Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (April 18, 1924 – September 10, 2005) was an American musician from Louisiana and Texas[1] known for his work as a blues musician, as well as other styles of music. He spent his career fighting purism by synthesizing old blues, country, jazz, Cajun music and R&B styles.[2] His work also encompasses rock and roll, rock music, folk music, electric blues, and Texas blues.[1]
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown | |
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![]() Brown in 1999 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Clarence Brown Jr. |
Also known as | Gatemouth, Gate |
Born | Vinton, Louisiana, United States | April 18, 1924
Died | September 10, 2005 81) Orange, Texas, United States | (aged
Genres | Blues, swing, country, Cajun, R&B, rock, folk music, electric blues, Texas blues |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instruments | Vocals, guitar, violin, viola, mandolin, drums, harmonica, piano |
Years active | 1947–2005 |
Labels | Aladdin, Peacock, Cindrella Records, Black & Blue, Barclay, Music Is Medicine, Rounder, Alligator, Verve, Occidental Records |
Associated acts | Gate's Express (Harold Floyd, David Peters, Joe Krown, Eric Demmer & Lloyd Herrman on drums), Los Super Seven, Bill Samuel, Roy Clark, Airto, Tony Garnier, Garland Craft, Jim Keltner, Joe Sunseri & the Memphis Horns |
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He was an acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, who played an array of musical instruments, including the guitar, fiddle, mandolin, viola, harmonica and drums. He won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 1983 for his album, Alright Again!.[3] He is regarded as one of the most influential exponents of blues fiddle and has had enormous influence in American fiddle circles.
Brown's biggest musical influences were Louis Jordan, T-Bone Walker, and Count Basie.[4][5] His highly original guitar style influenced many blues and rock guitarists, including Guitar Slim, Albert Collins, and Johnny "Guitar" Watson.[5]
Early life
Brown was born in Vinton, Louisiana, and raised near Orange, Texas.[6] His father was a railroad worker and local musician who taught him several musical instruments, including fiddle by age 5; as well as piano and guitar.[6] He had at least one brother.[7]
Career
Brown was performing guitar by age ten. He also played drums in swing bands as a teenager.[6]
1940s and 1950s
Brown served in the military during World War II.[6] His professional music career began in 1945, playing drums in San Antonio, Texas.[8] He was given the nickname "Gatemouth" by a high school teacher who said he had a "voice like a gate".[1] His career was boosted when he attended a concert by T-Bone Walker in Don Robey's Bronze Peacock Houston nightclub in 1947;[1] Walker became ill, and Brown took up his guitar and quickly wrote and played "Gatemouth Boogie", to the delight of the audience.[4]
In 1949 Robey founded Peacock Records in order to showcase Brown's virtuoso guitar work.[1] Brown's "Mary Is Fine" backed with "My Time Is Expensive" was a hit for Peacock in 1949.[4] A string of Peacock releases in the 1950s were less successful commercially, but were nonetheless pioneering musically. Particularly notable was the 1954 instrumental "Okie Dokie Stomp",[4] in which Brown solos continuously over a punchy horn section (other instrumentals from this period include "Boogie Uproar" and "Gate Walks to Board").[1] "Okie Dokie Stomp" was also recorded by Cornell Dupree in the 1970s, who also had a commercial success with it. As for his gutsy violin playing, Robey allowed Brown to record "Just Before Dawn", his final release on the Peacock label, in 1959.
1960s and 1970s
In the 1960s Brown moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to participate in a syndicated R&B television show, and while he was there recorded several country singles.[8] He struck up a friendship with Roy Clark and made several appearances on the television show Hee Haw.[1] In 1966, Brown was the musical director for the house band on the short-lived television program, The !!!! Beat.[4] Later in the decade, he worked as a deputy sheriff in New Mexico.[6]
However, in the early 1970s several countries in Europe had developed an appreciation for American roots music, especially the blues, and Brown was a popular and well-respected artist there.[8] He toured Europe twelve times, beginning in 1971 and continuing throughout the 1970s. He also became an official ambassador for American music, and participated in several tours sponsored by the U.S. State Department, including an extensive tour of Eastern Africa. Brown appeared at the 1973 Montreux Jazz Festival, where he jammed with American blues rock band Canned Heat.[8] In 1974, he recorded as a sideman with the New Orleans pianist Professor Longhair on his album, Rock 'N' Roll Gumbo (originally a Blue Star Records release). He moved to New Orleans in the late 1970s. In 1979, through his manager at the time, Jim Halsey, Brown embarked on a 6-week, 44 concert tour of the Soviet Union. This was an historic event as it marked the first time the Soviet Union made a contract with a U.S. private citizen (Jim Halsey) as regards a musical tour. All previous tours were under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. To date, this was by far the most extensive tour an American band had taken in the USSR.
Later years
In the 1980s, a series of releases on Rounder Records and Alligator Records revitalized his U.S. career,[8] and he toured extensively and internationally, usually playing between 250 and 300 shows a year. He won a Grammy in 1982 for the album Alright Again! and was nominated for five more. Alright Again! is credited with putting Brown back on the musical map. He also won eight W. C. Handy Awards.
In 1999, Brown was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.[9]
In his last years, he maintained a full touring schedule, including Australia, New Zealand, South America, Africa and Eastern Europe. His final record Timeless was released in 2004.
The rock composer Frank Zappa, in his autobiography, The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989), credited Brown, along with Guitar Slim and Johnny "Guitar" Watson, as important influences on his guitar playing.[10]
On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.[11]
Personal life and demise
Brown was married and divorced three times. He had four children: three daughters, Ursula Brown of Houston, Celeste Biles of Vista, California, and Renée Brown of New Orleans, and a son, Dwayne Brown, of Oklahoma City.[2]
In September 2004, Brown was diagnosed with lung cancer. He already had emphysema and heart disease, and he and his doctors decided to forego treatment for the cancer. This greatly affected his musical career.[9] His home in Slidell, Louisiana, was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, although he had been evacuated to his childhood hometown of Orange, Texas, and lived with his brother before the storm hit.[7]
He died In Orange on September 10, 2005, at the apartment of a grandniece, at the age of 81. Brown is buried in the Hollywood Cemetery in Orange. Flooding caused by Hurricane Ike in September 2008 damaged his grave.[12] His casket was one of dozens that floated out of their burial sites.[13] His grave has since been refurbished and through the estate funds, a headstone has been erected in his honor.[14] A marker honoring Brown was placed by the Texas Historical Commission next to the flagpole at Hollywood Cemetery.[15]
Discography
Original albums
- 1972 The Blues Ain't Nothin' (Black and Blue)
- 1973 Cold Storage (Black and Blue)
- 1973 Sings Louis Jordan (Black and Blue)
- 1973 Drifter Rides Again (Barclay)
- 1974 Gate's on the Heat (Barclay)
- 1974 Down South in Bayou Country (Barclay)
- 1975 Bogalusa Boogie Man (Barclay)
- 1976 Blackjack (Music Is Medicine)
- 1977 Heatwave (with Lloyd Glenn) (Black and Blue)
- 1979 Makin' Music (with Roy Clark) (One Way)
- 1981 Alright Again! (Rounder)
- 1982 One More Mile (Rounder)
- 1986 Real Life (Rounder)
- 1989 Standing My Ground (Alligator)
- 1992 No Looking Back (Alligator)
- 1994 The Man (Verve/Gitanes)
- 1996 Long Way Home (Verve/Gitanes)
- 1997 Gate Swings (Verve/Gitanes)
- 1999 American Music, Texas Style (Verve/Blue Thumb)
- 2001 Back to Bogalusa (Verve/Gitanes)
- 2004 Timeless (Hightone)
Compilations and bootlegs
- 1974 San Antonio Ballbuster (Red Lightnin') Peacock recordings
- 1980 Texas Blues Live in Concert, Internationales Jazzfestival Bern, SBV
- 1983 Atomic Energy (Blues Boy) Peacock recordings
- 1985 Pressure Cooker (Alligator) Black and Blue recordings
- 1985 More Stuff (Black and Blue) Black and Blue recordings
- 1987 Texas Swing (Rounder) Rounder recordings
- 1989 Hot Times Tonight (P-Vine) various recordings of the 1960-70s
- 1990 The Original Peacock Recordings (Rounder) Peacock recordings
- 1993 Just Got Lucky (Evidence Music) Black and Blue recordings
- 1994 Live (Charly) previously unreleased live recording
- 1995 The Best of Clarence Gatemouth Brown, A Blues Legend (Verve) Barclay recordings
- 1999 Okie Dokie Stomp (Bullseye Blues & Jazz) Rounder recordings
- 1999 Guitar in My Hand (Catfish) Aladdin & Peacock recordings
- 1999 Hot Club Drive (P-Vine) Black and Blue recordings
- 1999 The Blues Ain't Nothing (P-Vine) Black and Blue recordings
- 2000 Okie Dokie (AIM) various recordings of the 1960s
- 2002 "Gatemouth" Brown: 1947–1951 (Classics) Aladdin & Peacock recordings
- 2003 Clarence Gatemouth Brown: In Concert (DVD)
- 2005 "Gatemouth" Brown: 1952–1954 (Classics) Peacock recordings
- 2010 Rockin' Boogie Blues (Blues Boulevard) early recordings
Other contributions
- 1979 Grey's Mood (Black and Blue, 1973-75 [1979]) with Al Grey
- 2003 Johnny's Blues: A Tribute to Johnny Cash (NorthernBlues); Brown sings the 1956 Johnny Cash rockabilly song "Get Rhythm" with Benjy Davis
References
- Dahl, Bill. "Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown: Biography". AllMusic.com. Archived from the original on March 19, 2014. Retrieved 2014-07-11.
- Ratliff, Ben (2005-09-12). "Guitarist Clarence Gatemouth Brown Dies at 81". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2014-09-10. Retrieved 2014-07-11.
- "Grammy.com Past Winner Search: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, 1982". Grammy.com. Archived from the original on 2014-09-10. Retrieved 2014-09-09.
- Du Noyer, Paul (2003). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music. Fulham, London: Flame Tree Publishing. p. 164. ISBN 1-904041-96-5.
- Tomko, Gene (2020). Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians: Jazz, Blues, Cajun, Creole, Zydeco, Swamp Pop, and Gospel. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. p. 57. ISBN 9780807169322.
- Park, Erinn. "Brown, Clarence [Gatemouth] (1924–2005)". Handbook of Texas. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved January 13, 2021 – via tshaonline.org.
- "Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown dead at 81". UPI.com. Orange, Texas. September 11, 2005. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. pp. 95–96. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
- "Clarence Gatemouth Brown". AllAboutJazz.com. Archived from the original on 2014-07-03. Retrieved 2014-09-09.
- "The Real Frank Zappa Book". Pierroule.com. Archived from the original on 2014-08-28. Retrieved 2014-07-11.
- Rosen, Jody (25 June 2019). "Here Are Hundreds More Artists Whose Tapes Were Destroyed in the UMG Fire". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
- "Ike Texas » Archive » orangeleader.com (Orange, Texas)". orangeleader.com. September 15, 2008. Archived from the original on January 31, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- Hankins, Robert (February 25, 2009). "Gatemouth Honored with State Marker" (Vol. 48, No. 43).
- "Historical Marker Dedication to Pay Tribute to Music Legend". orangeleader.com. July 19, 2012. Archived from the original on September 10, 2014. Retrieved 2014-09-09.
- Dunn, Mark (July 25, 2012). "Photo text: Dr. Robert Finch compiled the research to get an historical marker for Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown...". 53 (17). Record Newspapers.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. |
- W.C. Handy Blues Awards on National Public Radio Talk of the Nation
- 'Gatemouth' Brown Plays Through Cancer, Years on National Public Radio All Things Considered
- Remembrances: 'Gatemouth' Brown's Blues Voice Goes Quiet on National Public Radio All Things Considered
- Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown Discography
- Video Interview with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Loyola University, New Orleans