‘Keep a cool booty’: Family and friends remember Houston jazz and blues singer Jewel Brown

Jewel Brown — a mother, friend, treasured Houston jazz and blues vocalist, and a true “jewel” as her name suggested — died Tuesday from colon cancer and other health complications, family and close friends confirmed. She was 86.

Her son Edward Curtis struggled to find the words to reflect on his mom, someone whom he said was so instrumental in his life and his growth, but said he will always appreciate the wonderful memories she left behind.

“It’s a sentimental moment just thinking back on it, going back to the memories,” Curtis said. “An old song I remember she sang —  it’s probably one of the best things I remember I heard — a song she recorded called ‘Mother’s Love.’ She was always the same person no matter what. Very gentle, straightforward, very much in a lot of ways reminiscent of my grandfather.”

Curtis, Brown’s only child, said the family is still working on plans to memorialize his mother. Initially, he wanted to have a small gathering but quickly realized that his mom would need a larger venue.

While Brown was revered globally, traveling the world singing with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Arnold Cobb, Lionel Hampton and many other blues and jazz legends, to him she was just mom.

“Mom was never the type of person to flaunt anything,” Curtis said. “She was the same with everybody. … That’s just the way she was.”

He said her death didn’t come as a surprise to family members, many of whom had known of her diagnosis over the last month or so. But the news shocked many close friends and Houstonians as they bid farewell to one of the last remaining historic blues legends.

“I was stunned to hear,” said Roger Woods, a Houston historian and author of “Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues” who knew Brown since the late 1990s.

“I don’t think I took her for granted, but I took her vitality for granted. I just can’t believe it. It’s hard to believe that Jewel Brown has left. She was just a dynamic human being.”

Now he cherishes fond memories of Brown, such as watching “Oprah” and talking back to the television. He also remembers a time they were about to catch a flight to Chicago from Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, and Brown slipped him her fully loaded pistol that she forgot she was carrying.

Petrified he was going to miss the flight — or worse, get arrested — he said he looked at her in disbelief and a little bit of anger. But Brown was calm.

“She said her catchphrase: ‘Keep a cool booty,’” Woods said. “That was her thing: Be cool.”

Brown started singing the blues at just 9 years old performing music from Linda Hopkins, and consistently won local talent shows, including some at Third Ward’s historic Eldorado Ballroom . From there, she broke into show business.

“I didn’t miss no gigs,” Brown told the Landing in a March 2023 interview as she listed some of the esteemed artists she had worked with over the years.

She even had a stint in the 1950s and early 1960s working for the notorious Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby , and explored various musical genres from jazz, gospel and country.

“Any way I’d gotten a break I was able to fulfill it,” she said then. “Except for opera.”

Most of her musical talent and knowledge she credited to her younger brother Theodore “Ted” Brown, who was a pianist.

“He’s the one that told me, ‘Now Jewel, you got to learn how to do it all. You can’t just do one thing because you don’t want to miss no gigs.’ And so I sang country,” Brown said then before touting her vocal range with a lyric from the popular song “Tennessee Waltz” by Patti Page .

“Her talent was pretty much natural. She didn’t have any academic training in music,” said Woods. “She just had that natural-born charisma that communicated so much.”

‘Jewel was a jewel’

But perhaps her biggest break came in the early 1960s when she became the lead vocalist with legendary jazz musician, Louis Armstrong for eight years, beating 500 other vocalists for the lead role and choosing him over another jazz icon: Duke Ellington.

“She picked Louis because the orchestra was smaller, which meant that the pay would probably be bigger,” said Nancy McAfee, a longtime friend of Brown and KPFT 90.1 FM radio DJ.

Aside from her undeniable musical talent and national accolades, family and friends who knew her best, describe her as a vibrant, God-fearing woman, who was full of life, genuine, down to earth, and truly one of a kind.

“She was just a fabulous person. Jewel was a jewel,” said one of her longtime friends, Lizette Cobb.

Cobb, the daughter of legendary Houston jazz saxophonist Arnett Cobb , who collaborated with Brown on their album “ Show Time ,” met Brown when she was a kid and considered her a mentor. In 1986, Cobb co-founded Jazz Heritage Society of Texas, a literary and cultural arts education organization with her father, listing Brown as one of the inaugural inductees.

“Like my daddy would say, they don’t make ’em like that anymore,” Cobb said.

Cobb said she had a hard time believing Brown had passed.

“You just don’t think they’re going to die,” she said.

McAfee had heard of Brown’s diagnosis and called her roughly three to four weeks ago when Brown was in rehab, but was reluctant to visit her.

Now remorseful, she wishes she did.

“When people are sick you want to be careful, you want to make sure you’re not intruding,” McAfee said. “But she was a genuinely sweet person and a hell of a vocalist. I’m sorry for her family. I’m sorry for Houston and I’m sorry for the music world because she was very significant.”

Brown would occasionally come into KPFT 901. FM for the station’s “Lady’s Day,” McAfee said, where they highlighted female vocalists. But what she cherishes most was how down to earth Brown was, taking the time to teach her about jazz music and introducing McAfee to artists she was unfamiliar with.

“I certainly ran into some divas, but she didn’t have an ounce of diva in her,” McAcfee said.

She cut the ribbon to the historic $10 million renovation of the Eldorado Ballroom and received a ceremonial key to the venue March 30, 2023 — something she told the Landing she never thought would come to fruition. She was the first vocalist to perform at the new ballroom during a dedication and private grand opening ceremony hosted by Project Row Houses — a true homecoming for someone who started singing at the Eldorado’s talent shows in her preteen years.

At the ceremony sporting a blue hat, she graced the renovated ‘Rado stage performing one of her hit singles, a 1963 classic, “Jerry” from her time with Louis Armstrong.

Danielle Burns Wilson, the newly appointed executive director of Project Row Houses which manages and operates the ballroom, said in a statement that she was devastated to learn of Brown’s passing.

“Throughout her long life, she shared her tremendous talent with joy, first in Third Ward, and then throughout the world,” Wilson said.

“She was a woman of deep faith, and we find comfort knowing that her transition was something she knew would bring her to a place of love and glory with her ancestors and especially her treasured parents. Miss Jewel was a rare gem and a true daughter of Third Ward. Her memory and her music will always be a blessing.”

Although Brown had reached global commercial success, she returned to her hometown of Houston to help care for her ailing parents, performing occasionally for private events. Brown credited God for blessing her with a gift and a prosperous career to help support her parents financially. With her earnings she purchased the Third Ward bungalow-style home on Eagle Street for them, and lived in it after her parents passed away and up until her passing.

“She did it for the right reasons,” Woods said. “She loved her family, she loved her parents. She loved Houston and it was a gift to us that she was a local presence. It was like having an amazing, living treasure just right there. Ms. Brown, everybody looked up to her.”