By Kelli McQueen, Maia Perez, Vinny Bartholomew, Marc Beans, Tom Hardy, Ani Karagianis, Haley White
Title: Bruce Vermazen Papers, Research Files and Music Instruments on Tom Brown, 1858-2013
ID: 12/9/168
Primary Creator: Vermazen, Bruce
Other Creators: Brown, Tom (1881-1950)
Extent: 17.5 cubic feet
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into two series.
Series 1) Tom Brown Music and Papers, ca. 1900-1954 consists of saxophonist and vaudeville performer Tom Brown's music and papers. This series is organized into six subseries, which are as follows: Sub-series 1) Performance Photographs, Papers, and Materials, which is arranged chronologically; Sub-series 2) Tom Brown Scrabooks and Clippings, which is arranged chronologically; Sub-series 3) Sheet Music, which is arranged alphabetically; Sub-series 4) The Metronome Orchestra Monthly, which arranged chronologically by issue date; Sub-series 5) Audio Recordings, which is arranged alphabetically by recording company; and Sub-series 6) Music Instruments, which is arranged by type of instrument.
Series 2) Bruce Vermazen Personal Papers and Research Files on Tom Brown, 1858-2020 is organized into three subseries: Sub-series 1) Research Files, which is arranged alphabetically by content creator; Sub-series 2) Book Project Files, which is arranged chronologically; and Sub-series 3) Personal Papers, which is arranged chronologically by date of creation.
Date Acquired: 06/22/2020
Subjects: Brass Instruments, Cartooning, Interviews, Jazz, Magazines, Minstrel music, Minstrel Show, Musical Instrument Collections, Musical Instrument Makers - United States, Music theater, Vaudeville, Woodwind Instruments
Formats/Genres: Clothing and Textiles, Correspondence, Newspaper Clippings, Photographs, Scrapbooks, Sheet music, Sound Recordings
Languages: English
Consists of Bruce Vermazen's research on Tom Brown, a vaudeville saxophone star; Tom Brown's performance papers, scrapbooks, recorded music, and musical instruments; and Bruce Vermazen's research notes, personal correspondence, and publishing information for the book That Moaning Saxophone, documenting the lives of both Tom Brown and Bruce Vermazen.
Bruce Vermazen (1940- ) earned his bachelors and masters degrees in Philosophy at the University of Chicago in 1961 and 1962, respectively. In 1967, he received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stanford University. Soon after, Vermazen became a Professor of Philosophy at the University of California Berkeley. In 1978, he became interested in ragtime and began performing cornet with the Chrysanthemum Ragtime Band. He later served as the band's music director and announcer. In the 1980s, Vermazen began publishing articles on historic ragtime musicians in the San Francisco area including: Jay Roberts, Art Hickman, and the Brown Brothers. In the 1990s, Vermazen began playing cornet with the San Francisco Starlight Orchestra.
After retiring in 2000, he published That Moaning Saxophone: The Six Brown Brothers and the Dawning of a Musical Craze. During the early 2000s, Vermazen also became a member of the Hillcrest Wind Ensemble. In 2005, he and Bob Pinsker founded the Heliotrope Ragtime Orchestra, an esemble he still co-leads and performs with to this day. Vermazen currently lives in San Diego with his spouse Juan Miguel Godoy.
Brass Instruments
Cartooning
Interviews
Jazz
Magazines
Minstrel music
Minstrel Show
Musical Instrument Collections
Musical Instrument Makers - United States
Music theater
Vaudeville
Woodwind Instruments



