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The Brian Browne Trio


The Brian Browne Trio - The Toronto Scene

The Toronto Scene
RCA Canada International - 1965


Michael Panontin
In May 1965 RCA announced the first in a trilogy of records showcasing a jazz artist in each of the country's three metropolises, to be issued on the label's boutique RCA Canada International imprint. Montreal, being the largest city at the time and home to arguably the most vibrant scene, was first out of the blocks with The Montreal Scene by the Nick Ayoub Quintet to be followed later that year with similarly titled LPs by Vancouver's Lance Harrison and His Dixieland Septet and then Toronto's Brian Browne Trio.

Browne was actually an Ottawa native, having moved there from Montreal as a teenager with his family. The self-taught musician idolized the likes of Art Tatum, George Shearing and Oscar Peterson and was already playing at hospitals and senior's homes while still in secondary school. After graduating from Fisher Park High School, Browne attended the University of Ottawa, taking steady gigs around town, including live-to-radio concerts from the Beacon Arms Hotel, where he regularly performed with his trio.

Browne had only recently relocated to Toronto when he was chosen by RCA as its musical representative. On The Toronto Scene, which features Pearson 'Skip' Beckwith on bass and Donald Vickery on drums, he takes us through eight relatively short tracks of varying tempo and complexity. Of the slower tracks, his languorous rendition of 'Georgia on My Mind' is clearly the best, whereas at the more uptempo end of the spectrum is the frenetic reworking of 'When the Saints Go Marching In' (here retitled as 'Home Again'). On the latter track, both Browne and his rhythm section are on fire, no doubt influenced in part by Al Hirt's own feverish version just a couple of years before this. Of the three Browne originals, the standout has to be 'Toot That Whistle', a wonderful two-minute interplay between Browne and Vickery that really ought to be rediscovered.

Though none of the discs was a million-seller, RCA seemed happy enough, with the Nov. 6 issue of Billboard informing us that "RCA Victor reports civic pride flourishing in Vancouver, where The Vancouver Scene album with Lance Harrison's Dixieland Band has sold some 2,500 copies, outselling its companion pieces in the jazz series, The Montreal Scene with Nick Ayoub and orchestra and the new Toronto Scene with the Brian Browne Trio".

Browne's big break would not really come until 1969, when he appeared on a CBC-TV special called Jazz Piano along with US greats Erroll Garner, Bill Evans and Marian MacPartland, where he famously quipped, "If you play music for people drinking cocktails, it’s called cocktail music. If you play for people who can’t afford cocktails, that's jazz."

It was a sentiment Browne might have been a little too familiar with given his propensity to abuse drugs and alcohol and his familiarity with the grungier side of life. He kicked his drinking (though not the drugs) in 1979 but left his wife and kids a few years later. He would return to Ottawa for a spell, where he opened Zoe's Lounge in the Fairmont Chateau Laurier. But just a few years after that, he was in New York running a pool hall that attracted the city's seedier element. The burly pianist, who had to break up fights on more than one occasion, once claimed to have testified in court that the sound of a pool cue fracturing a skull sounded like "the sound of Darryl Strawberry hitting a home run".

Browne finally settled down in his sixties when he found himself back in Ottawa to care for his ailing parents. Once back in the capital, he re-inserted himself into the local music scene, schlepping his own keyboard to restaurant gigs, giving lessons in his apartment and even making the odd recording. Browne unfortunately had to fight multiple cancers in his final years and passed away in 2018 at the age of 81.
         


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