]
]
This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 7.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 4000 items) |
| Abstract | Collection consists of audio recordings, including interviews, live concert recordings, radio broadcasts, studio master tapes; photographs; sheet music; newspaper clippings; correspondence; and promotional materials relating to African American rhythm and blues musician Charles Brown (1922-1999). Audio recordings include audiocassettes of live concerts and radio interviews, 2" studio multi-track tapes of the Charles Brown Trio recorded at Russian Hill in San Francisco, Calif., and DAT tapes of live gigs. Some of the interviews were conducted by Danny Caron, a white man who was Brown's guitarist and musical director from 1987 to 1999. Video recordings include digital video tapes and VHS tapes of concerts, including the Belgium Rhythm 'n' Blues Festival. |
| Creator | Brown, Charles, 1922-1999 |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Folklife Collection. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Processing Information
This summary description was created in May 2022 to provide information about materials in Wilson Special Collections Library.
Encoded by: Dawne Howard Lucas, May 2022
Updated by Laura Smith, June 2022; Davia Webb and Laura Smith, February 2024
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Related Collections
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Biographical Information
Charles Brown (1922-1999) was an African American rhythm and blues singer and pianist whose soft-toned, slow-paced blues-club style influenced blues performance in the 1940s and 1950s. Between 1949 and 1952, Brown had seven Top 10 hits in the U.S. Billboard R&B chart. His best-selling recordings included "Driftin' Blues" and "Merry Christmas Baby." He influenced performers including Floyd Dixon, Cecil Gant, Ivory Joe Hunter, Percy Mayfield, Johnny Ace, and Ray Charles. Brown was highly recognized for his contributions to American music. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1996 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. He was a recipient of a 1997 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the highest honor in the folk and traditional arts in the United States. Brown was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album three times: in 1991 for All My Life, 1992 for Someone To Love, and 1995 for Charles Brown's Cool Christmas Blues. Between 1987 and 2005, he was nominated for seventeen Blues Music Awards (formerly known as the W. C. Handy Awards) in multiple categories, with a win in the Blues Instrumentalist: Piano/Keyboard category in 1991, and wins in the Male Blues Vocalist category in 1993 and 1995.
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Scope and Content
Collection consists of audio recordings, including interviews, live concert recordings, radio broadcasts, studio master tapes; photographs; sheet music; newspaper clippings; correspondence; and promotional materials relating to African American rhythm and blues musician Charles Brown. Audio recordings include audiocassettes of live concerts and radio interviews, 2" studio multi-track tapes of the Charles Brown Trio recorded at Russian Hill in San Francisco, Calif., and DAT tapes of live gigs. Some of the interviews were conducted by Danny Caron, a white man who was Brown's guitarist and musical director from 1987 to 1999. Video recordings include digital video tapes and VHS tapes of concerts, including the Belgium Rhythm 'n' Blues Festival.
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Charles Brown Collection, 1987-1999
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Items Separated