Banker, born in Ireland. The son of Alexander Brown, he arrived in Baltimore, MD (1802) and in 1825 established the New York City branch of his father's firm, Brown Brothers & Co. He guided the banking house through financial crises (1837, 1857) and the Civil War. He gave generously to local institutions and was one of the founders of Presbyterian Hospital. The mayor of New York City ordered all flags on public buildings to fly at half-mast at his death.
| James Brown | ||
|---|---|---|
|
James Brown, circa 1965 |
||
| Background information | ||
| Birth name | James Joseph Brown, Jr. | |
| Born | May 3, 1933: Barnwell, South Carolina, USA | |
| Origin | Augusta, Georgia, USA | |
| Genre(s) | R&B/soul/funk | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, dancer, bandleader, record producer | |
| Instrument(s) | Singing, organ/piano/keyboard, drums & guitar | |
| Years active | 1956 - present | |
| Label(s) | King/Polydor Records | |
|
Associated acts |
The Famous Flames, The JBs | |
James Brown (born James Joseph Brown, Jr. on May 3, 1933 in Barnwell, South Carolina) is an African American entertainer who is recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th century music.
Brown began his professional music career in 1953, and skyrocketed to fame in the late 1950s and early 1960s on the strength of his thrilling live performances and a string of smash hits.
Brown is recognized by a plethora of (mostly self-bestowed) titles, including Soul Brother Number One, Mr. Dynamite, the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business, Minister of The New New Super Heavy Funk, Mr. Please Please Please, The Boss, and the best-known, the Godfather of Soul.
Biography
Early life
Brown was born in the small town of Barnwell in Great Depression-era South Carolina as James Joseph Brown, Jr;
While in prison, Brown later made the acquaintance of Bobby Byrd, whose family helped Brown secure an early release after serving only three years of his sentence, under the condition that he not return to Augusta or Richmond County and that he would try to get a job.
The beginnings of the Famous Flames
Brown and Bobby Byrd's sister Sarah performed in a gospel group called "The Gospel Starlighters" during the early and mid 1950s. Now called The Famous Flames, Brown and Byrd's band toured the Southern "chitlin' circuit", and eventually signed a deal with the Cincinnati, Ohio-based King Records, presided over by Syd Nathan.
The group's first recording and single, credited to "James Brown with the Famous Flames", was "Please, Please, Please" (1956). After nine failed singles, King was ready to drop Brown and the Flames until the 1958 single "Try Me" became a #1 R&B hit, and a #50 pop hit. Nearly all of the group's releases were written or co-written by Brown, who assumed primary control of the band from Byrd and eventually began billing himself as a solo act with The Famous Flames as his backup.
Brown's initially standardized arrangements and instrumentation began to give way to more improvisational and rhythm-heavy tracks such as 1961's #5 R&B hit "Night Train", arguably the first single to showcase the beginnings of what today is considered the "James Brown sound".
Papa gets a brand new bag
While Brown's early singles were major hits in the southern United States and regularly became R&B Top Ten hits, he and the Flames were not nationally successful until his self-financed live show was captured and released on record as Live at the Apollo in 1963. Brown followed this success with a string of singles that, along with the work of Allen Toussaint in New Orleans, essentially defined funk music.
"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)," both from 1965, were major #1 R&B hits, remaining the top-selling single in black venues for over a month apiece, and becoming Brown's first pop Top 10 hits.
Brown would often make creative adjustments to his songs for greater appeal. For instance Brown sped up the released version of "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" to make it even more intense and commercial. Mixed in with Brown's more famous rhythmic essays of the era were ballads such as "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World" (1965), and even Broadway show tunes.
The late 1960s: "Ain't It Funky Now"
Brown employed musicians and arrangers who had come up through the jazz tradition.
As the 1960s came to a close, Brown refined his style even further with "I Got the Feelin'" and "Licking Stick-Licking Stick" (both recorded in 1968), and "Funky Drummer" (recorded in 1969).
Brown's recordings influenced musicians across the industry, most notably Sly and his Family Stone, Charles Wright & in fact, James Brown remains the world's most sampled recording artist, and "Funky Drummer" is itself the most sampled individual piece of music.
The content of Brown's songs was now developing along with their delivery.
The 1970s: The JB's
By 1970, most of the members of James Brown's classic 1960s band had quit his act for other opportunities. This new backing band was dubbed "The JB's", and made their debut on Brown's 1970 single "(Get Up I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine".
As Brown's musical empire grew (he bought radio stations in the late 1960s, including Augusta's WRDW, where he had shined shoes as a boy), his desire for financial and artistic independence grew as well. the JB's, Bobby Byrd, Lyn Collins, Myra Barnes, and Hank Ballard, released records on Brown's subsidiary label, People, which was created as part of Brown's Polydor contract. These recordings are as much a part of Brown's legacy as those released under his own name, and most are noted examples of what might be termed James Brown's "house" style. Miles Davis and other jazz musicians began to cite Brown as a major influence on their styles, and Brown provided the score for the 1973 blaxploitation film Black Caesar.
In 1974 Brown performed in Zaire as part of the build up to the The Rumble in the Jungle fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.
Into the late-1970s and 1980s
By the mid-70s, Brown's star-status was on the wane, and key musicians such as Bootsy Collins had begun to depart to form their own groups. The disco movement, which Brown anticipated, and some say originated, found relatively little room for Brown;
Brown experienced something of a resurgence in the 1980's, effectively crossing over to a broader, more mainstream audience. Acknowledging his influence on modern hip-hop and R&B music, Brown collaborated with hip-hop artist Afrika Bambaataa on the single "Unity", and worked with the group Full Force on a #5 R&B hit single, 1988's "Static" from the hip-hop influenced album "I'm Real".
Later years
In spite of his return to the limelight, by the late 1980s, Brown met with a series of legal and financial setbacks.
During the 1990s and 2000s, Brown was frequently arrested for drug possession or domestic abuse. In 1993, James Brown released a new album called Universal James, which spawned the singles "Can't Get Any Harder", "How Long" and "Georgia-Lina". And in 1998, James Brown released a new studio album, I'm Back, featuring the single "Funk On Ah Roll".
In 2002, James Brown released his latest album, The Next Step, which features the single "Killing is Out, School is In". Brown appeared at Edinburgh 50,000 - The Final Push, the final Live 8 concert, on July 6, 2005, where he did a duet with British pop star Will Young on "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag".
As of July 2006, Brown is continuing his "Seven Decades Of Funk World Tour", which is believed to be his last, performing all over the world.
On November 14, 2006, Brown was inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame and was one of several of the inductees that performed.
Personal life and dedications to Brown
Brown has been married four times.
James Brown lives in a riverfront home in Beech Island, South Carolina, directly across the Savannah River from Augusta. On May 6, 2005, as a seventy-second birthday present for James Brown, the city of Augusta unveiled a seven-foot bronze statue of Brown.
On August 22, 2006, the Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority voted to rename the city civic center the James Brown Arena.
Trivia
Brown was a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors for 2003, and a scheduled 2004 unveiling of a statue of Brown in Augusta was delayed because of James Brown's ongoing legal problems. Brown collaborated in the production of Soul Survivor -- The James Brown Story with English director Jeremy Marre. Brown holds the record for the artist who has charted the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 without ever hitting number one on that chart. Brown's 1976 single "Hot" (I Need To Be Loved, Loved, Loved, Loved)" (R&B #31) was a rip-off from David Bowie's "Fame", not the other way around.Discography
For a full listing of albums and singles, see James Brown discography.
Top ten singles
These singles reached the top ten on either the Billboard Hot 100 or the Billboard Top R&B Singles charts.
| 1956: "Please, Please, Please" (R&B #5) 1959: "Try Me" (R&B #1, U.S. #48) 1960: "Think" (R&B #7, U.S. #33) 1961: "Baby, You're Right" (R&B #2, U.S. #49) 1961: "Bewildered" (R&B #8, U.S. #40) 1961: "I Don't Mind" (R&B #4, U.S. #47) 1962: "Lost Someone" (R&B #2, U.S. #48) 1962: "Night Train" (R&B #5, U.S. #35) 1963: "Prisoner of Love" (R&B #6, U.S. #18) 1965: "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" - Part I (R&B #1, U.S. #8) 1965: "I Got You (I Feel Good)" (R&B #1, U.S. #3) 1966: "Ain't That a Groove" Pts. 2 (R&B #6, U.S. #42) 1966: "Don't Be A Drop-Out" (R&B #4, U.S. #50) 1966: "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (R&B #1, U.S. #8) 1966: "Sweet Little Baby Boy" - Part 1 (U.S. #8) 1967: "Cold Sweat" - Part 1 (R&B #1, U.S. #7) 1967: "Let Yourself Go" (R&B #5, U.S. #46) 1968: "I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)" (R&B #4, U.S. #28) 1968: "I Got The Feelin'" (R&B #1, U.S. #6) 1968: "Licking Stick - Licking Stick" - Part 1 (R&B #2, U.S. #14) 1968: "Say it Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud" - Part 1 (R&B #1, U.S. #10) 1968: "There Was A Time" (R&B #3, U.S. #36) 1969: "Ain't It Funky Now" (R&B #3, U.S. #24) 1969: "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose" (R&B #1, U.S. #15) 1969: "I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing (Open Up The Door, I'll Get It Myself)" (R&B #3, U.S. #20) | 1969: "Let A Man Come In And Do The Popcorn" - Part One (R&B #2, U.S. #21) 1969: "Mother Popcorn (You Got To Have A Mother For Me)" Part 1(R&B #1, U.S. #11) 1970: "Get Up (I Feel Like Being Like A) Sex Machine" (Part 1)" (R&B #2, U.S. #15) 1970: "Santa Claus Is Definitely Here To Stay" (U.S. #7) 1970: "Super Bad" - Part 1 & Part 2 (R&B #1, U.S. #13) 1971: "Escape-ism" - Part 1 (R&B #6, U.S. #35) 1971: "Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved" - Pt. 1 (R&B #4, U.S. #34) 1971: "Hot Pants (She Got To Use What She Got To Get What She Wants)" – Part 1 (R&B #1, U.S. #15) 1971: "I'm A Greedy Man" - Part I (R&B #7, U.S. #35) 1971: "Make It Funky" - Part 1 (R&B #1, U.S. #22) 1971: "Soul Power" - Pt. 1 (R&B #3, U.S. #29) 1972: "Get On The Good Foot" - Part 1 (R&B #1, U.S. #18) 1972: "King Heroin" (R&B #6, U.S. #40) 1972: "Talking Loud And Saying Nothing" - Part I (R&B #1, U.S. #27) 1973: "Down And Out In New York City" (R&B #13, U.S. #50) 1973: "I Got A Bag Of My Own" (R&B #3) 1973: "Sexy, Sexy, Sexy" (R&B #6, U.S. #50) 1974: "Funky President" (People It's Bad)" (R&B #4, U.S. #44) 1974: "My Thang" (R&B #1, U.S. #29) 1974: "Papa Don't Take No Mess" - Part I (R&B #1, U.S. #31) 1974: "Stoned To The Bone" - Part 1 (R&B #4, U.S. #58) 1974: "The Payback" - Part I (R&B #1, U.S. #26) 1976: "Get Up Offa That Thing" (R&B #4, U.S. #45) 1985: "Living in America (R&B #10, U.S. #4) 1987: "How Do You Stop" (R&B #10) 1988: "I'm Real" (R&B #2) 1988: "Static, Pts. 2" (with Full Force) (R&B #5) |
Albums
The most critical albums of Mr. Brown's career are debatable. 2 double LP album, released in 1968, was notably influential on then-contemporary musicians, and remains an example of Mr. Brown's highly energetic live performances and audience interaction, as well as documenting the metamorphosis of his music from R&B and soul styles into hard funk.
User Comments Add a comment…