CHARLES BROWN, "DON'T FOOL WITH MY HEART "C/W "SEVEN LONG DAYS," ALADDIN 45-3092 (REL. 10/1951)

To understand the extent of the change in Black music, it’s necessary to encounter recordings from the early post-war period. Rhythm & blues was a different creature in 1951: it still bore the style of the 1940s—a relaxed, after-hours feeling that owed more to jazz than blues. Vocalists didn’t shout or shriek. A relaxed cool or a rascal’s voice of freedom and mischief were most often heard. These were the stylistic sons of Nat “King” Cole and Louis Jordan, two major forces in ‘40s r&b.

Charles Brown, gifted singer, songwriter and pianist, was of the Cole cool school. Born in 1922, he studied classical piano and received a Bachelor of Science degree at age 20. With the war on, Brown’s educational career was sidelined; he moved to San Francisco to work in its shipyards. He’d already begun a career in playing blues music and developed a following. As a member of Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers, he wrote “Drifting Blues,” which stayed on the music charts for six months in 1945 and was a major signpost of what lay ahead for Black music. Their style, a variant on the Nat King Cole Trio’s piano-bass-guitar line-up, proved a large influence on West Coast performers. The group achieved a cool that was an important part of the post-war mien of Black music.

Signed to Aladdin Records, Brown had a long string of hits, with and without the Blazers, including 1947’s “Merry Christmas Baby,” 1949’s “Trouble Blues” and 1951’s “Black Night.” In that year, Black music began its break from the post-war cool style with the emergences of vocal groups The Clovers, Midnighters and “5” Royales, who pushed tempos and hardened their approach. This new breed didn’t yet threaten the Charles Browns, but would soon subsume them.

All this was in the future when Brown made his second seven-inch disc for Aladdin—with two songs he didn’t write but infused with his special approach. This record showed up in a seller’s dollar bin last week, alongside other early r&b items that looked wrecked but which I knew would clean up and be playable. The early Aladdin 45s impress with their good mastering, fine sound quality and vinyl pressings. The imprint would switch to styrene in their later years to the consternation of collectors and r&b fanciers.

This 1951 platter has an unusual problem. It has a crack around the label area. This doesn’t otherwise affect the record and may have been caused by too much force during its manufacture or from someone who dropped the record on a hard surface. The vinyl didn’t break, but the impact affected the circumference of the label, which is raised from the playing surface and thus potentially vulnerable. It must be handled with care but it’s still intact. There aren’t many of these around. Such records were taken for granted when new and got rough treatment from their owners.

“Don’t Fool with My Heart” appears to have Oscar Moore’s trio format, with an after-hours sound akin to some of Duke Ellington’s small-group records of the 1940s. Brown’s voice is expressive but calm, with the welcome addition of a sax; its player does a welcome call-and-response with Brown’s mesmerizing voice. The reedman’s conversational tone is an apt match.

This group does much with little. Brown’s lyrical piano rolls throughout this ironic, witty song; its flourishes speak to his elegance with the instrument. A modern jazz-flavored coda gives this song a fine finale. This approach still has great appeal, and one can hear later vocalists whom Brown’s singing inspired. Chuck Berry was an obvious admirer of Brown’s style and it’s possible to imagine his ghost-version of this song as this 1951 side plays.

>>>Hear it HERE!!!<<<

Billboard's 1951 reviews read like a clinical lab sample.

“Seven Long Days” was the hit side—it reached #2 on the r&b charts. Penned by Jessie Mae Robinson, another Texan who penned Brown’s “Black Night,” among many other fine songs that were recorded by Black and white artists before she retired from composing in the late 1950s. It was music’s loss, as she penned some of the bluesiest blues, the funniest novelties and a few all-out rockers.

The song is a traditional 12-bar blues with a standard melody and simple but haunting lyrics—ideal material for Brown to assay. The two sides of this single sustain a late-night mood of loss, longing, and a personal review of life’s ups and downs. With knowledge of what was soon to come, such an intimate, quiet recording seems an unlikely hit, but this is where Black music was at on the eve of the vocal group explosion, followed by rock ‘n’ roll in 1955.

>>>Hear it HERE!!!<<<

Brown soon had his final hit for a few years in 1951’s “Hard Times.” After that, he charted in 1960 (and for several holiday seasons afterwards) with “Please Come Home for Christmas,” which at last got him onto the mainstream pop charts. It was an odd success for this once-influential singer of after-hours blues, but its royalties paid the bills and helped keep Brown’s career afloat. He prospered as a feted performer at blues festivals and continued to make new recordings until he passed on in 1999. He remains one of Black music’s key figures of the post-war years.

Tomorrow: two demos by a beloved rock ‘n’ roll icon which received a welcome issue in the UK. The Kinks liked this 1964 release!