“Hot Lips”
Bill Brown And His Brownies
(Brunswick 7003-B) March 17, 1927
“Bill Brown Blues”
Bill Brown And His Brownies
(Brunswick 7003-A) March 17, 1927
Here’s a rare record from the Edward Mitchell collection, one of only two made by a very nice black jazz band based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
I was not able to find a lot of information about Bill Brown And His Brownies. Brown was a trombonist and his band was active between 1925 and 1935. Most references to the band are regarding the fact that John Kirby was, for a while, a member. While it was based out of Pittsburgh, during the mid-to-late 1920s the band regularly appeared at top Harlem nightspots such as the Alhambra Ballroom and the Savoy Ballroom.
This record was the third of Brunswick’s 7000 “race” series. “Race records” was an industry term at the time for recordings by black artists that were primarily marketed to black record buyers.
The band had its only other recording session on December 26, 1929 which resulted in two sides issued on Brunswick 7142, “Zonky” and “What Kind of Rhythm Is That?”
John Kirby was in the 1929 recording session but not the 1927 recordings featured here.
I was impressed by both of these recordings and wish the band had been able to make far more recordings than it did.
“Hot Lips” dates back to 1922 and was co-composed by Henry Busse who was one of the original members of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Whiteman’s band was not the first to record the song but it had the top-selling recording. The song, with Busse’s trumpet solo, remained part of the band’s live performances throughout the rest of the 1920s. After Busse formed his own band, the song became its opening theme. Busse made recordings of it in 1934 for both Columbia and Decca.
I have always enjoyed Busse’s 1934 Decca recording of the song – but, in my opinion, Brown’s hot jazz rendition is, by far, the best version of the song I have come across.
“Bill Brown Blues” was composed by Brown himself and I suspect could have perhaps been used as the band’s opening theme song. Brunswick also issued this recording of “Bill Brown Blues” on its lower-priced Vocalion label (Vocalion 1128) with Johnny Dodds Black Bottom Stompers’ “Melancholy” on the flip side. The Vocalion issue is harder to find than the Brunswick.
– Dismuke