Lawrence Brown
*Lawrence Brown was born on this date in 1893. He was a Black Gay vocalist (tenor), composer and pianist.
Lawrence Benjamin Brown was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and raised by his father, Clark Benjamin Brown, and his stepmother, Cenia Brown. Lawrence's birth mother died when he was three years old. Clark and his father were formerly slaves. Brown's first music teacher was William Riddick, and he studied his principal instrument, piano, in Boston, Massachusetts. He worked as an elevator operator to make up for the costs his scholarships did not cover. He debuted as a concert accompanist for tenor Sydney Woodward and was discovered by tenor Roland Hayes.
He toured with Hayes from 1918 to 1923, including a performance at Buckingham Palace in 1921. While in England, he attended Trinity College for advanced training and received an education in composition from Amanda Aldridge. In addition to piano and vocal arrangements, he performed string arrangements with cellist Beatrice Harrison at Wigmore Hall. He is best known for his arrangements of Negro spirituals, many of which he performed as accompanist for Paul Robeson, performing on piano and singing harmony.
Following the publication of some of his arrangements of Negro spirituals in James Weldon Johnson's Book of American Negro Spirituals, Brown published his own Negro Folk Songs in 1930. His arrangements were performed by Paul Robeson in concert in 1925 at the Greenwich Village Theatre, and he continued a professional relationship and friendship with Robeson for the next 40 years, accompanying each other in tours of Show Boat, with Brown harmonizing with his tenor voice. They toured internationally, including in Paris, London, and Ireland, for the King of Spain and the Prince of Wales.
Robeson and Brown recorded many of Brown's arrangements, including "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen," "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," and "Joe Hill." "Ballad for Americans" was an international success for the team. The two toured together with the USO during World War II. Brown did significant research for Robeson's projects and actively sought folk music from around the world. He was contacted by conductors seeking obscure folk music. He also had relationships with writers Lloyd Louis Brown and Langston Hughes. His friendship with Robeson and his wife, Eslanda Robeson, was challenged when Paul was blacklisted. Brown retired in 1963 after Robeson's career ended.
Brown never married and lived in Harlem for the last 47 years. Lawrence Brown died on December 25, 1972. Saint Martin's Episcopal Church in Harlem honored Brown with a memorial concert in February 1973. In his 2017 book Fighting Proud, in the chapter dedicated to Ken Johnson, historian Stephen Bourne lists Brown as one of the many jazz musicians whose homosexuality "has not been fully acknowledged."
To Become a musician or Singer
To Become a Conductor or Composer
