This Day in Tap History - James "Buster" Brown

Stacie Strong | May 18, 2008 | 0

James "Buster" Brown was born on May 17, 1913, in Baltimore, Maryland, the only son in a family with seven daughters.  Though he initially intended to become a doctor, the tap bug bit him when he was 16, and he was soon stealing steps from the vaudeville acts that came through town and rehearsing with his friends on street corners.  His talent allowed him to travel the world as a tap dancer, taking him to meet kings (he once gave a command performance in Africa for Ethiopian emperor Hailie Selassie) and commoners alike.  Although he was known to be one of the best dancers of his generation, with great speed and intricate polyrhythms, he was equally revered as a kind, generous and incredibly funny man who touched the lives of everyone he met with his optimism, humility and boundless energy.

Buster Brown started performing in Baltimore in his teens, eventually forming a trio called "The Three Aces" with two high school friends.  The three hit the road and toured for a while, but Brown's second performance group, "The Speed Kings," was even better.  That group featured precise, lightning fast dancing, and became so successful that it shared the bill with such luminaries as Sarah Vaughn.  Brown also worked as a soloist, acting as the featured dancer for several of the finest big bands of the era, including Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and his personal favorite, Duke Ellington.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Brown, like many of his contemporaries, found it difficult to find work as a dancer.  He had to take a job as a janitor to make ends meet, but continued to perform with fellow tap dancers in a group they called "The Diehards," sometimes dancing for free in hotels just to keep their hand in.  He also toured to Europe occasionally during this time.  However, once tap was back in the limelight, he was at the forefront of the renaissance, both as a teacher at the tap festivals and the university level (with appointments at Harvard, Duke and New York Universities) and as a performer on Broadway (in "Black and Blue"  and "Bubblin' Brown Sugar") and in film ("The Cotton Club.")  Indeed, the London Telegraph once quoted him as saying that "he and his fellow tap 'legends' had far more work, appreciation and money in their old age than they ever had in their prime."

Brown left two legacies.  One was his dancing, which was, by all accounts, brilliant.  Some of his choreography can still be seen today in the repertoire of professional companies such as Chicago Tap Theatre, which performs his version of "Laura" as part of their Heritage Series.  The second was his inclusiveness to everyone in the tap community, no matter what their age, their gender, their race or their level of experience.  Nowhere was this embracing spirit more evident than in his weekly tap jam at Swing 46 in Manhattan, which he began in 1997.  Although Brown was able to attract world-class dancers such as Gregory Hines and Savion Glover, he was equally happy to host children and novices at his jams.  If you loved tap, you could get up and jam.  

During his almost seventy years on the stage, Brown was honored to be a member of two of the most well known professional tap fellowships, "The Hoofers" and "The Copasetics," and counted among his peers the great Jimmy Slyde, Chuck Green and Baby Laurence. Brown received numerous awards during his life, including an honorary doctorate from Oklahoma City University, but the greatest honors come from the words of his friends and colleagues.  Dancer magazine did a tribute to him at his death in 2002, and you can read some of the comments here, which paint a picture of a talented and effervescent man. http://www.danceruniverse.com/stories/issues/200203/busterbrownnewyork/

Happy birthday, Buster.  

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