PETE BROWN

During the late '30s, alto saxophonist Pete Brown was a busy sideman who sounded a bit like Benny Carter, Chu Berry, or Jimmie Lunceford's star altoist, Willie Smith. Throughout the 1940s he swung harder, sharpened his attack, and coarsened his tone to enter into Ben Webster's gutbucket range, flirting with bop after helping establish the "jump" style that led to rhythm & blues and the eventual rise of rock & roll. In the late '50s he sometimes doubled on the tenor sax, and his final work stands up to comparison with that of Gene Sedric, Al Sears, Hal Singer, and Charlie Singleton. James Ostend "Pete" Brown was born in Baltimore, MD, on November 9, 1906. His father, who came to the U.S. from the island of Barbados, blew the trombone, and Pete learned to play piano from his mother. He took up the ukulele, then switched to the violin, an instrument read more...