Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place.
Revolutionary soul-jazz group the Awakening, which included several AACM affiliates (and appeared in a previous Secret History), enlisted Brown for its two groundbreaking albums, released via the Black Jazz label in 1972 and ’73. Sadly, in 1974 Brown suffered a major setback: a terrible car crash in which he lost several teeth. He was unable to play saxophone as he recuperated, so at first he fell back on his piano skills. After seven months, he tried to return to his horn and discovered that someone had added insult to injury—the instrument was gone, stolen from his home. Undeterred, Brown borrowed his father’s sax and got his chops back into shape.
Brown was part of the ensemble on the 2020 album Cloud Script by bassist Joshua Abrams, and he’s continued to perform as the pandemic allows. In March 2021, he and Kirk recorded a duo set at Constellation that was streamed as part of the virtual series Chicago Takes 10, and in April ’21 he played a string of limited-capacity shows at the Jazz Showcase. In June he participated in Elastic’s streaming Z Festival, playing in a band led by bassist Marlene Rosenberg, and on September 4 he’ll perform as part of a Millennium Park jazz concert during the Chicago in Tune festival. If you get a chance to catch this forward-thinking living legend onstage, don’t pass it up. v
