This past week I pulled out my copy of Windy City Boogie, the fine J.T. Brown album on the Delmark Records label, and decided after listening to it that I was long overdue on writing about Brown’s great blues contributions.

I probably sound like a broken record, but information about Brown’s early years, like many blues artists who never achieve a modicum of widespread success, is scant.  What is known is that Brown was born to his parents, Sam Brown and Cecelia Brown, in Mississippi in on the second day of April, 1918 with the given name of John Thomas Brown.  Sam Brown was involved with the band of the famed Rabbit Foot Minstrels, the variety ensemble that traveled as a tent show performance group for many years between 1900 until into the late 1950s.  Also with the show at the time Sam Brown worked it were J.T. and another of Sam Brown’s sons named E.W. who also lived in Mississippi.  Another band member on the show was a man who would go on to be quite instrumental in R&B, Louis Jordan.  No doubt, Jordan had to impart a level of saxophone inspiration and motivation to perform to the highest standards upon young J.T.

At some point, J.T. made his way northward to Memphis, Tennessee.  It was here that he met a blues piano player who would become a lifelong on-and-off musical partner, Little Brother Montgomery.  But Memphis could not hold J.T., and he again moved northward, this time to Chicago.

By the age of 27, J.T. was an in-demand session player, and was recording behind two of the preeminent blues piano stars of the Chicago blues scene, St. Louis Jimmy Oden and Roosevelt Sykes.  Due to J.T.’s reliability and high capabilities, he was also in-demand for club work, and in this regard, he performed with piano man Eddie Boyd, the uniquely talented Washboard Sam, and piano stylist Memphis Jimmy Clarke, among others.  

Another alliance J.T. made during his early Chicago years was with the renowned blues drummer Jump Jackson, and J.T. even took it upon himself to make an introduction occur for Jackson with the famed record producer, songwriter, arranger, and talent scout of the period, Lester Melrose, who at any one time worked for the RCA Victor, Bluebird, Columbia, and OKeh record labels.  Due to J.T. providing this introduction, Jackson attained a high level of respectability for his recording session work, with him and J.T. frequently working together over the years in the studio, the Chicago clubs, and out on the road.  As was seen with Montgomery, J.T. was adept at establishing and maintaining enduring musical relationships.

Finally at the age of 32, J.T. got the chance to record under his name on the Harlem label at a session that included Grant “Mr. Blues” Jones, an arrangement that called for Grant and J.T. to split the vocal work.  As would become a pattern for J.T., the very next year he would jump to a new label to again get his work recorded.  Leonard Allen, who would go on to be recognized as a notable record company executive, was starting up a new label with partner Lew Simpkins (United), and he had in his mind the strong desire to have both pianist Roosevelt Sykes and the famed blues slide guitar artist Robert Nighthawk appear on the label’s first session.  The story goes that J.T. intensely wanted in on the session and opportunity to record for Allen and his new label, so he offered his musical services at no cost to Allen.  Allen being the astute businessman, and knowing of J.T.’s high talent level, took J.T. up on his offer.  In time, Brown recorded for United under the name “Nature Boy” Brown And His Blues Ramblers, with his 1951 release of “Windy City Blues”/” Blackjack Blues” bringing him acclaim.

All the while, J.T was playing south side Chicago club gigs with his colleague Little Brother Montgomery, but due to the success of “Windy City Boogie” he took his talents on the road for six months with a band he put together that included the admired jazz trumpet player King Kolax, the fine piano player Art Tarry, the excellent guitarist Ernest Ashley, and the superb percussionist Hillard Brown; a certifiable top-tier assemblage.  The band eventually attained a bassist, Tommy Braden, and the remembrance is that he was from somewhere in Tennessee, most likely Chattanooga.  All accounts indicate that the production was a hit, and played to eager audiences.

Again, one year later in 1952, J.T. was back in the United studio with a recording band that included Tommy Braden, the bass player acquired in Tennessee (he was also an accomplished vocalist), and Grant “Mr. Blues” Jones, among other contributors.  As an aside, Braden was part of a quite high-ranking vocal group that at various times performed under the names The Three Blazes, The Four Blazes, and The Five Blazes.  The name The Five Blazes eventually stuck to avoid being confused with the famous Los Angeles, California-based group Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers, a band that included the renowned piano master Charles Brown, guitarist Johnny Moore, and bassist Eddie Williams.  In a twist of fate, Braden would hit it big with the United label on the strength of his own outing entitled “Mary Jo.”

J.T. plowed forward, continuing to play club dates, and when the opportunity arose to record, he made himself available to various labels including Meteor, J.O.B., and Atomic-H.  He also made a couple of strong alliances during this time with fellow bluesmen Elmore James, the slide guitar giant, and Johnnie Jones, the superb piano artist.  His work with these two provided him steady pay and visibility.

J.T. also continued to tour when the opportunities presented themselves, but as is often the case in the realm of traveling musicians of the period, this created some unfortunate circumstances.  Jody Williams, the Chicago blues guitarist of lofty repute (i.e., “Lucky Lou”), often told the tale of J.T. losing his control and attempting a beat-down of Johnny Moore when J.T.’s group was traveling with Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers on a tour.  Apparently, Moore’s reputation was such that, at times, pay for gigs suddenly were shorted.  However, J.T. was also not an angel in this regard.  Williams’ story went on to explain that Brown conveyed to his own band after a show in Missouri that the club owner had shorted the group’s pay under the auspices of the venue’s attendance having been weak.  But as is the case with seasoned traveling musicians of the time, their individual and collective intuitions easily led them to the conclusions that J.T. was playing fast and loose with his claim, and when confronted about it, J.T. fessed-up, providing a full accounting of the money and full wages (imagine that).  Well, all character was lost when J.T. scampered back home without paying his band, leaving them beached and without any compensation for their work whatsoever.  So, J.T.’s reputation was not entirely on the up-and-up within the blues world.

Ironically, Williams was brought into the studios for another United label effort by J.T., one that would prove to be the last for J.T. for the label.  Though J.T. laid-down a track entitled “Darling Patricia,” the label’s focus for the cut was not on J.T.’s version as it was earmarked for another artist.  This was not an unusual tactic by labels of the time, with United also deploying a couple of other tracks J.T. recorded that were eventually siphoned to other artists.

This early 1950s period was arguably the most fertile of J.T.’s solo career.  He did record as a sideman on others’ sessions going forward, chiefly in the 1960s, with one the great Chicago bluesman Muddy Waters in the mid-1960s where he actually played another woodwind instrument, the clarinet.  He also recorded with Howlin Wolf, who he would also gig with from time-to-time.  J.T. continued to gig around Chicago with other artists, as well.

In early 1969 J.T. was part of a noted recording undertaking with the British blues band Fleetwood Mac, a chronicling that was issued on the Blue Horizon label.  The outing was entitled Blues Jam At Chess, and as the name implies, it was recorded the famed Chess studios in Chicago.  The roster of blues talent that accompanied Fleetwood Mac was notable, including piano great Otis Spann, harmonica titan Walter Horton, bassist and songwriter Willie Dixon, guitar giant Buddy Guy, eminent drummer S.P. Leary, and celebrated guitarist Honeyboy Edwards.

J.T. presented very well with his saxophone work on this release, and it also resulted in his last vocal work, as he reprised his earlier work, “Blackjack Blues.”

Roughly ten months later, J.T. died after undergoing lung surgery at a near south side Chicago hospital.

So, what was it about J.T.’s saxophone work that made him so in-demand?  During his heyday, the “sweet blues” were “en vogue.”  For those saxophone stylists, a jazzier approach to playing was the “in thing.”  To be able to play in a more jazz-oriented vein, one must be able to play with a certain degree of refinement and restraint.   Also, to be effective in a jazzy manner, a player would need to be able to present tonic deviations to match to more free form nature of jazz modulations.  All of this was certainly not in J.T.’s arsenal, as his was a robust, blustering approach, quite in contrast to the jazzier mode.  It is said that J.T. deployed a wavering distribution; some compared it to the sound of a goat’s bleat.  Regardless, J.T.’s saxophone style was full-bodied and apparently of satisfaction to many.

Also, J.T. was said to be a rather intriguing man, and this appears to be suggested by the variety of nicknames that were bestowed on him over the years.  He was known to audiences and record labels alike as J.T. “Blow It” Brown And His Harlem Blu-Blowers, the aforementioned Nature Boy Brown (And His Blues Ramblers), the leader of the Bep Brown Orchestra, the front man of J.T. Brown’s Boogie Band, J.T. “Big Boy” Brown, along with the simpler J.T. Brown.

Blues saxophone players occupy a specific niche in the music’s modern-day history, with Chicago’s history of such including Howlin’ Wolf’s bandleader Eddie Shaw, the scampish A.C. Reed, and in more modern times, Sunnyland Slim Band alumnus Sam Burkhardt, and integral Son Seals Band member Red Groetzinger.

But before all of them, paving the way forward for the saxophone in Chicago blues was J.T. Brown.  Seek out his music, and hear what he started.