Farewell, Oscar Brown Jr. 1926-2005 [View All]

[progmom]

One of the finest jazz singers you've never heard of.


:cry:



Remembering Oscar Brown Jr. (1926 - 2005)
By John Murph, BETJazz.com Staff Writer


Posted May 31, 2005 -- When it came to enveloping visceral social and political commentary into tuneful, often humorous jazz excursions, singer, songwriter and playwright Oscar Brown, Jr. was peerless.

Best known for writing timeless pieces, such as “Brown Baby” (once recorded by Mahalia Jackson), “Dat Dare,” and the lyrics to Max Roach’ s epochal, We Resist! Freedom Now Suite, Brown drew upon a wealth of cultural information, ranging from contemporary jazz to blues to African-American folklore, and produced a formidable body work that includes a string of unforgettable albums for Columbia and Atlantic, and a few plays. Indeed, a rare breed in the history of jazz singers, Brown died from complications of a blood infection, Sunday, May 29 in his hometown of Chicago; he was 78.

Brown came into prominence in the beginning of the ’60s, a pivotal point for contemporary American history, when the Civil Rights Movement was getting underway. In 1960, the same year Roach’s incendiary We Resist! came out, Columbia Records issued Brown’s mesmerizing debut album, Sin & Soul. At times knee-slapping funny, at other times tear-jerkingly somber, Sin & Soul contains some of Brown’s most memorable and dramatic works, including his re-workings of Cannonball Adderley’s “Work Song” and Mongo Santamaria’s “Afro-Blue.” The album also boasted Brown’s originals, such as “Watermelon Man,” “Dat Dare” and “Signifyin’ Monkey” – tunes that are now a part of the contemporary jazz songbook. “Dat Dare,” a song covered by many in the pop and jazz worlds, was dedicated to his son, Oscar Brown III, who died in an automobile accident in 1996.

Born Oct. 10, 1926 in Chicago, Brown began crafting his dramatic flair as a teenager by acting on radio dramas. Soon after, he was the host of “Negro Newsfront,” a Chicago radio program. After serving in the Army for two years, Brown turned his attention toward music, first as a songwriter.

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