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Oscar Brown Jr. on Atlantic


ghost of miles

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Just came across two LPs in the station library with which I was unfamiliar: 1972's MOVIN' ON (which has evidently been re-issued on CD by both 32 Jazz and Collectables) and 1973's BROTHER WHERE ARE YOU? How do these hold up against his early-1960s work?

I'll be doing a Night Lights program about Brown on Feb. 5.

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I like Oscar Brown Jr a lot, but none of the later albums seem as satisfying as the early Columbias. Perhaps the later albums suffer from becoming familiar with Browns work and they don't seem to offer the surprises in lyrics, humour and jazz orientation that the earlier albums did. However if doing a program on Oscar, I guess you will have to offer a repredentative track or two from his later work.

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I like Oscar Brown Jr a lot, but none of the later albums seem as satisfying as the early Columbias. Perhaps the later albums suffer from becoming familiar with Browns work and they don't seem to offer the surprises in lyrics, humour and jazz orientation that the earlier albums did. However if doing a program on Oscar, I guess you will have to offer a repredentative track or two from his later work.

Around the same time as the Columbia LPs, a live session was issued on the Fontana label, titled "Oscar Brown Jr. Live in Washington". That is also quite good and very much on a par with the Columbia studio sessions

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I have Movin' On and I like it, especially the track "Ladies' Man." My favorite track of his I have on an Atlantic compilation, a funked-up version of "But I Was Cool" from 1974--maybe that's on that other album.

His earlier material has instrumentation that is jazzier, while this stuff is funky. He's funny and fun to listen to either way, in my book.

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  • 5 years later...

Most of the discussion for Oscar Brown, Jr.'s early '60s recordings for Columbia is in his RIP thread, but I didn't want to post there, so I apologize for any confusion. Maybe there should be a comprehensive thread for this artist? I have had Sin & Soul on repeat after reading more about Oscar Brown, Jr. in Scott Saul's important book Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't (which in my opinion deserves much more attention, praise, and discussion than its thread here provided). Sin & Soul is such a brilliant album, with some compositions that became standards, for instance, Afro Blue and Dat Dere (though I guess this version was recorded after Bobby Timmons instrumental one in This Here Is). I'm curious, though, if his composition Watermelon Man has any relation to Herbie Hancock's, or were they composed independently?

I also hadn't realized or had ignored that Oscar Brown, Jr. wrote "Driva' Man," "Freedom Day" and "All Africa" on Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite! Coupled with Sin & Soul, that album is even more powerful.

That was meant to be a link to the thread on Saul's book, not just Allen's post. I didn't mean to single it out.

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Sin & Soul is great! I love his vocal version of "Dat Dere" (I often want to hear it after hearing the Timmons or Blakey instrumental), "Hazel's Hips," "Somebody Buy Me A Drink," and "Humdrum Blues." Wish I could help you with your question about "Watermelon Man," zanonespueblo.

Edited by Noj
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I have Movin' On and I like it, especially the track "Ladies' Man." My favorite track of his I have on an Atlantic compilation, a funked-up version of "But I Was Cool" from 1974--maybe that's on that other album.

His earlier material has instrumentation that is jazzier, while this stuff is funky. He's funny and fun to listen to either way, in my book.

"But I was cool" is terrific. It's on the Atlantic album "Fresh". There's a few other good 'uns on that album. In fact, I think the songs overall are much better on "Fresh" than "Movin' on" but the band is better on "Movin' on".

brown_oscar_fresh~~~~_101b.jpg

The lady concerned is Jean Pace, Oscar's lady.

MG

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