Gabriel Brown
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Gabriel Brown (1910–1972) was an American
Piedmont blues Piedmont blues (also known as East Coast, or Southeastern blues) refers primarily to a guitar style, which is characterized by a fingerpicking approach in which a regular, alternating thumb bass string rhythmic pattern supports a syncopated melo ...
singer and
guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...
.


Biography

Brown was born in
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, probably in
Gadsden County Gadsden County is a county located in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 43,826. Its county seat is Quincy. Gadsden County is included in the Tallahassee, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Ga ...
, and graduated from the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College. In 1934, he performed at the first National Folk Festival in
St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
. He was musically discovered by
folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...
Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on Hoodoo (spirituality), hoodoo. The most ...
. She enlisted
Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...
, who recorded Brown for the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
in June 1935. Like
Ralph Willis Ralph Willis AO (born 14 April 1938) is a former Australian politician who served as a Cabinet Minister during the entirety of the Hawke-Keating Government from 1983 to 1996, most notably as Treasurer of Australia from 1993 to 1996 and briefl ...
,
Alec Seward Alec Seward (born Alexander T. Seward, March 16, 1901 – May 11, 1972) was an American Piedmont blues and country blues singer, guitarist and songwriter. Some of his records were released under pseudonyms, such as Guitar Slim, Blues Servant ...
and Brownie McGhee, Brown then relocated from the
South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
to
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Hurston gave Brown a part in her light opera ''Polk County''. In 1935 Brown started a four-year tenure with the Federal Arts Theatre, initially under the direction of
Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
. By the late 1930s, Brown performed as a singer on
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
radio and took part in the show ''St. Louis Woman''. He found employment with the
civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
, working for the Army Signal Corps in
Asbury Park, New Jersey Asbury Park () is a beachfront city located on the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 15,188
. His first full recording session was in 1943,
produced Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
by Joe Davis, and the twosome worked together until Brown's final sessions in 1952. In 1945 Brown sang, "I can't have no luck at all, the jinx is on me." Several of Brown's recordings were not released during his lifetime, and some of those that were issued were not promoted tastefully or accurately. In the late 1940s, various tracks were licensed to Coral Records. Eventually Davis worked in A&R for
MGM Records MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...
, and Brown followed him to that label, where he was promoted as a
pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' (G ...
singer.
Compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...
s of his recordings have been released by various labels. Brown died by drowning after a boating accident in Florida in 1972.


Selected discography

*''Gabriel Brown and His Guitar 1943–1945'' (Policy Wheel, 1976) *''Gabriel Brown 1944–1952'' (Krazy Kat, 1983) *''Gabriel Brown: Mean Old Blues 1943–1948'' ( Flyright, 1996) *''Gabriel Brown'' (
Catfish Records Catfish Records was a United Kingdom, UK independent record label, initially devoted to reissuing blues records, mostly from the era of Gramophone record, 78 rpm records. Khaled Abdullah and Russell Beecher, concentrated on country blues and del ...
, 2001)


See also

* List of Piedmont blues musicians


References


External links


Illustrated Gabriel Brown discography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Gabriel 1910 births 1972 deaths People from Gadsden County, Florida American blues guitarists American male guitarists American blues singers Songwriters from Florida Deaths by drowning in the United States Piedmont blues musicians Blues musicians from Florida Accidental deaths in Florida 20th-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Florida 20th-century American male singers American male songwriters