- File
A .J. Brown in cabaret action.
Michael Reckord, Contributor
A J. BROWN was all of five years old when he decided he wanted to become a singer. He had been influenced in that career choice by his famous uncle, Lloyd Campbell of the north coast city's duo The Blues Busters.
Brown made his first major step on a road which was to lead to international recognition in his early teens. He formed a band with fellow Cornwall College students and became the group's lead vocalist.
"We were just out to have fun," said Brown in a recent interview, but, so popular did the band's (free) school concerts become over the next several years, that, in the final months before graduation, they started getting paid gigs in the community.
Members of the band included Dave Richards, now a pianist at Hedonism 2; Cosmo Brown, band owner and lead guitarist of 'Elements' band at Sunset Beach hotel; Bryan Kerr (drums); Claude Morgan (guitar); 'Latty' Gurzong (singer and melodica player), now a music producer in Miami; Lester Smith (bass); and Carl Phillips (vocalist), a former lead singer with Fab 5.
Originally called 'Outer Squares' (a take-off of 'Inner Circle'), the group later renamed itself 'Gemini'.
Brown also became a member of the singing ensemble 'Black Velvet', which he and some of his cousins formed. At Christmas concerts at the Strand Theatre in Montego Bay, St. James they would sing American R&B tunes made popular by groups like The Chi-lites, The Delphonics and The Hues Corporation.
ARTISTIC TALENT
Brown's talent was not only expressed in music. "Art was a passion," he says and he enjoyed classes to the GCE level at school. His mother, however, discouraged his desire to be an artiste, she wanted him to be a doctor.
Asked if she also discouraged his musical activities, a shadow crossed his face. "My mother never heard me sing," he said. "When I was 13, as I was going into third form, she passed on."
After he left Cornwall College, Brown's artistic talent got him a job under the Government's Youth Service programme at the St James Parish Library, and he became a display artist there.
However, music still beckoned and when Gemini member Smith, a regular at the library, asked Brown to join his band at the Banana Boat club as a vocalist, Brown readily agreed. For Brown it was the start a hectic regime which lasted, on and off, for many years.
"I'd work at the club until 2:00 to 3:00 a.m., then go to work at the library," he said, laughingly adding, "Many times the librarian would find me asleep in the mobile unit."
The extra work was a necessity, though. Brown had to take care of himself and also contribute to his family's household.
After nine months, when Youth Service ended, Brown was forced to decide what to do with his life. On the strength of his Ordinary Level examinations, he applied to and was accepted as a student of the Jamaica School of Art, at the then Cultural Training Centre (now Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts).
Because he needed to save some money for the programme he waited a year before entering the school, during which time he swapped the Banana Boat engagements for singing with 'Stamma and the Clubbites' at different north coast hotels and night clubs.
When Brown started art classes in 1977, he was earning a mere $60 a week as a band singer and finances were tight. Happily, two months after enrolling, an offer from Gemini member Richards, then a keyboardist at Seawind Beach Resort, enabled Brown to start cabaret work at hotels for $60 per show.
These engagements led to a meeting with Carole Guntley, the sales manager at Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, and the first of numerous shows in Kingston.
The well-received annual series 'A .J. Brown Fashion Follies' at the Pegasus a combination of music, dance and fashion was one of them.
MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH
The train of events leading to perhaps the major breakthrough in Brown's performing life started with his meeting actor Bernie Casey and his wife, Paula, at Hedonism 2.
Impressed by Brown's 'great performance' at the hotel, the couple got Las Vegas Hotel owner Steve Wynn to invite Brown to Las Vegas to discuss possible employment at Wynn's soon-to-be opened casino, The Mirage. Ironically, at around the same time, Pratt University in New York accepted Brown as a student of computer graphics but Brown lacked a student visa.
Chuckling as he recalled the events, Brown said he used the strength of the acceptance from Pratt to squeeze from Wynn an offer of payment of Brown's tuition to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to study art. This was in addition to a generous salary and accommodation.
The icing on Brown's cake was the fact that, in November of 1989, he became The Mirage's opening entertainer. The schedule was strenuous Brown performed in four shows a night, six nights a week, each set lasting 45 minutes.
This continued for seven years, for four of which he could not rest in the days, as he was attending classes at the university. For many reasons then, he was happy to graduate in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in art. One of the reasons was that he had got married to Ann-Marie the year before.
Highlights of his United States sojourn included singing America's National Anthem for the internationally viewed boxing match between Jamaican Donovan 'Razor' Ruddock and Greg Paige.
"I practised for days," Brown recalled for he found that, with its wide range of notes, the United States anthem is very difficult to sing well. He also sang the anthem to open the Winter Olympic Games one year.
Since returning to Jamaica in 1996, Brown has resumed cabaret and recording work. He already has five albums to his credit and is now working on three simultaneously.
His plan is to release one on which he is working with Beres Hammond next year - after he has had an exhibition of his paintings.
