Is les brown still alive
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© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.
"I'll look in books and see almost no mention of Les. I don't think it's fair. Or right."
- Frank Comstock, composer-arranger
"Throughout all (his various activities), Brown has maintained a strong jazz-oriented ensemble .... The principal virtue in all aspects of this [band’s style] ... lies in utter relaxation. No one is straining and everything is totally musical, with technique available when required. This is mature professionalism at its best."
- Bill Kirchner, Jazz saxophonist, composer-arranger, author-editor
“According to George Simon [author of the seminal book on Swing Era big bands], Les Brown has traditionally deprecated his contribution to music by calling his orchestra a ‘malted milk band.’ … It’s like this, see, a good band, nowdays, is hard to find; you might go so far as to say that Les is more.”
- Will Friedwald, Jazz author and critic
Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Count Basie and a slew of other big bands helped me pass many enjo
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Les was born in March of 1912 and raised in Tower City, Pennsylvania, the son of R.W. Brown, a baker and musician. "My father’s love was music," said Les, during an interview conducted in April of 1996, "but he was a baker so we could eat." R.W.’s instrument of choice was the trombone, but with his three brothers he played soprano sax in a sax quartet that performed the most popular music of the day, the marches written by John Phillips Sousa. And since Sousa was known as the "March King," R.W. Brown earned the sobriquet, "March Prince."
As the son of the March Prince, young Les Brown was playing music almost as soon as he could walk. His father, who taught music to all his sons as well as to other people in the neighborhood, introduced him first to the cornet. But Les preferred the smooth sound of his dad’s soprano sax, and it was on that instrument that he excelled. "I took to it right away," he said, "like fleas to a dog." By the age of nine, Les joined his pro band, hindered only by his lack of proper attire: "T
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Famed band leader, composer, author, arranger and conductor, educated at Ithaca College, the New York Military Academy, and Duke University (where he led the dance orchestra). He worked as a freelance arranger, and formed the Band of Renown in 1938, touring until 1947. He joined ASCAP in 1952, collaborating with Ben Homer and Bud Green. He made many records, and his popular music compositions include "Sentimental Journey"; "We Wish You the Merriest"; "Dance of the Blue Devils"; "Trylon Stomp"; "Duckfoot Waddle"; "Plumber's Revenge"; "My Number One Dream Come True"; "Bill's Well", and "Bill's Ill".
BornMarch 14, 1912
DiedJanuary 4, 2001(88)
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