Brown, Cleo (c. 1907—)
Brown, Cleo (c. 1907—)
American jazz pianist and vocalist. Name variations: C. Patra Brown. Born Cleopatra Brown on December 8, 1907, or 1909, in Meridian, Mississippi; sister of pianist Everett Brown.
The daughter of a Baptist minister, Cleo Brown was born on December 8, 1907, or 1909, in Meridian, Mississippi. After the family moved to Chicago in 1919, she studied music, played the piano in church, and learned boogie from her brother, pianist Everett Brown. In the late 1920s, Cleo started touring with shows. Moving on to clubs and radio, she had her first break when she replaced Fats Waller on his New York radio program. This led to recording opportunities and further club bookings in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. During her heyday, Brown had her own series on WABC and led her own group at the Three Deuces in Chicago. Taken seriously ill during the late 1930s, she was in a California sanitarium from 1940 to 1942, then resumed her career until 1953, when she quit the music business to go into nursing. After her retirement in 1973, Brown took up inspirational music, playing and singing under the name C. Patra Brown. The quality of her piano work was said to surpass that of her singing, and her rendition of Pinetop's Boogie-woogie influenced many musicians.