Mel Brown still provides the backbeat to Portland
'No. No, no, no,' Brown, 80, told KOIN 6 News. 'I'm just one of the musicians that grew up around here and lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.'
Inarguably, Mel Brown's drumming places him as one of the most influential musicians in the history of the Rose City. In fact, his portrait hangs on a wall at the .
Honoring Portland's Godfather of Jazz, Mel Brown
His talents took root in Portland's jazz heyday. Black railway workers and porters moved west in the early 20th Century and brought the blues and jazz from big cities back east.
When World War II broke out, many people came to Portland from the South
Despite the and ongoing struggles in Portland's still-largely segregated communities, a rich jazz scene in historically Black Albina flourished. Brown grew up not far from clubs that brought in top tier talent.
'We had a paper called the Oregon Journal, and I used to deliver the newspapers around town. So you're around the music up and down Williams Avenue and you'd hear the door open up and you'd hear the music coming out in a whole bit. And it was like, 'Oh, OK, I think I want to do this,'' Brown said. 'But the people who were actually performing inside, those people also lived in the neighborhood. And so they would hear me sometimes during the day trying to beat on something and they would say, 'Oh, little kid, come here, let's show you what this is about.' I was like 14 or 15 years old and they just started coming out and just trying to help me out to get with the music.'
Already playing professional gigs by his senior year of high school in the early 1960s, Brown attended Portland State University on a music scholarship.
'I got a call to play a show. The drummer got sick, it was down at the Crystal Ballroom and it was a last minute thing, 'Come in, we need you quick.' And I go on to play not knowing the person I had to play behind,' he said, 'and that was Ike and Tina Turner.'
A later gig in Vancouver, British Columbia playing with Tommy Chong paved the way for a contract in Motown.
Where We Live: Portland's Mel Brown
'They had a TV special in LA, it was called 'TCB, Taking Care of Business'. It was The Temptations and The Supremes. And they called me to play the drums on that. And Barry Gordy said, 'I like the way he plays. I'm going to move him and put him with The Temptations. And that's how I got with The Temptations.'
After literally touring the world, Mel Brown returned to Portland in the late 1970s. Since then he's been a fixture of the city's live local music scene, still playing weekly gigs.
'I'll always be doing that all my life because people don't realize it, music kind of keeps you together. I've been around the world about nine or 10 times, and I may not speak the language, but every other country I've gone to, if you play music and play well, you end up having friends who you stay in touch with,' he said.
'Music is everything, brings everybody together.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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