How many artists remain at the absolute top of their game after more than a half-century ? One immediately leaps to mind: Charles Brown. His incredible piano skills and laid-back vocal delivery remained every bit as mesmerizing at the end of his life as they were in 1945, when the groundbreaking waxing of "Drifting Blues" with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers invented an entirely new blues genre for sophisticated postwar revelers: an ultra-mellow, jazz-inflected sound perfect for sipping a late-night libation in some hip after-hours joint.In the creative ferment of the heyday of Central Avenue, one strand was this sophisticated, smooth-yet-hip music which was broken out by The Nat 'King' Cole Trio....when Cole started touring nationally, Brown and The Three Blazers became the more authentic version, dominating the cooler clubs of Central Avenue....and enjoying hit after hit with the hip Black audience.... "Drifting Blues" remained on Billboard's R&B charts for 23 weeks, peaking at number two. Follow-ups (including "Sunny Road," "So Long," "New Orleans Blues," and their immortal 1947 Yuletide classic "Merry Christmas Baby") kept the Blazers around the top of the R&B listings from 1946 through 1948, until Brown opted to go solo. If anything, Brown was even more successful on his own, he visiting the R&B Top Ten no less than ten times from 1949 to 1952, retaining his mournful, sparsely arranged sound for the smashes "Get Yourself Another Fool," the chart-topping "Trouble Blues" and "Black Night," and "Hard Times." Brown's mellow approach failed to make the transition to rock's brasher rhythms, and he soon faded from national prominence. Occasionally recording without causing much of a stir, Bonnie Raitt took an encouraging interest in Brown's comebac, bringing him on tour with her as her opening act. In his last years, Brown finally received at least a portion of the recognition he deserved for so long as a genuine rhythm and blues pioneer, being inducted into the Rock 'n'Roll Hall Of Fame. Here then are no less than 30 of Charles Brown's more uptempo and swinging hits....timeless indeed!
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