Buster Brown (tap dancer)
[2] This sparked an interest in show business, and Brown started up a male dancing trio with John Orange and Clifton Payne called The Three Little Dots.
When John Orange died suddenly in a swimming accident, Brown went to Cleveland Ohio, where he created Speed Kings 2 with Emmet McClure and Sylvester Lake.
The Speed Kings 2 continued performing through World War II, and participated in the Cole Porter musical film, "Something to Shout About."
[1] After working briefly with a singing group called The Three Riffs, Brown formed a solo comedy and tap act in New York.
[4] In the 1960s, Brown started dancing again, with a group founded by Leticia Jay called the Hoofers, which did tap jams once a week on 125th street in Harlem.
In 1968, the Hoofers traveled to Africa on a State Department sponsored Jazz Dance Theater tour, where they performed for Emperor Haile Selassie.
He worked with the Broadway touring production of Bubblin' Brown Sugar and the Paris musical Black and Blue, as well as continuing to perform with the Hoofers, the Copasetics, and in solo shows, He also taught at festivals and workshops throughout America.
[3] In a review of that performance, The Los Angeles Times wrote “dancing to ‘April in Paris,’ octogenarian James ‘Buster’ Brown exemplifies the sharpness and physical/spatial economy of classic Copasetics Club style: nothing wasted, except maybe some of the jokes between numbers.” [3] In the late 1990s, mentoring the next generation of tap dancers, Brown hosted Sunday evening tap dance jam sessions at Swing 46 in New York City.
[3] In his memory, tap dancer Charles Goddertz said, "I would award Buster Brown the Nobel Prize for performance, dance, and the enrichment of audiences.
"[4] In her book Dance Appreciation, Dawn Davis Loring described Brown as a rhythm tap dancer, and a hoofer who also 'performed soft-shoe routines with elegance and strength' [7] He has been cited as 'one of the most prominent figures in the world of tap dance'and 'an inventor of the art form' as well as an influence on later entertainers like Sammy Davis Jr., and Gregory Hines.
