Albert Francis "Pud" Brown (January 22, 1917,

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington ( Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...

- May 27, 1996, Algiers, Louisiana) was an 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 major ...

reed player. Though he was born in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

, Brown's parents raised him in

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is t ...

. Brown was fluent on saxophone by age five, and toured throughout

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

in a family band at the age of seven. Brown's father, an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, built their motor home, a vehicle with a top speed of 25 miles per hour, which they took on tours of

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...

es,

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

s, and minstrel shows in the middle of the 1920s. After moving to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Brown found work in Phil Lavant's orchestra in 1938 and then in Lawrence Welk's band. In 1941 he married his wife Louise. He returned to Shreveport to run a

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

shop, but the endeavor failed, and he relocated once again to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. There, he found prolific work as a jazz musician for the next several decades, playing with Les Brown, Coleman Hawkins, Doc Cheatham, Danny Barker, Kid Ory,

Percy Humphrey Percy Gaston Humphrey (January 13, 1905 – July 22, 1995) was an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader in New Orleans, Louisiana. In addition to his band, Percy Humphrey and His Crescent City Joymakers, for more than thirty years he was leader ...

and

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

among others. He returned to

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

in 1975 and became a mainstay of the local scene there as well. He was a member of

Clive Wilson Euclid Aklana Wilson (born 13 November 1961) is an English former professional footballer who played in midfield and at left-back. He notably played top flight football for Manchester City, Chelsea, Queens Park Rangers and Tottenham Hotspur, ...

's Original Camelia Brass Band in the 1980s, and a regular at the French Quarter's

Palm Court Jazz Cafe Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ban ...

until his death. In addition to performing, Brown was also active as an educator in local schools.

References

Pud Brown Albert Francis "Pud" Brown (January 22, 1917, Wilmington, Delaware - May 27, 1996, Algiers, Louisiana) was an American jazz reed player. Though he was born in Delaware, Brown's parents raised him in Shreveport, Louisiana. Brown was fluent on sax ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

Obituary
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Pud 1917 births 1996 deaths American jazz clarinetists American jazz saxophonists American male saxophonists 20th-century American saxophonists 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians