An Introduction to Charles Brown

With an elegant piano style and a smooth voice that made him sound a little bit like a gruffer Nat King Cole, Charles Brown's jazz-tinged blues is the perfect music for a late-night wind-down. More a crooner than a blues singer in the classic sense, Brown almost single-handedly created the cool, jazz-inflected West Coast blues style in the mid-'40s. This scattered little set collects some of his earliest recordings on Philo Records while he was a member of Johnny Moore's Three Blazers combo, including the influential "Driftin' Blues" from 1945 along with a handful of Brown's subsequent solo records after Philo morphed into Aladdin Records, most notably his definitive take on Jessie Mae Robinson's stark "Black Night" from 1951, as well as a couple of early-'60s holiday recordings from King Records (including a remake of his "Merry Christmas Baby," which was a huge hit for Exclusive Records in 1947 in the original version). It all adds up to a decent introduction to this unique and influential performer, but it certainly isn't the end-all concerning Brown's jazzy take on the blues. Pay attention to his piano playing. At his best, Brown was the complete package.