued to record for such labels as Aladdin, King, Jewel and Imperial. The enduring popularity of his bluesy Christmas classics-"Merry Christmas Baby” and “Please Come Home to Christmas"-annually raised his profile, with the latter making the seasonal charts for ten years. All the while, Brown received steady bookings on the club circuit, and interest on the part of European record labels remained high. Brown’s career received a series of boosts in the late Eighties and early Nineties. Alligator Records reissued One More for the Road, a fine collection of standards that drew positive notices. He made a series of well-received albums-including the classic All My Life-for the Bullseye Blues label, a Rounder subsidiary. Brown appeared with Ruth Brown in the PBS documentary That Rhythm...Those Blues. Bonnie Raitt took him on tour as her opening act in the early Nineties. In 1997, he was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts at a White House ceremony. Brown died at 76 of heart failure in early 1999.”

Inductee: Charles Brown (piano, vocals; born 9/13/22, died 1/21/99)

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Charles-Brown-Gets-His-Reward-Raitt-Hooker-2823465.php

Charles Brown Gets His Reward / Raitt, Hooker celebrate R&B veteran's comeback
by Joel Selvin, Chronicle Pop Music Critic
November 4, 1997
San Francisco Chronicle

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Oakland's Paramount Theater plays host to Charles Brown 75th birthday Bash. San Francisco Jazz Festival. Bonnie Raitt and Ruth Brown join the celebration to honor Brown. Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor

Oakland's Paramount Theater plays host to Charles Brown 75th birthday Bash. San Francisco Jazz Festival. Charles Brown accepts a round of applause. Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor

Not long ago rhythm-and-blues giant Charles Brown was working as a janitor, although he was always careful with his fingers because he knew he would return to the piano someday.

But he probably would never have guessed he would celebrate his 75th birthday in such grand musical style. At the Paramount Theatre in Oakland on Sunday he was saluted by greats such as Bonnie Raitt, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Scott and Ruth Brown before an adoring house of old and new fans. Charles Brown is not just a landmark stylist in modern American music, a figure whose music helped shape the sound of such disparate artists as Ray Charles and Sammy Davis Jr., but also a truly beloved man. "You can have those Grammys," shouted a jubilant Bonnie Raitt. "I'll take Charles Brown." As the lead vocalist and pianist with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers and later, with his own solo recordings, Charles Brown was a huge star among black audiences in the late '40s, although he was unknown to the white world. As styles changed, Brown's popularity slipped until, living in Berkeley, he could no longer find work as a musician.

His return, nurtured by guitarist Danny Caron, has been bountiful. Only a few weeks ago, Brown appeared at the White House, where first lady Hillary Clinton presented him with a Heritage Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts. His appearance at the Paramount capped this year's San Francisco Jazz Festival.

And when the money started coming in again, Brown moved from his studio apartment in a Berkeley senior-citizen housing project into one of the project's one-bedroom units downstairs.

A sequined cap now replaces the sleek wigs he used to wear, and Brown has some physical infirmities, but with his long, elegant fingers on the keyboard and his smooth-as-scotch voice on the microphone, he is as commanding as ever.

He sang a duet with Raitt, "Someone to Love," from one of his recent records. He joined Ruth Brown on a version of her first hit, "So Long," a record that dates from -- their first association as touring colleagues 48 years ago.

"Charles is truly one of the persons my mama took me to see when I was little," quipped the stately rhythm-and-blues queen.

A big band led by veteran New Orleans arranger Wardell Quezergue augmented his basic quintet, including both Clifford Solomon, whose sax solos graced many of Brown's original recordings, and saxophonist Teddy Edwards, a '50s bopper also undergoing something of a comeback.

Brown played graceful, understated accompaniment behind Jimmy Scott, whose broken-tempo ballad, "Heaven," brought down the house. Brown tinkled across the dark, ominous rumble of John Lee Hooker, whose own recent recordings have featured Brown on piano, although Hooker's earthy, raw Mississippi- Delta blues style is far from Brown's polished, sophisticated approach (Brown, who practices for hours every morning, frequently dashes off a little Liszt or Chopin in those pri vate sessions).

Brown brought out the entire cast minus Hooker to sing his "Merry Christmas Baby" -- the ebony "White Christmas" -- with Scott, Raitt and Ruth Brown trading lines with the man who wrote the song and sold the rights for $35 a half century ago. The song was recorded by Elvis Presley, Otis Redding and Bruce Springsteen, to name a few.

Charles Brown lived long enough to get his just rewards, something he never counted on happening. He will never have to do windows again.