Buster Brown (tap dancer)

Last updated

James "Buster" Brown (1913-2002) was an American tap dancer active from the 1930's to 2000. Brown started his career in African-American dance circuits while still in high school and went on to perform internationally, accompanying acts like Duke Ellington and dancing with Savion Glover. Having appeared in numerous films and documentaries, including Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club, he has been described as an inventor of the tap dance art form and one of the most prominent figures in the world of tap dance.

Contents

1913-1930s: Early life

Baltimore in the early 1900s Harbor of Baltimore.1905.jpg
Baltimore in the early 1900s

Brown was born James Richard Brown in 1913 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the only boy, with seven sisters. His father William Brown, an oyster shucker, died when he was six years old, leaving his mother to raise the children. [1] Brown acquired the nickname "Buster" as a child. [2] The children all took jobs after school to support the family. [2] The entire family loved to dance, [2] and Buster picked up tap by imitating people on the street. [3] "I started to dance when I started to walk," he said later. [2]

While still a child, Brown watched six year old Albert "Pops" Whitman, son of Alice Whitman of the Whitman Sisters, in a tap dance act. [2] This sparked an interest in show business, and Brown started up a male dancing trio with John Orange and Clifton Payne called The Three Little Dots. In high school, he created an act called The Brown Brothers, which later became the Three Aces, with John Orange and Sam Campbell. Brown graduated Frederick Douglas High School in 1933. [1] [4] [2]

1930s-40s: The Speed Kings

View of the Apollo Theatre marquee, New York, N.Y., between 1946 and 1948. The Speed Kings performed at the Apollo in the 1930s and 40s View of the Apollo Theatre marquee, New York, N.Y., between 1946 and 1948 (William P. Gottlieb 00141).jpg
View of the Apollo Theatre marquee, New York, N.Y., between 1946 and 1948. The Speed Kings performed at the Apollo in the 1930s and 40s

After graduation, the performers renamed their act The Speed Kings, The act was a mix of tap, acrobatics and jive [3] that featured speed and precision dancing. They performed a two week tour in a variety show in Washington DC, then worked with Brownskin Models at the Apollo Theater. When John Orange died suddenly in a swimming accident, Brown went to Cleveland Ohio, where he created Speed Kings 2 with Emmet McClure and Sylvester Lake. The act opened with soft-shoe dancing, then moved into a rhythmic precision dance. [1]

In the 1930s, the Speed Kings 2 went to Broadway on the T.O.B.A circuit. [5] In 1939, tthey played the Apollo Theater and Small's Paradise with Earl Bostic's band. When he wasn't working, Brown frequented the Hoofer's Club. The Speed Kings 2 continued performing through World War II, and participated in the Cole Porter musical film, "Something to Shout About." (1943). The group disbanded in 1942. [1]

1940s-50s: Post-war years

After working briefly with a singing group called The Three Riffs, Brown formed a solo comedy and tap act in New York. In 1945, he paired up with Ernest "Pippy" Cathy to form the duo Brown and Beige. In the early 50s, the duo broke up, and Brown worked with a comedy singing and dancing group called the Choclateers. [4]

With the death of celebrity tap dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in 1949, the popularity of tap dancing declined and jobs became hard to come by. During this time, Brown worked for a record company, clerked in a hotel, cleaned buildings [3] and managed a restaurant. [4]

1960s-1970s: International acclaim

In the 1960s, Brown started dancing again, with a group founded by Leticia Jay called the Hoofers, which did tap jams once a week on 125th street in Harlem. He also appeared in a television show produced by Jay. In 1966, Brown toured in a solo act throughout the U.S. and Canada with the Duke Ellington Big Band, and also performed in Berlin, Germany. In 1967, he moved with his wife and family to an apartment in Manhattan and began singing that same year with the Ink Spots. In 1968, the Hoofers traveled to Africa on a State Department sponsored Jazz Dance Theater tour, where they performed for Emperor Haile Selassie. [1] In the 1970s, he became a lifetime member of the tap dancing The Copasetics Club, founded in 1949, in memory of Bill Robinson. In 1974, Brown appeared in the tap dance documentary, Great Feats of Feet." [1]

1980s-2000s: Tap dance renaissaance

In the 1980s, tap dance was undergoing a renaissance, which helped Brown's career. He worked with the Broadway touring production of Bubblin' Brown Sugar and the Paris musical Black and Blue, as well as continuing to perform with the Hoofers, the Copasetics, and in solo shows, He also taught at festivals and workshops throughout America. His film and television credits included the television show Tap Dancing, the Francis Ford Coppola film "The Cotton Club" (1984) a video documentary, Cookie's Scrapbook. (1987) a PBS television show “Gershwin Gala” and a tap special, “Dance in America”. [3] [1]

Tap dancer and choreographer Savion Glover paid tribute to Brown in his 1995 Broadway musical Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk , with a solo in which he imitated Brown's 'fast and light' style. Brown also performed with Glover in “Foot Notes – the Concert” at the Wilshire Theatre in Los Angeles in 2000. [3]

In a review of that performance, The Los Angeles Times wrote “dancing to ‘April in Paris,’ octogenarian James ‘Buster’ Brown exemplifies the sharpness and physical/spatial economy of classic Copasetics Club style: nothing wasted, except maybe some of the jokes between numbers.” [3]

In the late 1990s, mentoring the next generation of tap dancers, Brown hosted Sunday evening tap dance jam sessions at Swing 46 in New York City. [1] In an interview at age 86, Brown said "I'm still in love with tap dancing," even though he couldn't do all the moves he used to. [6]

In 2002, Oklahoma City University awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Performing Arts. [4]

Death and legacy

Tapshoes Tapshoes.jpg
Tapshoes

Brown died in New York City in May, 2002. [3] In his memory, tap dancer Charles Goddertz said, "I would award Buster Brown the Nobel Prize for performance, dance, and the enrichment of audiences. He is a role model and humanist to the highest degree." Brown was also remembered for his scat renditions of songs "Fascinating Rhythm," and "Just You." [4]

In her book Dance Appreciation, Dawn Davis Loring described Brown as a rhythm tap dancer, and a hoofer who also 'performed soft-shoe routines with elegance and strength' [7] He has been cited as 'one of the most prominent figures in the world of tap dance'and 'an inventor of the art form' as well as an influence on later entertainers like Sammy Davis Jr., and Gregory Hines. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tap dance</span> Type of dance involving percussive shoes

Tap dance is a form of dance that uses the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music. Tap dancing can also be a cappella, with no musical accompaniment; the sound of the taps is its own music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Savion Glover</span> American dancer, actor, and choreographer (born 1973)

Savion Glover is an American tap dancer, actor and choreographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Robinson</span> American dancer and actor, AKA Bojangles (1878–1949)

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid black entertainer in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. His long career mirrored changes in American entertainment tastes and technology. His career began in the age of minstrel shows and moved to vaudeville, Broadway theatre, the recording industry, Hollywood films, radio, and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold Nicholas</span> American tap dancer

Harold Lloyd Nicholas was an American dancer specializing in tap. Nicholas was the younger half of the tap-dancing pair the Nicholas Brothers, known as two of the world's greatest dancers. His older brother was Fayard Nicholas. Nicholas was featured in such musicals as An All-Colored Vaudeville Show (1935), Stormy Weather (1943), The Pirate (1948), and The Five Heartbeats (1991).

Dianne Walker, also known as Lady Di, is an American tap dancer. Her thirty-year career spans Broadway, television, film, and international dance concerts. Walker is the artistic director of TapDancin, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jimmy Slyde</span> American tap dancer (1927–2008)

James Titus Godbolt, known professionally as Jimmy Slyde and also as the "King of Slides", was an American tap dancer known for his innovative tap style mixed with jazz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Coles</span> American actor and tap dancer (1911–1992)

Charles "Honi" Coles was an American actor and tap dancer, who was inducted posthumously into the American Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2003. He had a distinctive personal style that required technical precision, high-speed tapping, and a close-to-the-floor style where "the legs and feet did the work". Coles was also half of the professional tap dancing duo Coles and Atkins, whose specialty was performing with elegant style through various tap steps such as "swing dance", "over the top", "bebop", "buck and wing", and "slow drag".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Sims</span> American tap dancer

Howard "Sandman" Sims was an African-American tap dancer who began his career in vaudeville. He was skilled in a style of dancing that he performed in a wooden sandbox of his own construction, and acquired his nickname from the sand he sprinkled to alter and amplify the sound of his dance steps. "They called the board my Stradivarius," Sims said of his sandbox.

Charles Green was an American tap dancer. Green was born in Fitzgerald, Georgia. He would stick bottle caps on his bare feet as a child and tap dance on the sidewalk for money. He won third place in a dance contest in 1925, in which Noble Sissle was the bandleader. Soon, Green would be touring the South tap dancing.

<i>Tap</i> (film) 1989 US dance drama film by Nick Castle

Tap is a 1989 American dance drama film written and directed by Nick Castle and starring Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr.

Ernest "Brownie" Brown was an African American tap dancer and last surviving member of the Original Copasetics. He was the dance partner of Charles "Cookie" Cook, with whom he performed from the days of vaudeville into the 1960s, and of Reginald McLaughlin, also known as "Reggio the Hoofer," from 1996 until Brown's death in 2009.

Charles “Cookie” Cook was a tap dancer who performed in the heyday of tap through the 1980s, and was a founding member of the Copasetics. He was the dance partner of Ernest “Brownie” Brown, with whom he performed from the days of vaudeville into the 1960s. They performed in film, such as Dorothy Dandridge 1942 “soundie” Cow Cow Boogie, on Broadway in the 1948 musical Kiss Me, Kate, twice at the Newport Jazz Festival, as well in other acts, including “Garbage and His Two Cans” in which they played the garbage cans. He headlined venues including New York's Palace, the Apollo, Radio City Music Hall, Cotton Club, and London Palladium. Quoted as saying “if you can walk, you can dance,” Cook was one of the most influential tap masters and crucial in passing on the tap tradition to future generations.

The Flo-Bert Award honors "outstanding figures in the field of tap dance".

Bunny Briggs was an American tap dancer who was inducted into the American Tap Dancing Hall of Fame in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Vaudeville</span> Vaudeville-era African American entertainment

Black Vaudeville is a term that specifically describes Vaudeville-era African American entertainers and the milieus of dance, music, and theatrical performances they created. Spanning the years between the 1880s and early 1930s, these acts not only brought elements and influences unique to American black culture directly to African Americans but ultimately spread them beyond to both white American society and Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mable Lee</span> American jazz tap dancer, singer, and entertainer (1921–2019)

Mable Lee, sometimes spelled Mabel Lee, was an American jazz tap dancer, singer, and entertainer. Lee appeared on Broadway, at the Apollo Theater, and was known as "Queen of the Soundies" due to her numerous performances in the films.

Michelle Dorrance is an American tap dancer, performer, choreographer, teacher and director. Awarded a MacArthur "Genius Grant", she is the Founder and artistic director of Dorrance Dance. Dorrance is known for her creative ensemble choreography, rhythm tap style and ambitious collaborative projects with fellow tap dance choreographers and musicians. She is currently a 2017 Choreographic Fellow at New York City Center and an Artist in Residence at the American Tap Dance Foundation. Dorrance lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Tap City, the New York City Tap Festival, was launched in 2001 in New York City. Held annually for approximately one week each summer, the festival features tap dancing classes, choreography residencies, panels, screenings, and performances as well as awards ceremonies, concert performances, and Tap it Out, a free, public, outdoor event performed in Times Square by a chorus of dancers. The goal of the Festival is to establish a "higher level of understanding and examination of tap’s storied history and development.”

Eddie Rector was an American tap dance artist and master of ceremonies. His career spanned the 1920s-40s as he danced in Harlem, across the US, and in Europe. He is known as a “soft shoe expert,” and he invented the Slap Step. Rector was the protégé of John Leubrie Hill and later danced as a team with Ralph Cooper. He danced in notable revues including Darktown Follies (1914), Tan Town Topics (1926), Blackbirds of 1928, Hot Rhythm (1930), Rhapsody in Black (1931), Blackberries of 1932, and Yeah Man (1932). 

Gary "Pete" Nugent was an American tap dancer known as "Public Tapper, Number 1". He was also part of the class act, Pete, Peaches, and Duke.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Hill, Constance Valis (2014). Tap Dancing America: A Cultural History. Oxford University Press. p. 103. ISBN   978-0-19-022538-4 . Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Albert, Kurt. "Buster Brown Story" (PDF). Tap and Tray. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Segal, Lewis (May 11, 2002). "James Buster Brown, 88, Tap Dancer". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 James Buster Brown. Library of Congress. Retrieved February 2, 2024.{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  5. ↑ Fisher, James (2023). Historical Dictionary of Vaudeville. Rowman and Littlefield. p. 92. ISBN   978-1-5381-1335-6 . Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  6. ↑ NYT Staff (2001). The New York Times Dance Reviews 2000. Taylor and Francis. p. 133. ISBN   978-1-57958-059-9 . Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  7. ↑ Loring, Dawn Davis (2021). Dance Appreciation. Human Kinetics. p. 104. ISBN   978-1-4925-9258-7.
  8. ↑ "James Buster Brown". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.