L. Brown, 81; Trombonist for Duke Ellington

Trombonist Lawrence Brown, a stylist familiar to most jazz fans for his lengthy tenure with the Duke Ellington orchestra, died Monday at his home in Los Angeles.

His brother, Harold Brown, said the retired recording agent for the American Federation of Musicians in Hollywood was 81 and had recently suffered a stroke.

Called by Times jazz critic Leonard Feather “one of the most outstanding individual stylists in trombone history,” Brown was raised in Pasadena, where he studied piano, violin, tuba and alto saxophone in addition to the trombone.

He made his first professional appearance at a Mother’s Day service at Aimee Semple McPherson’s church near downtown Los Angeles, playing for a crowd of upward of 6,000.

Brown joined Louis Armstrong in 1931 and Ellington the following year, leaving in 1951 to tour with Ellington alumnus Johnny Hodges.

He left the Hodges aggregation to free-lance in New York and then rejoined Ellington in 1960. In addition to his records with Ellington, he can be heard on recordings with Hodges, Jimmy Rushing, Ruby Braff, the Metronome All Stars, Lionel Hampton, Buck Clayton and others.

Brown returned to California in 1972 to work for Local 47 of the musicians union and retired a few years later.