Customer Reviews

All My Life

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was my first Charles Brown CD but I am familiar with some of his music from the radio. His piano work is good and his vocals are comfortable and inviting.

This is a well balanced CD with a few real gems. "Virus called the Blues" , a duet with Dr. John is very good.

I recommend this CD as an expansion from guitar based blues.

Charles Brown was born in 1922, and this 1990 CD reveals an influential and impressive musician at the absolute top of his game. Brown's piano playing will impress, and may remind more than a few of Nat 'King' Cole in his early years. Brown's smokey and laid-back vocal style is hypnotic, and clearly had an influence on Ray Charles. This mellow music is likely to appeal to both jazz and blues fans, and anyone who appreciates smooth but masterfully played music.

Dr. John and Ruth Brown make appearances, but it's the refined playing and convincing singing of Charles Brown that holds center stage. Brown's relaxed delivery of lyrics feels passionate and sincere. Clifford Solomon adds solid support on tenor saxophone.

Brown performed for over five decades, and this is arguably the strongest effort of his later years. The sophistication of the piano and the smooth delivery of lyrics will delight nearly anyone who appreciates small group jazz.

Although Brown's CDs usually show up in the blues category, the music is sometimes closer in style to Shirley Horn than Pinetop Perkins. Brown was a unique and significant talent, and this CD contains consistently superb blues-inflected jazz.

As a set of cultures the history of America is unimaginable without the contributions made by the Peoples of Africa. From the North Pole to the tip of Tierra Del Fuego we are all Americans.

One of these amazing Americans and we are all African Americans as it turns out is Charles Brown.

This is a collection I listen to frequently, perhaps more than any other.

This is the finest expression in the Blues as far as I am concerned.