Charles Brown

Charles B. Brown
(16 July 1869 – 4 November 1927)

Charles Brown was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to German immigrants William Brown and his wife Carbina Wilhelmina Buchs. Although he later reported his birth year as 1870, the 1880 census showed him to be eleven, so the date was potentially 1869.

Little information about Charles was left behind so it is hard to know the level of music education he received. However, it was certainly something beyond the usual public-school material, and he likely was given some private lessons in piano, theory and harmony. By 1891 he had relocated south to Chicago, Illinois, and was working as an orchestra musician, and possibly an accompanist.

Brown had some early success writing marches and cakewalks that were popular at the time. While they weren’t quite ragtime, his first few pieces from 1898 and 1899 showed a grasp of what the coming music might be. Unfortunately, his titles and cover images were steeped in the racial stereotypes that were endemic in that era. But to publishers, who made the decisions on how to market the pieces, this was just business as usual, and the questionable norm at that time.

As he continued to work as an orchestra musician, Charles would on occasion compose something, but he was hardly prolific. He had minor success with titles such as “The Mobile Prince” and “Policy King” but never progressed to the first rank of ragtime composers. When he died in 1927 his death record listed him as a clerk.

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