In my first year or so of living in the SF Bay area, California, I took a class in tap dance at Laney College in Oakland, Ca. I am originally from Washington, D.C. I soon learned that the teacher standing out in the hallway before the first class began was the master hoofer Eddie Brown. As time ensued we came to know each other, and he shared that he was part of Bill Robinson's dance troupe. Indeed, Eddie's was classic Tap, like Sammy Davis, Jr, and Honi Coles. His was the New York style, close to the floor, precise, crisp, not all this other stuff that I will not say here as Eddie quipped about one day when we were talking. Again, his steps were these neat, crisp, precision-like steps fraught with dynamics. And we talked, he explained the difference between the classic style, and that which is done on stage at the then-time. His tap phrasing was like that as I played on drum, a technical style of playing. With all due respect, I say that while Gregory Hines brought Tap back from the grave, and was indispensible to tap dance's revival, his style was more likened to that of an athleteand lacked form, as it were. Few are they who came close to the likes of Eddie Brown, Sammy Davis, Jr., the Nicholas brothers, and my favorite -- Honi Coles... Fred Astaire, Eddie said, was damnned good, but that he was 'not' a tap dancer. We once chatted just before one class wherein quips about hoofers generally, and brought up one name, wich I will not quite describe who he is as Eddie did, but before he could finish speaking on him, I said, "Buddy Rich?" ... he says "yeah" .. in an affirming way, that Buddy could hoof. I knew that Buddy was good. He bore the mark of a true tap dancer, his being originally from Brooklyn, New York. Later on in the semester, he takes me over to west Oakland to meet someone he called "Sis." We knock at the door, and upon opening the door of the apartment, which set in one of those project-buildings -- the walls, cinderblock, painted the nondescript neutral -- there standing before us and bading us enter is the lady that Eddie called "Sis." Mirabile Visu, she was the great Lester Young's sister! I was awe-struck. Here I was setting amid royality -- Sis and Eddie Brown. She had pictures of her brother Lester Young setting upon her chest of drawers. What a resemblance! She looked so much like Lester Young ... and we sat and had a supper together that sunny afternoon, Eddie did all the cooking, and we just set-to and ate and talked -- just the three of us while the two shared with me the old days and various curios of the time. I asked did they ever get stage fright, and both say, yes, that that is something that everyone undergoes and you got pass it, is all. Eddie had been called up in the 2nd World War but was let out, he says, because of 'nerves'... When I first beheld him out in front of the halllway door, I thought that he was merelyy a man standing in the hallway waiting for someone. He was a quiet, well-appointed, classic-looking man who stood about 5'6" or so and walked with a stylish gait -- what you want to call, -- having grreat office, see? And when he stepped into form to begin a class, you could see that flavor and style... I will never, ever forget him! Eddie was most in demand in the Bay area at the time I took his class, early 1982, after which he, I believe, was part of the then-dance and performance circuit in San Francisco. He took a liking to me. Though I was scarcely the best dance student in his class, he yet somehow knew that I could be. He saw that I picked up on stuff he was doing the like of which I did on drum -- I heard what he was saying with his feet, and he knew this! Others in the class did not catch it as I did. Even one of the students said to me, "You ought to practice," her way of entreating, "Why don't you practice more ... Now, Eddie was high-strung, a not unsusual habit sometimes seen in artists. He would sometimes yell at me, -- "Slow... down!!!" 'See? -- because I wanted to do steps that I was scarcely ready to do... steps often too quickly and I'd mess up. I had the feel and knack but he knew that I was not yet ready to take off, say. That would come in due time, later... Lots of what Buddy Rich did was Tap...but done on drum, who was and still is my favorite drummer; this since a young teenager. Anyway, he would say to me nearing the class' ending, "You know you're going to get a boss grade." Indeed, I did -- he gave me an 'A'.
@@mariaverroye9510 And thank you. I still live in the SF Bay area. I yet have not done tap nor "trap" drum for a very many years -- strange for someone who so enjoyed. In other words, I know little tap anymore. However, I delighted in doing tap when I knew Eddie Brown, having the greats to emulate like Buddy Rich in whose playing proved replete with tap dance the like of which few if any drummers otherwise possessed. Eddie was such a master! 'Authentic. His private little exhibitions he'd do when we'd stand around talking were awesome the like of which one simply did not behold when he was performing before an audience, because then he was totally relaxed and exemplifying the Natural... Now, like the once-New York style of tap, using the floor as the drum head; mine and that of Buddy Rich's was the idea of playing "against" the snare drum with the bass drum doing the accenting and announcing, which together sounded like a lightning storm, using the rim of the snare drum to project like that of a machine gun -- fleet -- snap, crackle, and pop -- 'that' was Buddy Rich's style and mine -- all tap. [ though I know of no one who played like Buddy Rich -- none! ] And if listening closely to Buddy's playing, one could hear his tap along with the sticking style as used by and from which Buddy got his: the great jazz drummer Chick Webb [ his band, with whom Ella Fitzgerald sang ]. This was all tap dance writ large. I adored Sammy Davis, Jr, and Eddie Brown. There were others, too, of course. And Honey Coles proved my very, very favorite, who spoke of who he said were the two best of them all: Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and "Bubbles," the two he said were the cleanest, and greatest, respectively. The phrasing of genuine tap and trap-style drumming proved to me to be identical -- very technical, rhythmic, dynamic -- not all that prancing around as so many of the so-called tap dancers did and maybe still do. As far as Eddie was concerned, the genuine, adept style is danced very close to the floor, crisp, precise and outrageously syncopated as if one's feet came loaded with intricate little circuit boards implanted in the arcs of the feet and ankles.
Laney alum souNds like my grandpa lol, he taught at Alice art center tho I think. But I remember so many stories and that drummer sounds familiar. I remember grandpa new everybody. You know dancing Eddy. Me and grandpa lived on 7th st before 89 quake and so much history in this world under you nose. I love that you wrote this thank you. Not many that know about the art and where you got it says a lot.
Hey Mr Brown love and miss you, this dude was one of my grandpas best friends. Al Robinson was his name and whenever Eddy came to frisco or Oakland he would hit up Al and we would sit at the dinner. I as a kid could never understand what they talked about and was ready to leave lol. I’m starting to understand. Grandpa was a tapper from NY too and they knew talent that we would never see.
