Tom P. Brown,born in 1888 in New Orleans,and played trombone and string bass. His younger brother Steve Brown played string bass - most famously for the first recorded string bass solo, with Jean Goldkette's band. Tom was playing with Papa Jack Laine and Frank Christian's bands until 1910, after which he organized his own band, heard by Vaudeville dancer Joe Frisco in 1915. Frisco booked the band at Lamb's Cafe in Chicago, with Ray Lopez-c and manager/ Tom Brown-tb-ldr/ Gussie Mueller-cl/ Arnold Loyacano p-sb/ Billy Lambert-d. Mueller soon left the band and was replaced by New Orleans clarinetist Larry Shields. At the time, jazz was not considered a polite word as it had sexual connotations, but these seminal efforts helped popularize and bring the musical form north from New Orleans, which Tom often mentioned, as being the first white jazz band to play in Chicago. By the late teens, the band moved to New York, where Alcide Nunez joined the ensemble. Harry A. Yerkes hired Tom and Nunez, and got them into the studio, where many of the tracks on this disc were recorded, as 'The Happy Six' and 'Yerkes Jazzarimba Orchestra'. 1921 found Tom moving back to Chicago, where he joined Ray miller's Black and White Melody Boys, to be replaced by Miff Mole after 1923. In the mid-1920s, returning to New Orleans, he played with Johnny Bayersdorffer and Norman Brownlee's bands. During the dirty thirties, he repaired radios and opened a music and junk shop on Magazine Street, while continuing to play string bass in local swing and dance bands. With the revival of traditional jazz in the fifties, he played in various dixieland bands, including Johnny Wiggs' band. A local television station host got the brainstorm to invite Tom and Nick LaRocca to talk about how jazz first spread north from New Orleans, but the show had barely commenced when the two old men got into an argument that came to blows. Tom played until his last days, and helped to bring about the marvel of jazz. These tracks were transferred with a special digital hi-definition process for fuller, smoother, clearer sound ~ Mickey Clark
INDIA YERKES NOVELTY FIVE COL A2798 08/01/19 78618 PIANTADOZI-STEPT
MYSTERY HAPPY SIX JACK KAUFMAN COL A2905 02/11/20 78971 CIRINA
I LOVE THE LAND OF OLD BLACK JOE-MEDLEY YERKES JAZZARIMBA ORCHESTRA OPP 9021 03/01/20 7367 GRANT-CLARK
DANCE-O-MANIA HAPPY SIX COL A2949 05/18/20 79183 GILBERT-COOPER
FEATHER YOUR NEST-YOUNG MAN'S FANCY HAPPY SIX COL A3345 11/18/20 79525 0
GRIEVING FOR YOU-ROSE OF MY HEART HAPPY SIX COL A3345 11/20/20 79529 GIBSON-RIBAUD-GOLD
MOONLIGHT HAPPY SIX COL A3404 03/22/21 79791 CONRAD-GRENDI
REBECCA-WAT COULD BE SWEETER? YERKES JAZZARIMBA ORCHESTRA COL A3404 03/29/21 79773 KALMAR-RUBY-STANFORD 0
WHO'LL BE THE NEXT ONE TO CRY OVER YOU? HAPPY SIX COL A3481 09/13/21 79986 BLACK-DURANTE-SMITH-SCHAFER
JABBERWOCKY HAPPY SIX COL A3503 10/13/21 80025 KENDIS-BROCKMAN-BROWN-WESLYN 34
GOODBYE SHANGHAI HAPPY SIX COL A3542 10/20/21 80110 MEYER 150
NA-JO HAPPY SIX COL A3503 10/22/21 79657 WIEDOEFT-HOLLIDAY 150
HOW MANY TIMES?-THE SHEIK HAPPY SIX COL A3512 11/07/21 80054 ROBINSON-TURK
LEAVE ME WITH A SMILE-I WONDER IF YOU COULD CARE FOR ME HAPPY SIX COL A3512 11/07/21 80055 KOELER-BURTNETT
WIMMEN-I GOT TO HAVE THEM,THAT'S ALL HAPPY SIX COL A3542 12/28/21 80123 FISHER
STELLA HAPPY SIX COL A3927 06/05/23 81011 JOLSON-DAVIS-AKST
RITZI MITZI HAPPY SIX COL A3927 06/05/23 81012 CONRAD-BIBO
VENETIAN MOON KENTUCKY SERENADERS COL A2895 02/11/20 78970 FLOYD-GLASER
ROSE OF WASHINGTON SQUARE KENTUCKY SERENADERS COL A2908 03/01/20 79007 HANLEY-PINKARD
SHEIK OF ARABY RAY MILLER,MELODY KING AND HIS BLACK AND WHITE BOY APX 4498 11/20/21 70307 SNYDER
VENETIAN LOVE BOAT RAY MILLER AND HIS BLACK AND WHITE MELODY BOYS COL A3557 01/19/22 80144 MAGINE-KOELER
BLUE HOOSIER BLUES RAY MILLER COL A3926 06/01/23 80933 FRIEND-MESKILL-BAER
MARCH OF THE MANNIKINS RAY MILLER COL A3926 06/01/23 81062 ONIVAS
OH! YOU LITTLE SUN-UV-ER-GUN RAY MILLER COL 10-D 09/14/23 81213 SOLMAN
DOODLE DOO DOO RAY MILLER BR 2724 09/27/24 13856 KASSEL-STITZEL
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