Boyce Brown (April 16, 1910 – January 30, 1959) was an American jazz dixieland alto saxophonist born in Chicago, Illinois. He was an eccentric, who preferred to play freewheeling Chicago jazz, an erratic individual with some outlandish opinions and, ultimately, one of the very few monks who doubled (at least briefly) as a jazz musician!
If ever a soul seemed lost in the raucous, raunchy, rigorous life of jazzmen, it was the gentle, contemplative, ascetic Boyce Brown, whose quiet, unobtrusive nature was made the more so by impaired vision, an odd appearance, and herky-jerky body movements caused by physical deformities. Yes, for 20 years or more, he was listed among the top alto saxophonists in jazz.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Brown nearly died at birth; the midwife saved him by reshaping his unformed skull. His parents encouraged him to take up the saxophone in hopes that it would strengthen his weak chest. Later, Boyce lived with his mother, wrote poetry and listened to Debussy and Delius. He became a professional musician when he was 17, playing with drummer Don Carter's band in Chicago. Brown picked up experience working with Benny Meroff, Wingy Manone (1933), Paul Mares (1934-1935), and Johnny's Original Playboys.
His best known recordings are with Paul Mares and his Friars Society Orchestra and a 1939 session with Jimmy McPartland & his Jazz Band. In both sessions Brown demonstrates a driving, harmonically advanced style. When he played, he had a habit of stretching his neck out like a bird, causing him to be rejected at an audition for the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra.Brown also led his own bands and recorded with Wild Bill Davison onsome obscure titles in 1940. Boyce also worked in the “ideal” band co-led by cornetist Pete Daily and pianist-composer Frank Melrose. A good deal of their privately recorded music has been released on the Delmark CD Bluesiana.
Boyce loved marijuana and what it could do, but it didn’t contribute to his death. He didn’t die of tuberculosis or freeze on a Harlem doorstep, but prejudice and sorrow seem to have shortened his life. He is certainly underrated and not well-known or well-remembered. He named his alto saxophone Agnes, and thought deeply about her personality and moods; if a recording disappointed him, he blamed himself for not being in harmony with his instrument. All of this might seem freakish on first perusal, but other musicians like Ben Webster, hardly an introvert, called his saxophone Betsy or Ol’ Betsy.
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In 1945, the jazz scholar, collector, recordist John Steiner held a series of concerts at the Uptown Playhouse Theater in Chicago. His Jimmy Noone Memorial Concert featured Darnell Howard, Boyce Brown, Baby Dodds and many more. On another occasion, Steiner sponsored a “jamboree” resulting in forty-five minutes of recordings. But in April 1946, a fire destroyed the Playhouse, and Steiner lost most of his unissued sides by Jack Gardner, Boyce and many others. Brown was based in Chicago throughout his playing career, mostly leading his own bands throughout the '40s and early '50s.
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After the session, Boyce went back into the monastery to devote himself to things of the spirit; pictures show him playing music with the other monks and making sandwiches in the kitchen. He remained there until his death three years later. Jim Denham believes that the Servites wouldn’t give Boyce final confirmation as a priest and he died of a heart attack on January 30, 1959, shortly after that bitter disappointment in the monastery outside Granville, Wisconsin. Boyce Brown deserves more than partial oblivion.
(Edited from Jazz Lives, Wikipedia & AllMusic)