Brown, Ruth

Youth and Career

Ruth Alston Weston was born January 12, 1928 in the city of Portsmouth in Virginia, the eldest of seven children ^[3] in a working class family. Her father was a loader in the port, and in his free time he sang in a church choir. Despite this, Ruth did not follow the standard path from speaking in church, but was carried away by singing in nightclubs and at concerts for military personnel. Her inspiration for her musical career at that time was Sarah Vaughn and Billy Holiday . ^[4] In 1945, Ruth ran away from home with her boyfriend, trumpeter Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married. After the wedding, they formed a duet and performed in bars and clubs. She then collaborated with the Lucky Millender Orchestra for a month, but was fired after bringing musicians free drinks. Ruth Brown remained in Washington , where their last joint performance took place.

There, Brown met Blanche Calloway, the sister of the celebrated Cab Calloway, who organized her a concert in one of the capital's nightclubs, and later became her manager. Willis Conover, a leading Voice of America radio station, spotted the aspiring singer and recommended it to the directors of Atlantic Records , a recent emerging record company, Amet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. An audition was organized for Ruth Brown, but she never got on him because of a serious car accident, as a result of which she spent nine months in the hospital. Despite this, Ertegun and Abramson came from New York to Washington in 1948 in order to still hear Ruth Brown singing. Her musical data pleased them very much, but they still convinced her to switch from performing popular ballads to R&B .

Success and Recognition

At her first audition already at Atlantic Records , Brown performed the song So Long , which immediately became a hit after recording it. Her next major success was the hit “Teardrops from My Eyes” , recorded in 1950 and for 11 weeks ranked first in the Billboard R&B chart . This song, written by Rudi Tumbes, became fundamental in the beginning of Ruth Brown's professional career, having confirmed it in the list of outstanding R&B artists. ^[five]

Over the next decade, many of Brown’s songs became hits. Among them, “I'll Wait for You” (1951), “I Know” (1951), “5-10-15 Hours” (1953), “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean” (1953), “Oh What a Dream ” (1954), “ Mambo Baby ” (1954) and “ Don't Deceive Me ” (1960). Her success as one of the leading R&B performers earned her the nicknames "Little Miss Rhythm" and "Girl with a Tear in her Voice . " In general, from 1949 to 1955, Brown led the R & B hit parade for 149 weeks, becoming the most popular artist at Atlantic Records , which earned her the nickname The House That Ruth Built . ^[2]

Renewal of interest

In 1960, Ruth Brown disappeared from the public eye to devote herself to the family and raising her only son. Only after 15 years, the American comedian Redd Foxx convinced her to resume her musical career, and after another four years to take part in the filming of the Hello, Larry sitcom. In 1983, Brown first appeared on Broadway in the musical A Corner of the Amen, based on the play of the same name by James Baldwin .

In 1988, director John Watres invited Ruth Brown to her cult film Hairspray , in which she brilliantly played the role of Motormaus Maybell, the owner of a music store fighting for the rights of blacks. A year later, Brown reappeared on Broadway in the musical Black and Blue, thanks to which she won the prestigious Tony Award, as well as the Grammy Award for recording the album Blues on Broadway, which became the soundtrack for this musical.

Ruth Brown was an active supporter of the struggle for the rights of R&B musicians, which ultimately led to the creation of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, ^{[6] an} independent organization striving to preserve R&B historically and culturally, to organize financial assistance, as well as advocating for the payment of royalties to musicians. In 1989 , in the very first year of its founding, Brown won the organization’s special prize.

Later years

In 1993, Ruth Brown was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , labeled Queen Mother of the Blues . In the 1990s, she often performed with other blues artists, including Charles Brown, and at the end of the century toured with Bonnie Wright, another American blues singer. Her autobiography Miss Rhythm , which went on sale in 1995, ^[7] was awarded a special prize for music journalism.

Ruth Brown died at the Las Vegas Central Hospital on November 17, 2006, due to complications from her heart attack and stroke , which severely undermined her health in October of that year. ^[8] On January 22, 2007, a memorial concert was held in one of Harlem 's Baptist churches in memory of Ruth Brown, one of the most brilliant R&B performers. ^[9]

• Tony 1989 - “Best Actress in a Musical” (“Black and Blue”)
• Grammy 1989 - "Best Soundtrack" ("Blues on Broadway")

• Ruth Brown (link unavailable from 09/09/2013 [2167 days] - history , copy ) (eng.) On the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame site
• Ruth Brown on the Allmusic website
• Ruth Brown on the Internet Movie Database
• Ruth Brown on the Internet Broadway Database