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Tom Brown was born in Uptown New Orleans, Louisiana on June 3, 1888. He played trombone with the bands of Papa Jack Laine and Frank Christian, and by 1910 he was usually working with leading bands under his own name. The band played in a style then locally known as “hot ragtime” or “ratty music”. In early 1915, his band was heard by Vaudeville dancer Joe Frisco who then arranged a job for Brown’s band in Chicago, Illinois.

Tom Brown’s Band from Dixieland opened up at Lamb’s Cafe in Chicago, this band seems to be the first to be popularly referred to as playing Jass. The term jass, at that time, had a sexual connotation, which drew more people to come to hear the band out of curiosity. Realizing the publicity potential he started calling his group Brown’s Jass Band.

Heading to Chicago, Illinois he enjoyed over four months of success there  before moving to New York City, where they played for an additional four months more prior to returning to New Orleans in 1916. Once home, Tom immediately put together another band with Larry Shields, Alcide Nunez, and Ragbaby Stevens, then went to work for Bert Kelly in New York City, replacing the Original Dixieland Jass Band at Reisenweber in 1918. He started doing freelance recording work with New York dance and novelty bands, then joined the band of Harry Yerkes.

Brown also played the Vaudeville circuit in the acts of Joe Frisco and Ed Wynn. Late 1921 he returned to Chicago and joined Ray Miller’s Black & White Melody Boys, with whom he made more recordings. During this period he also co-lead a dance band with his brother Steve. Back in New Orleans he played with Johnny Bayersdorffer and Norman Brownlee’s bands, making a few excellent recordings.

During the Great Depression he supplemented his income from music by repairing radios. He opened up a music shop and a junk shop on Magazine Street. He played string bass in local swing and dance bands. With the revival of interest in traditional jazz he played in various Dixieland bands in the 1950s. Making his last recording just weeks before his death, his trombone playing apparently did not suffer from the fact that he had neither teeth or dentures at the time. Trombonist Tom Brown, who also played string bass, passed away in New Orleans on March 25, 1958.

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