Walter Brown

Walter Brown (August 1917 – June 1956) was a blues shouter who sang with Jay McShann's band in the 1940s and co-wrote their biggest hit, "Confessin' The Blues". Born in Dallas, Texas, he joined McShann's orchestra, which also included saxophonist Charlie Parker, in 1941. Brown sang on some of the band's most successful recordings, including "Confessin' The Blues" and "Hootie Blues", before leaving to be replaced by Jimmy Witherspoon. Brown's subsequent solo singing career was unsuccessful, although he recorded for the King, Signature and Mercury labels, and he briefly reunited with McShann for recording sessions in 1949. Brown died in June 1956 in Lawton, Oklahoma, due to drug addiction. Less than a week after Walter Brown began singing with Jay McShann's orchestra, the band traveled from Kansas City to a recording studio in Brown's hometown of Dallas, Texas where McShann and his rhythm section backed the singer on "Confessin' The Blues". It became one of the bestselling records of 1941 and would ultimately define Brown's entire career while inadvertently exerting a circumstantial influence upon the development of modern jazz. Here's how it all happened: In 1941 and '42 Dave Kapp, owner of Decca records, had convinced himself that Kansas City big band instrumentals wouldn't sell. He pressured McShann into recording lots of accessible blues numbers with vocals by Walter Brown or Al Hibbler. It was largely money from these popular recordings that enabled McShann to bring his band to New York in 1942, placing Charlie Parker at the center of the jazz scene and thereby accelerating the music's evolution. Meanwhile Walter Brown, addicted like Parker to alcohol, amphetamine and narcotics, worked only intermittently with McShann during 194243, and by 1944 was pursuing a career as a solo act. This compilation contains the first recordings he made under his own name, in New York City on December 19th and 20th 1945. They originally appeared on the Queen label, a subsidiary of King records. Still banking on his initial success, the singer was billed as "Walter (Confessin' The Blues) Brown" and was backed by a sixteen piece band led by pianist Archie "Skip" Hall. Brown's next (and last) session for Queen occurred in Cincinnati in July of 1946, with excellent support provided by an octet with a front line of trumpet, trombone and two tenor saxes. None of these records represent any earthshaking artistic innovations. That's not what Walter Brown was about. This was good time music, fast becoming known as "Rhythm and Blues", meaning that it was based in blues and good for dancing. From a jazz head's perspective, the most exciting material in this package features the Tiny Grimes Sextetwith John Hardee blowing tenor saxbacking Walter Brown on four sides recorded in 1947 for Bob Thiele's tiny Signature label. "I'm Living For You" is in fact more of a jazz ballad, representing a rare departure from Brown's customary blues formula. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.