Tony winner Ruth Brown Dead at 78

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/17/06 at 11:56pm

"If I can't sell it, I'll keep sittin' on it......."

R.I.P.

"Legendary R&B singer Ruth Brown, who won a Tony Award as Best Actress in a Musical in 1989 for the revue Black & Blue died today in Nevada at age 78. The cause was complications from a stroke and a heart attack.

Brown, who was born in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1928, was one of the most popular vocalists of the 1950s, known for such hits as "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean," "Lucky Lips," and "Teardrops in My Eyes." Eventually, she became equally well known as a jazz singer, winning a Grammy Award for the album Blues on Broadway. She was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

In addition to Black & Blue, she appeared on Broadway in Amen Corner. In recent years, she had sold-out engagements at Le Jazz Au Bar in New York CIty. Brown also worked sporadically in television and film, most notably playing the role of Motormouth Maybelle in John Waters' Hairspray."



http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/9499

Updated On: 11/17/06 at 11:56 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/18/06 at 12:09am

"“She was one of the original divas,” said the singer Bonnie Raitt, who worked with Ms. Brown and Mr. Begle to improve royalties for rhythm-and-blues performers. “I can’t really say that I’ve heard anyone that sounds like Ruth, before or after. She was a combination of sass and innocence, and she was extremely funky. She could really put it right on the beat, and the tone of her voice was just mighty. And she had a great heart.

“What I loved about her,” Ms. Raitt added, “was her combination of vulnerability and resilience and fighting spirit. It was not arrogance, but she was just really not going to lay down and roll over for anyone.”

Ms. Brown sustained a career for six decades: first as a bright, bluesy singer who was called “the girl with a tear in her voice” and then, after some lean years, as the embodiment of an earthy, indomitable black woman. She had a life of hard work, hard luck, determination, audacity and style. Sometimes it was said that R & B stood for Ruth Brown as much as for rhythm-and-blues.

As the 1950s began, Ms. Brown’s singles for the fledgling Atlantic Records — like “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean” and “5-10-15 Hours” — became both the label’s bankroll and templates for rock ‘n’ roll. She could sound as if she were hurting, or joyfully lusty, or both at once. Her voice was forthright, feisty and ready for anything.

After Ms. Brown’s string of hits ended, she kept singing but also went on to a career in television, radio and movies — including a memorable role as the disc jockey Motormouth Maybelle in John Waters’s “Hairspray” — and on Broadway, where she won a Tony Award for her part in “Black and Blue.” She worked clubs, concerts and festivals into the 21st century. “Whatever I have to say, I get it said,” she told an interviewer in 1995. “Like the old spirituals say, ‘I’ve gone too far to turn me ‘round now.’ "

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Working the rhythm-and-blues circuit in the 1950s, when dozens of her singles reached the R and B Top 10, Ms. Brown drove a Cadillac and had romances with stars like the saxophonist Willis (Gator Tail) Jackson and the singer Clyde McPhatter of the Drifters. (Her first son, Ronald, was given the last name Jackson; decades later, she told him he was actually Mr. McPhatter’s son, and he now sings with a latter-day lineup of the Drifters.)

In 1955, Ms. Brown married Earl Swanson, a saxophonist, and had a second son, Earl; the marriage ended in divorce. Her two sons survive her: Mr. Jackson in Los Angeles, who has three children, and Mr. Swanson in Las Vegas. She is also survived by four siblings: Delia Weston in Las Vegas, Leonard Weston in Long Island, and Alvin and Benjamin Weston in Portsmouth, Va.

Her streak of hits ended soon after the 1960s began. She lived on Long Island, raised her sons, worked as a teacher’s aide and a maid, and was married for three years to a police officer, Bill Blunt. On weekends, she sang club dates in the New York area, and she recorded an album in 1968 with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band. Although her hits had launched Atlantic Records — sometimes called the House that Ruth Built —she was unable at one point to afford a home telephone.

The comedian Redd Foxx, whom she had once helped out of a financial jam, brought her to Los Angeles in 1976 to play Mahalia Jackson in “Selma,” a musical about civil rights he was producing. She moved on to sing in Las Vegas and continued a comeback that never ended. The television producer Norman Lear gave her a role in the sitcom “Hello, Larry.” She returned to New York City in 1982, appearing in Off Broadway productions including “Stagger Lee,” and in 1985, she went to Paris to perform in the revue “Black and Blue,” rejoining it later for its Broadway run.

Ms. Brown began to speak out, onstage and in interviews, about the exploitative contracts musicians of her generation had signed. Many hit-making musicians had not recouped debts to their labels, according to record-company accounting, and so were not receiving royalties at all. Shortly before Atlantic Records held a 40th-birthday concert at Madison Square Garden in 1988, the label agreed to waive unrecouped debts for Ms. Brown and 35 other musicians of her era and to pay 20 years of retroactive royalties.

Atlantic also contributed nearly $2 million to start the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, which pushed other labels toward royalty reform and distributed millions of dollars directly to musicians in need, although it has struggled to sustain itself in recent years.

“Black and Blue” revitalized Ms. Brown’s recording career, on labels including Fantasy and Bullseye Blues. Her 1989 album “Blues on Broadway” won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female. She was a radio host on the public-radio shows “Harlem Hit Parade” and “BluesStage.” In 1995, she released her autobiography, “Miss Rhythm” (Dutton), written with Andrew Yule; it won the Gleason Award for music journalism. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993."



NY Times Obit

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 11/18/06 at 12:11am

Love to Family and Friends...
What a Talent.

[BrunetteBombshell]

Posted: 11/18/06 at 1:03am

Very sad news.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/18/06 at 8:17am

A magnificent woman.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/18/06 at 8:39am

So sad to hear this.

Rest in peace, Miss Brown.

[show2n2]

Posted: 11/18/06 at 11:14am

I never got a chance to see her live but I wore out my Black and Blue Cast Recording.

Amazing performer.

Magnificent lady.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/18/06 at 11:27am

Black & Blue aired on PBS years ago, and it was fantastic. I really wish it would be released on DVD, so people could see what the fuss was about with Ruth. Both she and Linda Hopkins (and Savion Glover et al) were sensational, as was the entire production.

[factorykid2]

Posted: 11/18/06 at 11:40am

Miss Brown died while at the top of her game. When I saw her (less than three months ago) she was fantastic. Her voice was strong and she was "getting paid", which meant alot to her. She had also recently recorded some new songs....

My interview with Miss Brown for BroadwayWorld.com is here:

https://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=11811

[scot]

Posted: 11/18/06 at 6:54pm

Loved her!

2-hat diva
she was!!