2 Brown Sisters: Maggie Brown & Africa Brown “Now is the hour”
saturday, september 28
TIME: 1:00pm-2:00pm
VENUE: Smart Museum. 5550 South Greenwood Ave.
Black and white photo of Maggie and Africa Brown. Maggie is standing. She is wearing all-black and starfish-shaped shell dangle earrings. African is sitting next to Maggie. She wearing all black and has dark black-rimmed glasses and thick hoop earrings. Her hands are lifted to be touching the back of her head. They are in a room with brick and cement walls and a window with metal coil sculptures. Photo by Tony Smith.
2 BROWN SISTERS: MAGGIE BROWN & AFRICA BROWN “NOW IS THE HOUR”
Maggie Brown is an accomplished singer, songwriter, stage director, producer, and educator. Chicago Tribune’s Howard Reich has called her “one of the most fiercely committed artists in Chicago.” Miss Brown always embodies a powerful and passionate performance, whether she is presenting with her own trio or with Orbert Davis’ 60-piece Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Orchestra. She has recorded with Abbey Lincoln, Jonathan Butler, Ramsey Lewis, Stevie Wonder, and her legendary father, Oscar Brown, Jr.
In 1995, Miss Brown launched her own independent label, MagPie Records, and released her first solo project, From My Window, which was nominated for a Chicago Music Award for Best Jazz CD. Before Oscar Brown, Jr.’s passing, the father-daughter duo produced a live concert recording together, called We’re Live, which was released internationally.
In her hometown of Chicago, Miss Brown is called on to bring authenticity and integrity to whatever the job calls for. She works with a diverse list of bandleaders including Tom Tom Washington (South Side Big Band), Joan Collaso (11 Jazzy Divas), and Douglas Ewart (AACM Inventions Ensemble). Though her upbringing is rooted in jazz, she is comfortable singing various genres including blues, gospel, pop, and even rap, with impressive conviction and flow. It is hard to put Miss Brown in a single category or genre. It is easy, however, to see that she is a seasoned artist and a true entertainer.
Stewards of the Brown family legacy, vocalists Maggie Brown and her sister, Africa Brown, work hard to illuminate the loving, humanitarian, community-building origins from which they spring. Using their deep roots in jazz, spoken word, theatre, and their lives on the Southside of Chicago, the 2Brown Sisters have a way of creating performances that incorporate elements of theater and social justice narratives. They are devoted to pulling from a treasure trove of material in the Oscar Brown, Jr. catalog.
Now Is The Hour! will include previously unknown works from the 2Brown Sisters’ father’s catalog, offer fresh arrangements of songs from the 1960’s musical “Joy,” and even include contributions from the sisters’ offspring—the new generation of Browns.
The musicians:
Africa Brown — vocals
Maggie Brown — vocals
Miguel de la Cerna - piano
Phillip Castleberry - bass
Kwame Steve Cobb - drums