Anita Patti Brown

Anita Patti Brown (born about 1870, died December 27, 1950) was an American concert singer. She was sometimes billed as "the Bronze Tetrazzini".[1]

Anita Patti Brown
An African-American woman, standing and smiling with hands at her chest; she is wearing a light-colored gown and a large dark hat
Anita Patti Brown, from a 1911 newspaper
Born
Patsie Bush or Patsie Dean

about 1870
Georgia, US
DiedDecember 27, 1950 (aged about 80)
Chicago, Illinois, US
OccupationSinger
Years active1900s-1930s

Early life

Patsie Bush[2] or Patsie Dean[3] was born in Georgia, and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee.[4][5] She trained as a singer in Chicago,[6] and later studied in Europe with Victor Beigel.[7]

Career

Brown made her Chicago debut in 1903,[8] at the Chicago Opera House. She sang in Nashville in 1909, assisted by the Fisk Quartette.[9] She was described as "one of the most noted singers of the Race" when she appeared in Pittsburgh in 1911.[10] She sang at a benefit concert in Alabama in 1913.[11] In 1913 she appeared at the annual Atlanta Colored Music Festival, as featured soloist alongside Roland Hayes.[12] In 1914 she sang in a concert of Black composers in Chicago, sharing the bill with pianist Robert Nathaniel Dett and others.[13]

Brown sang in New York and Dallas in 1915.[14] She toured in South America[15] and the British West Indies,[16] and made a recording for Victor, in 1916.[17] She gave a concert at Poro College in St. Louis in 1918,[18] and after World War I toured with a military band.[4] She sang at church events in Spokane in 1921[19] and 1923.[20] Her 1922 Los Angeles appearance prompted a reviewer to note that she was "a genuine prima donna" with "a dulcet voice of rare soprano altitude".[21] She sang in Chattanooga in 1929.[2] In 1934, she was featured at the annual meeting of the National Association of Negro Musicians, held in Pittsburgh.[22]

In 1920, Brown began "Patti's Brazilian Toilette Luxuries", a mail-order business selling cosmetics and perfume.[23][24] In 1923, she successfully sued a Chicago drug store for refusing her service.[25] In the 1930s, she taught voice students at her Chicago studio.[3]

Personal life

Patsie Bush (or Patsie Dean) married Chicago choral director Arthur A. Brown. She died at home in Chicago in 1950, about 80 years old,[4][8] though her Chicago Tribune obituary gave her age as 65 years.[26]

References
  1. "Noted Colored Soprano is to be Heard Here". Arizona Republic. 1921-02-20. p. 7. Retrieved 2021-02-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Anita Patti Brown in Recital Wednesday". The Chattanooga News. 1929-10-15. p. 17. Retrieved 2021-02-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Brooks, Tim (2010-10-01). Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919. University of Illinois Press. pp. 504–505. ISBN 978-0-252-09063-9.
  4. Nettles, Darryl Glenn (2003-02-20). African American Concert Singers Before 1950. McFarland. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-7864-1467-3.
  5. "Anita Patti Brown Heard". Chattanooga Daily Times. 1917-11-30. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-02-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Brawley, Benjamin Griffith (1910). The Negro in Literature and Art. Author. p. 49.
  7. Allison, Madeline G. (April 1922). "The Horizon". The Crisis. 23: 266.
  8. Southern, Eileen (1997). The Music of Black Americans: A History. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 282. ISBN 978-0-393-03843-9.
  9. "Madame Anita Patti Brown at Spruce Street". The Nashville Globe. April 23, 1909. p. 3. Retrieved February 20, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Mme. Anita Patti Brown". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1911-12-02. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-02-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Negro Songstress at the Lyceum Thursday Evening". The Decatur Daily. 1913-07-03. p. 2. Retrieved 2021-02-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Negro Music Festival Will be Gala Event; Plantation Melodies Will Be Big Feature". The Atlanta Constitution. 1913-06-29. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-02-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Along the Color Line: Music and Art". The Crisis. 8: 164. August 1914.
  14. "Along the Color Line: Music and Art". The Crisis. 10: 7. May 1915.
  15. "Mme Patti Brown Royally Received at Bahai, Brazil". The Chicago Defender. January 15, 1916. p. 1 – via ProQuest.
  16. "Along the Color Line: Music and Art". The Crisis. 11: 215. June 1916.
  17. "Brown, Anita Patti". Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved 2021-02-20.
  18. "Hair Care Helped a Community: Black Entrepreneur Annie Malone and Poro College". Saving Places, National Trust for Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2021-02-20.
  19. "Colored Folk Give Concert". The Spokesman-Review. 1921-04-04. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-02-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. "Chicago Singer in Recital". The Spokesman-Review. 1923-01-14. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-02-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. Michel, Louis (1922-12-09). "Mme. Anita Patti Brown, Lyrical Originator". California Eagle. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-02-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. "Fresh, Interesting Details Attract New Friends to Musicians' Confab". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1934-07-28. p. 8. Retrieved 2021-02-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. "Patti Brown Agent". Phoenix Tribune. January 28, 1922. p. 3. Retrieved February 20, 2021 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  24. "Patti's Beauty Emporium (advertisement)". The Crisis. 21: 47. November 1920.
  25. "Patti Brown Is Victorious in Jim Crow Suit". The Chicago Defender. May 19, 1923. p. 1 – via ProQuest.
  26. "Mrs. Anita Patti Brown". Chicago Tribune. 1951-01-01. p. 67. Retrieved 2021-02-20 – via Newspapers.com.
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