[2] He learned guitar, and played with the Sun-to-Sun Singers, a vocal group associated with folklorist Zora Neale Hurston.

[1][4] Like Ralph Willis, Alec Seward and Brownie McGhee, Brown then relocated to New York City.

[5] Hurston gave Brown a part in her light opera Polk County,[4] and arranged for him to be photographed by Carl Van Vechten.

He found employment with the civil service, working for the Army Signal Corps in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Eventually Davis worked in A&R for MGM Records, and Brown followed him to that label, where he was promoted as a pop singer.