The Six Brown Brothers who recorded for Victor and Emerson between 1914 and 1920 evolved from a saxophone quartet in the 1906 edition of Ringling Brothers’ World’s Greatest Shows that was headed by the enterprising Canadian clarinetist Tom Brown (1881-1950) and included two of his brothers, probably Percy (1883-1918) and Vern (1887-1964). In 1908, the act became the Five Brown Brothers (recorded by U-S Everlasting and Columbia in 1911) and included two more brothers, Alec (1882-1978) and Fred (1890-1949). The sixth brother, William (1879-1945), joined the act around 1912, after its 1911 expansion into the Six Brown Brothers.
Several other musicians were part of the group at various times before its 1933 dissolution, most notably Billy Markwith (dates unknown), Harry Fink (1889-1951), and Tom Brown Jr. (b. 1912). Until 1914, while they worked in vaudeville and traveling minstrel shows, the Brothers were multi-instrumentalists, but in 1914 they dropped their trombones, baritones, cornets, bells, rattles, and marimba to specialize in the saxophone. Tom claimed that the group had initiated the saxophone craze that began around 1914 and culminated in the instrument’s omnipresence in American popular music of the 1920s and 1930s.
Though acclaimed as saxophonists, the Browns owed much of their fame to the comic talent of Tom, who did blackface pantomime and wrangled many extramusical sounds from his alto, especially a kind of wordless speech that is documented in a 1927 Vitaphone short. The 1914-20 Victor connection was triggered by the Brothers’ appearance in Chin Chin (1914-1917), a Broadway musical that put five of the musicians into clown costumes, which became a much-copied hallmark of the group. (See the following photos; 1, 2, 3) Their next decade was spent mostly in musical comedy, until the failure of Black and White Revue of 1924 (1923-24), which sent the act back into vaudeville. After 1933, only Tom continued to work as a musician, though without much success.
The Six Brown Brothers’ emphasis on hot repertoire was another big factor in their rise to fame, but, despite the titles of some of their pieces (for example, “Lazy Jazz Waltz,” “Smiles and Chuckles (A Jazz Rag),” and “Sweet Jazz o’ Mine”), their released discs contain very little that approximates jazz, except for Tom’s variation on the melody of “That Moaning Saxophone Rag,” his bluesy reading of one of the strains of “Down Home Rag,” and some playful duets with brother Fred on various tunes (foreshadowing the Clyde Doerr-Bert Ralton duets on the records of Art Hickman’s Orchestra in 1919-20). Their main influence on jazz seems to have been indirect, via the popularizing of the saxophone. They were primarily theatrical entertainers, on a different track from the cabaret and dance bands whose music coalesced into the jazz of the 1910s and 1920s. -by Bruce Vermazen
The story of the Six Brown Brothers can be found in Bruce Vermazen’s That Moaning Saxophone: The Six Brown Brothers and the Dawning of a Musical Craze (Oxford University Press, 2004), and a selection of their recordings (including the Vitaphone soundtrack mentioned above) has been restored and issued on Six Brown Brothers: Those Moaning Saxophones (Archeophone CD 6002), with extensive notes by Vermazen.
| Title | Recording Date | Recording Location | Company |
| Alexandria From the Musical Production “Aphrodite” (Anselm Goetzl) | 3-1920 | New York, New York | Emerson 10186 |
| American Patrol (F.W. Meacham) | 6-26-1911 | New York, New York | Columbia A1041 |
| American Patrol (F.W. Meacham) | 1911 | New York, New York | U.S. Everlasting 1321 |
| Bullfrog And The Coon – Medley (Felix Feist / Joseph S. Nathan) | 1911 | New York, New York | U.S. Everlasting 408 |
| Bull Frog Blues (In Foxtrot Time) (Gus Shrigley / Tom Brown) | 6-20-1916 | Camden, New Jersey | Victor 18097-B |
| Carolina Sunshine (Walter Hirsch / Erwin R. Schmidt) | 7-1919 | New York, New York | Emerson 1055 |
| Chasing The Chickens (Raymond Walker / Abe Olman) | 6-7-1918 | New York, New York | Victor 18476-B |
| Chicken Reel Comedy Medley – “Poet and Peasant” – “Chicken Reel” – “Virginia Lee” – “Bull Frog And The Coon” (Franz von Suppé / Joseph Daly / Joseph Nathan) | 2-15-1915 | New York, New York | Victor 17799-A |
| Chicken Walk (Tom Brown / F. Henri Klickmann) | 6-20-1916 | Camden, New Jersey | Victor 18189-A |
| Chin Chin (Introducing “Pretty Baby” and “Chin Chin Open Your Heart And Let Me In”) (Egbert Van Alstyne / Seymour Brown) | 6-20-1916 | Camden, New Jersey | Victor 18149-A |
| Comedy Tom (Gus King) | 5-8-1917 | Camden, New Jersey | Victor 18385-B |
| Down Home Rag (Wilbur C.S. Sweatman) | 7-8-1915 | New York, New York | Victor 17834-A |
| Egyptland (James W. Casey) | 5-13-1919 | New York, New York | Victor 18562-B HMV 18562-B |
| Fatima (Curtis / Van Alstyne) | 5-1920 | New York, New York | Emerson 10205 |
| For Me And My Gal – Medley (“From Here To Shanghai” and “For Me And My Gal”) (George W. Meyer / Irving Berlin) | 5-10-1917 | Camden, New Jersey | Victor 18310-A |
| Ghost Of The Saxophone (F. Henri Klickmann) | 5-8-1917 | Camden, New Jersey | Victor 18309-B HMV 18309-B |
| If A Wish Could Make It So Introducing “Tickle Me” (From the Musical Comedy “Tickle Me”) (Herbert Stothart) | 11-22-1920 | New York, New York | Victor 18714-B |
| I’ll Say She Does (Introducing Smiles – I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles) (Buddy DeSylva / Gus Kahn / Al Jolson / Lee S. Roberts / Kenbrovin / Kellett) | 7-1919 | New York, New York | Emerson 1056 |
| Independentia And Billboard Medley March | 1911 | New York, New York | U.S. Everlasting 409 |
| Independentia Medley March Including “Under The Double Eagle” – “Bill Board March” | 6-25-1915 | New York, New York | Victor 17822-B |
| Jazz Band Blues (James White) | 4-1920 | New York, New York | Emerson 10195 |
| La Paloma (Yradier) | 11-20-1914 | New York, New York | Victor 17822-A |
| Lazy Jazz Waltz (Sweet Hawaiian Moonlight) (F. Henri Klickmann) | 3-1920 | New York, New York | Emerson 10186 |
| Missouri Blues (Harry Brown) | 7-1919 | New York, New York | Emerson 1056 |
| My Fox Trot Girl (Paul Biese / F. Henri Klickmann) | 5-17-1917 | New York, New York | Victor 18310-B |
| Passion Dance – La Danza Apasionada (Clarence M. Jones) | 6-23-1916 | New York, New York | Victor 18217-B |
| Peter Gink (George L. Cobb) | 5-13-1919 | New York, New York | Victor 18562-A HMV 18562-A |
| Peter Gink (George L. Cobb) | 7-1919 | New York, New York | Emerson 1055 |
| Pussyfoot March (James “Slap” White) | 6-19-1916 | Camden, New Jersey | Victor 18097-A |
| Rainbow Of My Dreams – Medley (Introducing “Norse Maid”) (Freed / Wallace) | 4-1920 | New York, New York | Emerson 10195 |
| Rigoletto Quartet (Giuseppe Verdi) | 6-22-1916 | Camden, New Jersey | Victor 18217-A |
| Saxophone Sam (Paul Biese / F. Henri Klickmann) | 5-7-1917 | Camden, New Jersey | Victor 18309-A |
| Saxophone Sobs (Ernie Erdman) | 6-22-1916 | Camden, New Jersey | Victor 18140-A |
| Smiles And Chuckles (Jazz Rag) (F. Henri Klickmann) | 5-9-1917 | Camden, New Jersey | Victor 18385-A |
| Tambourines And Oranges (F. Henri Klickmann) | 6-22-1916 | New York, New York | Victor 18096 |
| That Moaning Saxophone Rag (Harry Cook / Tom Brown) | 11-20-1914 | New York, New York | Victor 17677-B |
| The Bullfrog And The Coon – Medley “Chicken” – “Cubanola Glide”, – “When The Moon Plays Peek-A-Boo” – “The Bullfrog And The Coon” (Joseph S. Nathan / Felix Feist) | 6-26-1911 | New York, New York | Columbia A1041 |
| The Concourse March (G.E. Holmes) | 7-1919 | New York, New York | Emerson 10106 |
| The Darktown Strutter’s Ball (Shelton Brooks) | 5-9-1917 | Camden, New Jersey | Victor 18376-A |
| Tip Top – Medley “Wonderful Girl, Wonderful Boy” – “The Girl I Never Met” (from the Musical Comedy “Tip Top”) (Ivan Caryl) | 11-22-1920 | New York, New York | Victor 18714-A |
| Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (Tom’s Solo) | 1911 | New York, New York | U.S. Everlasting 407 |
| 12th Street Rag (Euday Bowman) | 5-1920 | New York, New York | Emerson 10205 |
| Walkin’ The Dog (Shelton Brooks / Guy Shigley) | 6-22-1916 | New York, New York | Victor 18140-B |
| When Aunt Dinah’s Daughter Bangs On The Piano (James “Slap” White) | 6-4-1918 | Camden, New Jersey | Victor 18476-A |
| Artist | Instrument |
| Matthew Amaturo | Saxophone |
| Alec Brown | Baritone Saxophone |
| Fred Brown | Alto Saxophone |
| Percy Brown | Alto Saxophone |
| Tom Brown | Alto Saxophone, Leader |
| Vern Brown | Bass Saxophone |
| William Brown | Tenor Saxophone |
| Harry Fink | Tenor Saxopnone, Baritone Saxophone |
| Billy Markwith | Alto Saxophone |
| That Moaning Saxophone: The Six Brown Brothers and the Dawning of a Musical Craze, by Bruce Vermazen, Oxford University Press, 2004 |
