Education
Before she graduated from high school, Lionel Hampton offered the opportunity to tour professionally in Europe. She graduated from Jack Yates High School.
Before she graduated from high school, Lionel Hampton offered the opportunity to tour professionally in Europe. She graduated from Jack Yates High School.
She is primarily known for her work in the 1950s and 1960s. Before a retirement period she was part of Louis Armstrong"s ensemble. She is currently part of the Heritage Hall Jazz Band.
Her first professional performance was at the age of 12 in the Manhattan Club in Galveston, Texas.
In 1957, on a vacation to Los Angeles, California, she sat in with organist Earl Grant at the Club Pigalle. Grant hired her that night and she continued performing with him for a year.
She went on to work for Dallas, Texas nightclub owner Jack Ruby. In the next decade she was offered singing positions with Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.
She chose Armstrong, and appeared with him in the films Louis Armstrong and All Stars and Solo.
In recent years she has revived her career, singing in the Heritage Hall Jazz Band. In 2013, Brown was nominated for a Blues Music Award in the "Koko Taylor Award (Traditional Blues Female)" category.
She retired in 1971 to care for ailing members of her family, and later established a hair salon in Houston.
