Les Brown

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Les Brown (1947)

Lester Raymond "Les" Brown , to distinguish it from his son, who took over the band, also Les Brown senior (born March 14, 1912 in Reinerton , Pennsylvania , † January 4, 2001 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American arranger , Saxophonist and big band leader of swing .

Live and act

Les Brown learned the saxophone at an early age and played with his father RW Brown, a baker and saxophonist, in local dance events at the age of ten. He attended the Ithaca Conservatory of Music, the New York Military Academy and Duke University , whose dance band Blue Devils he joined in 1935 (recordings 1936). He moved to New York and arranged for Jimmy Dorsey , among others , before he got the chance to form a band in a hotel in Manhattan in 1938 . The band was broadcast on the radio and got a record deal with RCA Victor . In December 1939 he succeeded in placing his first hit in the charts with the Jimmy Van Heusen number "Make with the Kisses" for Bluebird , but it was not until 1941 that he was able to build on this success. In the early 1940s he changed his style, he gave soloists more space and hired a singer, Doris Day , who married soon after and left the band. They gained popularity through broadcast on a radio show, in which an announcer gave them their future band name Band of Renown .

In 1943, Brown persuaded the now divorced Doris Day to start singing the band again. In 1944 they had the No. 1 hit Sentimental Journey with her , which became the welcome tune for the US troops returning home after World War II and also the band's signature tune. With Doris Day, who was with the band until 1946, the band had nine other number 1 hits (at the time with Columbia Records ). The band subsequently undertook numerous tours to support the US armed forces, in particular with the entertainer Bob Hope , with whom the band remained connected for over 50 years from 1947, both on radio and television (e.g. in the very successful Christmas Specials by Bob Hope) as well as on stage. Even in the 1950s, when Brown was anchored in Los Angeles , the band released successful records at Capitol . The band vocalist was Lucy Ann Polk in the early 1950s . Tony Bennett made his debut with the band, which was also the house band of the Dean Martin show (on TV from 1965) and the Steve Allen talk show, also in the 1960s. They also accompanied numerous stars from Frank Sinatra , Ella Fitzgerald to Nat King Cole .

In 2001 his son Les Brown junior, who had previously worked as a TV actor, rock musician and concert manager for country music, took over the band.

literature

  • George T. Simon: The Big Bands . Foreword by Frank Sinatra. 4th edition. New York: Schirmer Books / London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1981, pp. 99-106

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Life data according to Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .