Stories Of London

MEMORIES OF JACKIE BROWN – II

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The following is a number of Memories of Jackie by the organist, Mr. LEN RAWLE and which appeared earlier in the INTRODUCTION of this series: :

I have only good memories of Jackie Brown and hold the most favourable view of his great musicianship. He was someone who just quietly got on with the job and was a big influence on me (and others) during my formative years.

Jackie was much admired by his contemporaries for his weekly conducting and musical arranging of the BBC’s Billy Cotton Band Show. Later, his theatre organ work was really only for his own pleasure, but did see him playing electronic organ shows, including some demonstrations for music retailers.

It was always a joy to meet up with him for he had a cheery way that was always very engaging. I think it fair to say he played a significant part in helping to keep the theatre organ scene alive in the UK at a time when their use in the cinema had long ceased.

Jackie did not appear to perform on the twice daily organ broadcasts that were heard on the BBC Light Programme during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Or if he did, sadly I was not aware of them. However, we are fortunate enough to have his generous  appearances at the TOC’s and COS’s club concerts and hear and thoroughly enjoy his sumptuous  playing. I think that it was here that his love of the instrument and of light music that transferred to us all

Jackie’s organ playing had a style and sound that was highly individual and instantly recognisable regardless of the name of the instrument. He relied heavily on finding the sweetest combination of mid range voices and then expanding on them by the use of various couplers. His artistic use of them always left one feeling that his emotions were at one with the instrument.

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ANDREW GILBERT remembers Jackie Brown in a communication sent to Mrs. Julie Channon, Jackie’s daughter:

I first heard Jackie Brown play at the second organ show I ever went to. It was at Brighton’s famous Dome Theatre in the Spring of 1970 and featured Thomas Electronic Organs. The artistes playing were Thomas’ own star player Harold Smart, Douglas Reeve (resident organist of the Dome Theatre) and Jackie. He didn’t play the big, top-of- the-line model but instead made some beautiful sounds on a mid-range organ called the Bel Air.

Andrew Gilbert playing Maybe Tonight/Adriatic Moonlight composed by Jackie
and played in orchestral style based on Jackie’s original arrangement

I knew that I wanted to start playing the organ, so got my parents to take me to as many organ shows as possible. Many of the local ones were put on by Southern Organs and that’s where I started to listen to Jackie’s lush stylings more closely.

I started visiting the Southern Organs store in Southwick, near Brighton, on a regular basis, with my parents at first and then on my own. Once they realised that I could play a bit, they were quite happy to let me sit and make some music at an organ. I came to Jackie’s attention one day when sitting at a Conn Organ, attempting to play Rhapsody in Blue. He listened for a while and then gave me some very useful advice on playing it. On subsequent visits he’d sit me at this or that organ and said that I had the happy knack of getting some good sounds out of whatever instrument I sat at …. including all the ones he later told me he didn’t like!

Jackie never actually gave me lessons: he was more of a mentor. My Dad did ask him about giving me lessons at one point, but he declined. He didn’t say that I didn’t need them, of course, but instead said that I was already past where many of his students were, and I was fast developing my own style. And he definitely didn’t want me to become a Jackie Brown clone, just playing his arrangements or in his style. So instead, he took me under his wing somewhat and would regularly give me some hints, tips, suggestions, and encouragement when I visited the store.

Like many UK organ dealers back in the 1970s, Southern Organs had its own organ club. I would go every month to listen to the visiting artiste and Jackie would often call me and some of his students up to play a number or two before the star turn. One evening, the guest organist played a great first set, had a break and then, maybe twenty minutes into the second set, stood up and announced that he’d run out of material! Now Jackie could easily have played for the remaining time, but instead invited me up and asked me to play for half an hour. I did so and, as a result, the club booked me for a concert in my own right – the first full concert I ever played!

That also led to him asking me to play some pieces at organ demonstration evenings in the Southwick store and I can particularly remember him asking me to play the three manual Conn 650 Theatre, to see what kind of theatre organ stylings I could come up with. He told my parents, We’ll have to get Andrew playing theatre organ. Alas, that was never to come about.

Andrew Gilbert playing Soprani’s Serenade/Carmenita composed by Jackie
and played in orchestral style based on Jackie’s original arrangement

On one visit to Southern Organs, I told Jackie that I had an audition for Opportunity Knocks, a popular television talent show. He asked if I wanted him to have a quiet word on my behalf. The show was hosted by Hughie Green, for whom Jackie played organ on Double Your Money and The Sky’s the Limit, so that quiet word would almost certainly have led to a television appearance. I said that I’d rather do the audition. Jackie smiled and said that was what he’d wanted to hear.

Jackie would sometimes play the organ in local pubs, especially where Southern Organs had provided the instrument. If Mum and Dad took me along, Jackie would always give me a spot. At the White Horse Inn, a hotel in Rottingdean, just along the coast from Brighton, Jim Whitbread was the organist. He was a real gentleman and a very fine player, however, in his own words, he was getting on a bit, so he’d occasionally get other local organists to deputise for him, including Jackie and me. Along with the organ, the White Horse Inn also had a piano. It wasn’t long before Jackie and I started doing duets. I’d play the Lowrey Organ and he would play the piano. We’d work out a short list of pieces that we both knew and decide who would play which part and then change our minds halfway through!

The hotel then decided to swap the piano for another organ. It was a British made Kentucky instrument, one that was firmly on Jackie’s don’t like list! So, when I turned up the next time, he was playing his preferred organ and pointed to the Lowrey and said, I’m playing this one and you are playing that pile of junk! At the end of the evening, after we had played our duets, he turned to me, shook his head and said, How did you get that thing to sound so good? Good mentoring was the answer! The evenings at the White Horse Inn were always great musical fun for both of us, but alas were few in number, as they were just before his passing.

It’s worth mentioning that it was on my Southern Organs visits that I got to know Jackie’s daughter Julie. I’d sometimes hear Jackie playing something that he’d just written and now, thanks to Julie, I have scans of Jackie’s hand-written copies of some of these pieces, which will be played at my own concerts in the future. I would hazard a guess and say that perhaps they haven’t been played in public for almost 50 years. And when I’ve asked people if they would like to hear Jackie’s music played again, the answer has always been an enthusiastic yes. But, keeping to Jackie’s insistence that I didn’t become a clone, they’ll have a good dose of me in them as well as Jackie’s special brand of magic.

An arrangement (2021) based on Jackie’s arrangement (1969) of Maria
(from West Side Story) and played by Andrew Gilbert

So even though I only knew him for a few brief years in the early 1970s, I’m delighted to say that he and his music are still a great influence on my own music making. My overriding memories are that of a kind and generous man, but one who didn’t suffer fools gladly and whom you didn’t cross. He was always willing to spend some time with this shy young lad who was crazy about organs, and for that, I will always be grateful.

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Jackie with other Organist Friends
Left: Jackie & Florence de Jong (1894-1990; Ena Baga’s Sister);
Robinson Cleaver (1906-1987), Ena Baga (1906-2004) & Jackie

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