Charles Louis Brown (August 22, 1936 – May 16, 2012) was an American guitarist, bandleader and singer known as "The Godfather of Go-Go". Go-go is a subgenre of funk music developed around the Washington, D.C., area in the mid-1970s. While its musical classification, influences, and origins are debated, Brown is regarded as the fundamental force behind the creation of go-go music. Brown played a blonde Gibson ES-335.
Brown was born in Gaston, North Carolina. Brown's mother, Lyla Brown, was a housekeeper, and his father, Albert Louis Moody, was a United States Marine. Brown's father, however, was not present in his life, and Brown lived in poverty. When Brown was six years old, he moved to Washington, D.C., and at 15 he started living on the streets. He did not graduate high school; after quitting school he decided to perform odd jobs to make money, including shining shoes.
In the 1950s, Brown was convicted of murder and served eight years in Lorton Correctional Complex. At first, the case was tried as aggravated assault; however, it was moved up to murder once the victim died. Brown stated that his actions were in self-defence. In prison, he traded cigarettes for a guitar, which was how his love for the instrument began. When Brown completed his sentence, he moved back to Washington, D.C., and worked as a truck driver, a bricklayer, and a sparring partner at multiple boxing gyms. He also started to perform at parties throughout the area; however, he could not play at venues that served liquor, because his probation officer would not allow it.
Brown's musical career began in the 1960s playing guitar with many jazz musicians and soul singer Jerry Butler. While searching for a sound to call his own in the 1960s, Chuck was deeply inspired by artists like James Brown. He latched onto the Latin percussion groove from the band he played with at the time, Los Latinos in 1965. Combining this with his roots, his love of blues, jazz, gospel, soul, and African rhythms, Chuck began to develop his own unique sound. Starting out playing top forty, Brown would break-it-down between songs with percussion and audience call and response, and keep the music going, and the dance floor packed.
The song "Ashley's Roachclip" from the 1974 album Salt of the Earth by Brown's band The Soul Searchers contains a drum break, sampled countless times in various other tracks. Brown's R&B hits include "Bustin' Loose"(1979) and "We Need Some Money"(1984). Brown also recorded go-go covers of early jazz and blues songs, such as "Go-Go Swing" , "Harlem Nocturne", Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean a Thing If Ain't Got That Swing", "Moody's Mood For Love", Johnny Mercer's "Midnight Sun", Louis Jordan's "Run Joe", and T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday".
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| Chuck & The soul Searchers |
In the mid-1990s, he performed the theme music of Fox's sitcom The Sinbad Show which later aired on The Family Channel and Disney Channel. "Bustin' Loose" has been adopted by the Washington Nationals baseball team as its home run celebration song, and was interpolated by Nelly for his 2002 number one hit "Hot in Herre." After a string of live recordings, he met at the time an undiscovered, shy talent by the name of Eva Cassidy in the early nineties. His lifelong dream of singing with a lady, springing from his love of duets by the likes of Louis Armstrong with Ella Fitzgerald and Billy Eckstine with Sarah Vaughan, came to fruition with the critically acclaimed and worldwide 1992 release of “The Other Side” by Chuck Brown and Eva Cassidy (which contained the original recording of the worldwide Eva Cassidy hit “Over the Rainbow”). He dedicated a jazz standards album to Ms. Cassidy after her tragic loss to cancer.
Brown was a recipient of a 2005 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. In 2009, the 1900 block of 7th Street NW, in Northwest Washington, D.C., between Florida Avenue and T Street was renamed Chuck Brown Way in his honour. He received his first Grammy Award nomination in 2011 for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals for "Love" (with Jill Scott and Marcus Miller), from the album We Got This.
On September 4, 2011, Brown was honored by the National Symphony Orchestra, as the NSO paid tribute to Legends of Washington Music Labour Day concert - honouring Brown's music, as well as Duke Ellington and John Philip Sousa - with a free concert on the West Lawn of the Capitol. Brown and his band capped off the evening with a performance. At the time of his death he was still performing music and was well known in the Washington, D.C., area.
Brown died on May 16, 2012, at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital of multiple organ failure, including heart failure, at the age of 75. Several weeks prior to his death, he had postponed and cancelled shows due to hospitalization for pneumonia. His interment was at Trinity Memorial Gardens in Waldorf, Maryland.
In 2014, the
Chuck Brown Memorial Park in Langdon neighborhood, Washington, D.C., was built
to honor Brown. It features a memorial wall honoring his life and achievements,
as well as a sculpture called "Wind Me Up, Chuck" signifying the
"call and response" associated with go-go music.
(Edited from
Wikipedia & Windmeupchuck)