Charles Brown

[ListeningToPrestige]

Charles Brown has all too common a name, and it can fuck up discographers. Tom Lord's jazz discographical data bass has Charles Brown who played congas on a Coltrane session, and Charles Brown who played tenor sax with the Detroit Jazz Composers orchestra, both cross-referenced to Charles "Drifting Blues" Brown, obviously mistakes. 

But then he has T-Bone Walker leading a group of jazz all-stars in 1973, with Charles Brown listed on organ, again cross-referenced. Another mistake? Lots of piano players also play organ occasionally, but I never heard of my Charles Brown doing it. And this is an all-star jazz band, not his normal company, although he did play with jazz musicians occasionally. On the other hand, he and Walker are both blues guys, and both veterans of the Central Avenue scene of the 1940s, so I guess it's possible, Two friends are on the session, including Warren Bernhardt on piano, and I could ask them, but they're both dead.

Any ideas?

[Dan Gould]

12 minutes ago, ListeningToPrestige said:

Charles Brown has all too common a name, and it can fuck up discographers. Tom Lord's jazz discographical data bass has Charles Brown who played congas on a Coltrane session, and Charles Brown who played tenor sax with the Detroit Jazz Composers orchestra, both cross-referenced to Charles "Drifting Blues" Brown, obviously mistakes. 

But then he has T-Bone Walker leading a group of jazz all-stars in 1973, with Charles Brown listed on organ, again cross-referenced. Another mistake? Lots of piano players also play organ occasionally, but I never heard of my Charles Brown doing it. And this is an all-star jazz band, not his normal company, although he did play with jazz musicians occasionally. On the other hand, he and Walker are both blues guys, and both veterans of the Central Avenue scene of the 1940s, so I guess it's possible, Two friends are on the session, including Warren Bernhardt on piano, and I could ask them, but they're both dead.

Any ideas?

What are the details of this recording from 1973?

I don't rely on discographies but when I was interested in appearances by saxophonist Arnold Sterling, eBay listings were my friend, for seeing the credits listed and in some particularly sharp photos, reading liner notes. In fact there turned out to be Sterling appearances that Discogs didn't know about.  I would think it's possible to track down this recording and puzzle out if it's "a" Charles Brown or "the" Charles Brown.

[ListeningToPrestige]

Here's the personnel from one day -- the sessions were over several days, and varied slightly.

 

T-Bone Walker (vcl,g) acc by Marvin Stamm, Danny Stiles (tp,flhrn) Joe Farrell, Frank Vicari (ts,fl) Seldon Powell (bar,ts,fl) John Tropea (el-sitar) David Nadien, Paul Gershman, Julius Brand, Emanuel "Manny" Green, Leo Kahn, Harry Glickman, Karen Jones, Fred Buldrini (vln) Theodore Israel, Harold Coletta (viola) George Ricci, Charles McCracken (cello) and Gerry Mulligan (bar) James Booker (p) Charles Brown (el-p) Wilton Felder (el-b) Paul Humphrey (d)

Hollywood & New York, 1973

Stormy Monday

Reprise 6483, (G)936247758-2 [CD]

[ListeningToPrestige]

On one of the other days, Mike Stoller is credited on piano, so I texted his son Peter, who's a friend. It turns out Stoller produced the album, so Peter is going to run it down for me.

On edit...and success! Peter has the album, there are photos from the session included. It's the right Charles Brown.

 

Edited October 14, 2022 by ListeningToPrestige

[JSngry]

Here some Charles Brown organ is.

[Big Beat Steve]

15 hours ago, ListeningToPrestige said:

On edit...and success! Peter has the album, there are photos from the session included. It's the right Charles Brown.

 

Didn't see this thread until now, but the T-Bone Walker connection looks indeed very much like this must have been "the" ("Drifting Blues") Charles Brown from the start.
He played piano on his 40s and 50s sessions so this was the first step towards "doubling" on organ. According to Bruyninckx, he recorded on organ at a session for King in July, 1961, and again for Mainstream in 1963, as well as on one track of his session for Johnny Otis' Blues Spectrum label in 1974.

The chapter on Charles Brown in the "Blue Rhythms - Six Lives in Rhythm and Blues" book by Chip Deffaa first published in 1996 specifically refers to his session with T-Bone Walker for Reprise in 1973 among his 70s recording dates.

Edited October 15, 2022 by Big Beat Steve

[EKE BBB]

18 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

I don't rely on discographies (…)

😱

I would say “I don’t rely on poorly researched discographies” or “discographies on paper become outdated too shortly”, but why not relying on www.jazz discography.com projects? (and I am not particularly referring to my TM disco 😀).

[mikeweil]

23 hours ago, EKE BBB said:

😱

I would say “I don’t rely on poorly researched discographies” or “discographies on paper become outdated too shortly”, but why not relying on www.jazz discography.com projects? (and I am not particularly referring to my TM disco 😀).

👍