Brother Matthew

In the highly competitive jazz scene, the edge it takes to get over the top sometimes comes from unlikely places. A secret recording of Buddy Rich chewing out bandmembers aboard his tour bus led to a recording contract for one of the players he insulted the most. The case of Boyce Brown, much better known as Brother Matthew, is even more unusual. While something of a separation of church and jazz has always been practically a guarantee, with many classic jazz players forced to choose one or the other in their youth, Brown actually became much more famous after entering a monastery in the early '50s. He combined a jazz career with membership in the Servite Order, which was also on the receiving end of all royalties from the release of Brother Matthew with Eddie Condon's Jazz Band in 1956, on the ABC-Paramount conglomerate. Condon may not have had the impact of Christ himself on this musician, but was certainly a major influence from the Chicago jazz scene in the '30s. Brown is reported to have been hanging around on the fringes then, something of a legend, reputedly the author of odd, forward-thinking, improvised solos on recordings that nobody has ever heard. One of these was with pianist Wild Bill Davison. After becoming a monk, Brother Matthew's main accompanist became Father Hugh Calkins, a contrast that hardly needs further emphasis. The swinging brother died of a heart attack.
© Eugene Chadbourne /TiVo