Beloved N.O. Jazz Musician Albert 'Pud' Brown, 79, Dies
Times Picayune  05-29-1996

*************************************************
Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
************************************************  

Albert "Pud" Brown, a clarinetist and saxophonist who was a fixture of the New
Orleans traditional jazz scene for the past 20 years, was found dead Monday of
an apparent heart attack at his home in Algiers. He was 79.

Just as Mr. Brown would often mix and match sections from different clarinets,
his playing drew from many jazz styles, including early New Orleans swing.

"The arena that Pud played in was general to America," said Michael White, a
local jazz clarinetist and music historian. "He developed into one of the
better players in that tradition."

Mr. Brown was "an ear man," White said. "He developed his ear to such a state
that he could execute anything he wanted to play. His style was carved out of
oak, carefully, over time. We don't have a lot of musicians left like that.

"He was amazing. He had his own world, and his own sense of things. In a real
sense, he was an artist."

Mr. Brown's mixed musical pedigree reflected the places he had lived and
worked. "I went to Chicago to play New Orleans-style music, but actually I
learned to play jazz in Shreveport," he said in 1993. "Then I went to Los
Angeles as a Chicago jazz player."

Mr. Brown was born in Wilmington, Del., and raised in Shreveport. His career
began at age 5 when, billed as "the world's youngest saxophonist," he joined
his parents, three brothers and a sister in the Brown Family Band.

He relocated to Chicago, then Los Angeles, where he spent 27 years as a
professional musician. He shared stages with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Kid
Ory, Coleman Hawkins, Les Brown and Lawrence Welk.

"I liked him and he liked me," Mr. Brown said of Welk. "I could have been his
clarinetist for all time if I wanted. But there were too many good jazz bands
around then. And I wasn't playing for the money. I was playing for the kicks."

In 1975, Mr. Brown came to New Orleans for a two-week engagement at the old
Blue Angel club on Bourbon Street, and never left.

He also worked at the Famous Door, Preservation Hall and Maison Bourbon. He
spent five years in the pit band for the musical "One Mo' Time" at the
Toulouse Theater, and was a mainstay at the Palm Court Jazz Cafe from the time
it opened in 1989 until his death.

With his shock of gray hair and ebullient personality, Mr. Brown was one of
the Palm Court's most beloved artists. "He loved the attention," said Nina
Buck, owner of the jazz cafe. "He was one of the few musicians that let people
videotape him."

Many of the Palm Court's artists-in-residence have died in recent years,
including banjoist Danny Barker, trumpeter Percy Humphrey and now Mr. Brown,
who led the house band on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

"It's going to be a big loss," Buck said. "I don't know what we'll do yet. He
was great. All his musicians will miss him."

Away from the stage, Mr. Brown was a devoted tinkerer who collected and
repaired musical instruments, cars and electrical equipment. Last week he told
Buck that he had bought a recreational vehicle and planned to rebuild it.

As health problems limited his ability to march with brass bands, Mr. Brown
devised a "seat on wheels" that he could lean on and propel himself while
playing, said White, who saw Mr. Brown use the device last summer at the
Antibes Jazz Festival in France.

From their days playing together in the "One Mo' Time" band, White recalled
how Mr. Brown cut a groove in the barrel of his clarinet and set a watch in
it, so he could check the time when he took the instrument out of his mouth.

Mr. Brown's friends said he sometimes used superglue to treat cuts in his
skin. "He really was quite a character," Buck said. "He was very eccentric in
some ways. He would treat himself with various remedies. They seemed to work
for him."

Friends at the Palm Court knew Mr. Brown had heart problems but said they
often forgot because of his exuberance. He played his usual three nights at
the Palm Court Cafe last weekend, driving himself home after his Sunday night
set.

"They had a great night on Saturday," Buck said, recalling Mr. Brown's
excitement as fans cleaned out the cafe's supply of his "Palm Court Strut" CD.

During this year's Jazz and Heritage Festival, Buck presented Mr. Brown with a
lifetime achievement award one night at the club. "I'm really glad I did
that," she said.

Mr. Brown is survived by a son, John Thomas Brown; a daughter, Sandra
Charmaine Wallace of California; a sister, Verna Gorman; a brother, Martin
Lawrence Buster Brown; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete Tuesday.