FRINGE Festival : TRIBUTE TO A SWINGING TEACHER

Samuel Browne never wrote a hit song or standard, never led a popular band or was widely recognized as a great instrumentalist. So why is local jazz pianist/composer Horace Tapscott calling his live radio performance for the Fringe Festival (airing tonight at midnight on KCRW-FM) a “Tribute to Samuel Browne”?

In 25 years of teaching music at Jefferson High School from 1936-1961, Browne became a revered figure as an educator. Los Angeles was a fertile breeding ground for young musicians during that period and Browne’s swing band at Jefferson has assumed legendary dimensions.

A partial list of students who went on to prominent professional careers includes saxophonists Dexter Gordon, Eric Dolphy, Sonny Criss, Big Jay McNeely, Frank Morgan and Vi Redd, vocalists Ernie Andrews and O. C. Smith, trumpeters Art Farmer, Don Cherry and Clora Bryant, trombonist Melba Liston, and drummers Chico Hamilton, Lawrence Marable and Bill Douglas.

Tapscott, who prefers the label Afro-American classic for his music, is a 1952 Jefferson graduate who considers Browne his mentor.

“Samuel Browne was a major influence on my writing and playing because he stayed on you,” Tapscott explained. “He’d come to your house after school and on weekends to help you. When I went into the service, I’d send my music back to him to check it.”

The performance by Tapscott’s octet today will feature “The Ballad of Samuel,” a Tapscott composition inspired by Browne that was recorded by Sonny Criss, and two pieces Tapscott wrote while studying at Jefferson. The performance also will be dedicated to the late Linda Hill, a member of Tapscott’s Arkestra unit.

Browne, 79, said he “wasn’t up to it” and declined to be interviewed for this story, but his old students spoke glowingly of him.

“He had the charisma and all the guys loved him,” said Dexter Gordon from his New York apartment. “They referred to him as ‘Count’ Browne, like Count Basie. He got the guys interested and motivated.

“You had to earn your way into the swing band and it was a great experience. The enthusiasm, the ambiance, was exhilarating. We couldn’t wait to get to school--it was all hurry up and get to school and practice.”

Added Bill Douglas, currently the treasurer of Musician’s Union Local 47: “He seemed to be hip to the things we were into. The big band swing era was happening and there were a lot of up-and-coming musicians over there. We were all interested in what was going on and he was capable of teaching us what we wanted to know.”

A Los Angeles native, Browne was graduated from Jefferson in 1926 and earned his undergraduate degree in theory and organ from USC in 1929. He played briefly with Les Hite’s big band, according to Tapscott, and became one of the first three black high school teachers in the Los Angeles school system when he was hired at Jefferson in 1936. Browne earned a master’s degree in education from USC in 1939.

He inaugurated a number of programs at Jefferson in addition to the swing band. A visiting artists program brought such prominent musicians as W. C. Handy, Jimmie Lunceford, Nat Cole and William Grant Still to the campus for performances and discussions with music students.

He also introduced works by black composers, like his close friend Still, working in the classical tradition. Browne actively recruited talented students for Jefferson.

“He would come over scouting to Lafayette and Carver junior high schools, knowing that most of the students were going to Jefferson, and listen to the bands,” said Tapscott. “He was trying to enlist them into the orchestra before they even got to high school, just like a (baseball) farm system. I used to get out of junior high early and go over to Jefferson at sixth period and sit in with the band.”

Tapscott wasn’t the only one--Browne’s reputation made the Jefferson High band a magnet for musicians around the city.

“I was living in the area of Fremont High but all the musicians and music was happening at Jefferson,” said Don Cherry in a 1985 interview. “They had the best teacher, Samuel Browne. The band would go visit other high schools and give concerts.

“The book (repertoire) was made up of things like ‘Things to Come’ and ‘Manteca’ by Dizzy Gillespie and some of Stan Kenton and Woody Herman’s things, and Count Basie. I got sent to detention school because I was ditching Fremont so much to play at Jefferson.”