Cecil Lee Brower (November 28, 1914 – November 21, 1965) was a classically trained American
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
ist who became an architect of
Western swing
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which attracted huge crowds to dance ...
in the 1930s. Perhaps the greatest swing
fiddler, he could improvise as well as ''double shuffle'' and created his own style which became the benchmark for his contemporaries.
Brower played in many Western bands, including his own, and was a renowned
Nashville session musician. He performed with some of the biggest names in
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
until his death at age 50 while a member of
Jimmy Dean
Jimmy Ray Dean (August 10, 1928 – June 13, 2010) was an American country music singer, television host, actor and businessman. He was the creator of the Jimmy Dean sausage brand as well as the spokesman for its TV commercials.
He became ...
's band. Brower is a member of the Texas Music Hall of Fame.
Biography
Cecil Brower was born in
Bellevue, Texas
Bellevue is a city in Clay County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Wichita Falls metropolitan statistical area. The population was 362 at the 2010 census.
History
The sparsely settled area developed around 1882 by the Ortons, when it ...
on November 28, 1914. He moved to
San Pedro, California
San Pedro ( ; Spanish: "St. Peter") is a neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, California. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los Angeles in 1909. The Port of Los Angeles, a major international seaport, is partially located wi ...
with his family as a boy, but they returned to Texas in 1924, settling in
Fort Worth. His father, Hubert, insisted he learn an instrument so he received formal violin lessons from Wylbert Brown, who was also teaching Kenneth Pitts.
Brown later said it gave Brower an edge on other "hillbilly" fiddlers "who had no bowing technique."
[.] Brower and Pitts played together locally in the Junior Harmony Club, and both were influenced by jazz and
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...
s.
In 1931, he joined Pitts to form The Southern Melody Boys with Bob Wren and Burke Reeder, which became the first string band to feature improvised solos, patterned after jazz violinist
Joe Venuti, who Brower idolized. He was the first to master the double shuffle, a bowing technique devised by Venuti in the late 1920s described as an off-beat shuffling movement. Brower used it to great effect and passed it along to other Texas fiddlers in the early 1930s. The Southern Melody Boys played popular music and appeared on
WBAP-AM
WBAP () is an AM news/talk radio station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, and serving the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. WBAP is owned by Cumulus Media and broadcasts with from a transmitter site in the northwest corner of Mansfield. It is a Class ...
and
KTAT-AM in Fort Worth.
Brownies and Doughboys
Brower majored in music at
Texas Christian University
Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciple ...
and played briefly with the
Dallas Symphony Orchestra,
but his big break came when he became a member of the first true Western swing band,
Milton Brown
Milton Brown (September 8, 1903 – April 18, 1936) was an American band leader and vocalist who co-founded the genre of Western swing. His band was the first to fuse hillbilly hokum, jazz, and pop together into a unique, distinctly American hy ...
and His Musical Brownies. In January 1933, Brower, playing harmony, joined fiddler Jesse Ashlock to create the first example of harmonizing twin fiddles.
Brower learned the art of breakdown fiddling from Brown's banjoist, Ocie Stockard, and developed a free-swinging style which became the cornerstone of fiddlers in Western swing bands. The twin fiddles often heard in the Brownies' music (setting a pattern that lasted for decades in country music) are those of Brower and Cliff Bruner, a later addition to the band.
Like their contemporaries, the
Light Crust Doughboys
The Light Crust Doughboys is an American Western swing band from Texas, United States, organized in 1931 by the Burrus Mill and Elevator Company in Saginaw, Texas. The band achieved its peak popularity in the few years leading up to World War II. ...
, the Brownies played a mixture of country, pop, and jazz, but had a harder dance edge.
The group had a regular spot on KTAT-AM, but frequently performed in
Waco
Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...
, where Brower met Jeff Knight, a breakdown fiddle player with whom he became good friends. Brower married Knight's daughter, Sybil, on March 23, 1937. After Brown's death in 1936, Brower joined the staff of
WRR-AM in Dallas, where he worked for $14 a week, and played dances with Roy Newman and His Boys.
[.]
In October 1936, Brower recorded with
Bill Boyd and His Cowboy Ramblers in San Antonio; and in June 1937 with
Bob Dunn.
That same week he made his only recording with
Bob Wills
James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although ...
and
The Texas Playboys
James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although S ...
. He then toured with bandleader
Ted Fio Rito
Theodore Salvatore Fiorito (December 20, 1900 – July 22, 1971),DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 95. known professionally a ...
's orchestra until returning to Texas in 1939, when he joined the Light Crust Doughboys. Brower, replacing Buck Buchanan as fiddler in the string section but playing lead (Buchanan had played harmony), was also reunited with Kenneth Pitts. The group enjoyed great popularity, and by the 1940s was heard over 170 radio stations in the South and Southwest.
Kilocycle Cowboys
After serving from 1942–46 in the
US Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and maritime law enforcement, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...
during and briefly after World War II, Brower played with the Hi-Flyers
before forming Cecil Brower's Cowboy Band in Fort Worth in 1947, which moved to
Odessa in 1948 and became known as Cecil Brower and His Kilocycle Cowboys. The group included Jack Jordan (bass), Buster Ferguson (guitar, vocals), Andy Schroder (steel guitar) and Frank Reneau (piano). The band performed at the Oasis nightclub and recorded at KECK-AM in Odessa.
From 1949–51, Brower played with
Leon McAuliffe
William Leon McAuliffe (January 3, 1917 – August 20, 1988) was an American Western swing guitarist who was a member of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys during the 1930s. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a me ...
, then from 1951–52 with
Al Dexter
Clarence Albert Poindexter (May 4, 1905 – January 28, 1984), known as Al Dexter, was an American country musician and songwriter. He is best known for " Pistol Packin' Mama," a 1943 hit that was one of the most popular recordings of the Wor ...
and His Troopers.
He also performed with
Patsy Montana
Rubye Rose Blevins (October 30, 1908 – May 3, 1996), known professionally as Patsy Montana, was an American country music singer, songwriter and actress. Montana was the first female country performer to have a million-selling single with her ...
and Her Pardners, and the Coffee Grinders, a later interim name of the Doughboys.
1950s–1960s
In 1955, Brower became a regular performer on ABC-TV's ''
Ozark Jubilee
''Ozark Jubilee'' is a 1950s United States network television program that featured country music's top stars of the day. It was produced in Springfield, Missouri. The weekly live stage show premiered on ABC-TV on January 22, 1955, was renamed ...
'' in
Springfield, Missouri
Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estimat ...
for several years, and in 1960, was playing with the Ft. Worth-based Bob Bohm Trio. He soon moved to
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...
and became a much sought-after session musician.
[.] He accompanied, among others, Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline (
viola
; german: Bratsche
, alt=Viola shown from the front and the side
, image=Bratsche.jpg
, caption=
, background=string
, hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow
, range=
, related=
*Violin family ...
), Roy Orbison, Marty Robbins, Loretta Lynn and Brenda Lee;
in 1963, former Doughboy John "Knocky" Parker called Brower "one of the finest jazz violinists...
eis now the leading hillbilly violinist in Nashville."
In the summer of 1961, he appeared on NBC-TV's ''
Five Star Jubilee
''Five Star Jubilee'' is an American country music variety show carried by NBC-TV from March 17–September 22, 1961. The live program, a spin-off of ABC-TV's '' Jubilee USA'', was the first network color television series to originate outside ...
''. In 1962, "Cousin" Cecil Brower And His Square Dance Fiddlers released the album, ''America's Favorite Square Dances'' (
Mercury MGS 27015, also issued on
Smash SRS 67015 and
Cumberland green label 29509); and in 1970, Cumberland issued the group's ''Old Fashion Country Hoedown'' (Cumberland 29500).
He joined Jimmy Dean's band in 1963 and appeared on ABC-TV's ''
The Jimmy Dean Show
''The Jimmy Dean Show'' is the name of several similar music and variety series on American local and network television between 1963 and 1975. Each starred country music singer Jimmy Dean as host.
Daytime
''The Jimmy Dean Show'', initially call ...
''. On November 21, 1965, Dean performed at
Carnegie Hall, and during a party later at the
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schult ...
, Brower died suddenly from a perforated ulcer,
a week short of his 51st birthday.
Notes
References
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External links
*Watch''
Bob Wills with Cecil Brower on ''Jubilee USA'', "Fiddle Breakdown", June 27, 1959(Country Music Hall of Fame website)
*Listen to''
Cecil Brower and His Kilocycle Cowboys1947 photos of Cecil Brower's Cowboy Band at radio station KECK in Odessaat the Portal to Texas History
Cecil Brower recordingsat the
Discography of American Historical Recordings.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brower, Cecil
1914 births
1965 deaths
Western swing performers
Singer-songwriters from Texas
People from Fort Worth, Texas
American country singer-songwriters
American country fiddlers
Western swing fiddlers
American session musicians
20th-century American violinists
20th-century American singers
Country musicians from Texas