Photographs of Charles Brown by José Luis Villegas
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So many days since you went away I always thought of you each night and day Someday, someday darlin', I won't be troubled no more Trouble, trouble, and misery, Is about to get the best of me Someday, someday, my darlin', I won't be troubled no more -- Charles Brown By John Orr Charles Brown is easily the most elegant man to ever play the blues, so smooth and dapper of garb and singing that in the late '40s and early '50s, people in the music industry, with straight faces, called him ``the black Bing Crosby.'' Along with T-Bone Walker and the Vaughn brothers, Brown is one of Texas' great gifts to the blues, known these days mostly for Christmas classics he recorded first that were later copied by modern rock 'n' rollers: ``Please Be Home for Christmas,'' covered by the Eagles, and ``Merry Christmas, Baby,'' essayed by Bruce Springsteen. All but retired to his Berkeley home, Brown was yanked out on the circuit again in 1990 or so when Bonnie Raitt asked him to open for her touring show. That exposure, along with the overall worldwide resurgence of interest in the blues, put this soft-spoken, gentle man back in the public eye again, and not always in the correct venues. The last time I saw him live, for instance, was at JJ's Downtown in San Jose, with a poor sound system (later improved, but that club closed; JJ's, which once had three venues, is down to just one, in a shoebox on Stevens Creek Boulevard) and a crowd of meat-marketeers who were more interested in finding each other than in finding Charles Brown. Gone are the days when
Brown and his trio, the Three Blazers, were the It's a style of blues almost forgotten, but one Brown himself still loves and performs beautifully with a exceelent and dedicated small jazz band at his side. ``A lot of singers today have beautiful voices,'' Brown said in the tiny backstage dressing room at JJ's that night. ``But you can't understand a word they say. ``When I used to perform in Los Angeles, lovers would come to the club and they would make their love affairs bloom, hearing the words that created that atmosphere. The words were important. They tell the story, and you can relate to the story.'' Bells will be ringing, the glad glad news Oh, what a Christmas, to have the blues Please be home for Christmas If not for Christmas, Then by New Year's Day -- Charles Brown |
 Charles Brown signs autographs at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
Charles Brown plays at the Monterey Jazz Festival. |
