Cleo Patra Brown
Cleo Patra Brown (born December 8, 1909 in Meridian , Mississippi , † April 15, 1995 in Denver , Colorado ) was an American jazz pianist and singer .
Brown learned the boogie woogie piano style from her brother Everett, who worked with Pinetop Smith . Her family moved to Chicago in 1919 , where she initially worked in the vaudeville area at the age of 14 . An illness interrupted her career in the early 1940s. In the early 1950s she performed regularly at the Three Deuces Club in Chicago. Brown also worked in New York City , where she had her own radio show on WABC, in Hollywood , Las Vegas, and San Francisco . She recorded with the Decca All-Stars and during her time on the West Coast for Capitol Records . From 1953 she interrupted her career again to work as a nurse. In old age she worked as a church musician in the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Denver. In 1987 she appeared on Marian McPartland 's Piano Jazz radio series .
She was the first female jazz instrumentalist to be awarded the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship . Your playing influenced the young Dave Brubeck . Even today, musicians incorporate their music into current works, such as "Spring Swing" by Monkey Safari.
Discographic notes
- Cleo Brown 1935-1951 (Classics) with Nappy Lamare , Artie Bernstein , Gene Krupa , Vic Berton , Zutty Singleton , Victor Young Orchestra
- Discography Cleo Brown
literature
- Linda Dahl, Stormy Weather. The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen. Quartet Books. London 1984. ISBN 0-7043-2477-6
Web links
- Cleo Patra Brown at Discogs (English)
- NEA Jazz Masters Biography (English)
Remarks
- ^ Jazz - The Rough Guide, London 1995, p. 78
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Brown, Cleo Patra |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Brown, Cleo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz pianist and singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 8, 1909 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Meridian , Mississippi |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 15, 1995 |
| Place of death | Denver , Colorado |