Jean Brown (nee McCloy) (1929 – 2009) Obituary
by Ronnie Brown and Charlie Todd
B&F August 2009
With the passing of Jean Brown on 15th February 2009, just six months short of her 80th birthday, Scotland lost a very special lady, whose dedication to her family and to accordion music will never be seen again. She was the last of her generation, but the legacy of that select group of West of Scotland accordion teachers, namely Jimmy and Lola Blair, Charles (Chick) Kelly and Iris Laurie will long be with us, partly through their families who are all now teaching and continuing the good work.
Jean had spent six decades teaching youngsters to play music and giving them the chance to showcase their talents to a wider audience. One of her Accordion Orchestras played to a live audience at The Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow for Radio Clyde.
The youngest of a large family in Cambusnethan, Wishaw, Jean had seven older brothers and sisters. As a youngster she traveled by bus once a week to take accordion lessons from the man who was Glasgow’s best accordion teacher – Mr Tony Verrichio. Money was tight in those days and to help fund those lessons she worked in a local hairdressing salon down Caledonian Road, Wishaw.
Jean’s progress and dedication were phenomenal. She discovered herself to be a natural sight reader, reading sheet music scored for the piano since at that time there was no music published specifically for the relatively new accordion, and was fortunate to have in Tony Verrichio a teacher of the highest ability and with the most demanding standards. It was while she was learning the accordion that she met fellow pupil William Brown whom she was to marry on the 21st June 1951. Jean and Bill (as he was better known) lad considerable success at both Local and National Competitions traveling as far as London to compete and among the many awards they gained were Scottish and British Titles in Solos, Duets and Quartets. Jean won the 1950 Scottish Open Senior Classical Title. Photos from the time show her playing a 5-row Continental chromatic, as well as the piano keyed accordion, but it was the latter for which she was known and which she taught (although she was also a gifted clarinet player which very few people knew.)
Jean and Bill were two of the many West of Scotland accordionists that went to Tony Verrichio who dedicated their lives to music. In fact he formed a dynasty of young teachers who shaped the future of accordion music in that part of the country. Jean and Bill formed ‘The Brown School of Accordionists’ in late 1949, and after their marriage in 1951 taught from their home at 281 McAuslin Street, Glasgow with lessons also being given at other venues in Wishaw, Hamilton and Lanark.
But tragedy was waiting in the wings and sadly Bill passed away in October 1959 aged just 36, just five years after the birth of their son Ronnie. With family members rallying round Jean continued the Music School including trips out from Glasgow from Glasgow on a Sunday to continue the Accordion Orchestras they had started to bring together. These were to become a lifelong passion of Jean’s and over the years enjoyed many successes at national competitions.
In the 1950’s Jean took an Orchestra of Accordionists over to Sweden, where they had a brilliant time and due to sponsorship from ‘Scotch Sellotape’ these local players got a chance to show their talents and to make lasting friendships. By that time the name of the school had been changed to ‘The Jean Brown Accordion School’. Jean remarried in March 1968 (to her father-in-law) and although her new husband Walter was not himself a musician, he helped her run the school until his dather on the 15th May 1981.
In 1965 at the time when Glasgow’s re-modernisation was taking place, which included the proposed demolition of their flat, they took the decision to relocate to Wishaw. Since at that time Jean was teaching one day in Glasgow, one in Hamilton and four in Wishaw it seemed the right thing to do as it cut down her traveling time. And so it was that Jean was to spend the rest of her life at 66 Abbotsfords Road, Coltness, Wishaw.
Later she was to teach solely in Wishaw, firstly at Scotts Factory, then the old Co-operative Oakcake Factory on Cambusnethan Street, then in Kirk Road before finally moving into Wishaw YMCA. The school held Annual Concerts in the Wishaw area where the pupils were presented with the Awards for exams and Festival wins and played their party piece. Jean organised these concerts with the help of senior pupils and parents. For many years the school was of such a size that parents and friends easily filled the ‘big hall’ at Motherwell’s Civic Centre – quite an achievement. In 1976 she was joined on the teaching side by her son Ronnie and both worked hard to continue building up the school. Ronnie became a partner in 1980 and the school was renamed the J.R. Brown Music School. During the 1980s the school experienced phenomenal success and at one point Jean was producing at least one British Champion every year and the J.R. Brown Orchestras were winning both local and national titles with annual visits to the All Britain Championships. One Orchestra won an International Orchestra Title at Folkestone in 1984.
Further recognition of Jean’s outstanding talent as a teacher came when she was approached by Douglas Academy Music School in Milngavie and she became the first teacher of Free Bass accordion at the school. Douglas Academy is a specialist music school where they train talented youngsters who want to further their musical careers. Jean traveled once a week to the school and held the post for many years. Two of the pupils she trained there went on to the London Royal Academy to graduate, other to the RSAMD in Glasgow and some to local universities. When the first accordionists applied for the RSAMD in Glasgow , the Academy approached Jean and asked her to join their staff, which she did. Jean looked on it as a tremendous honour to be asked and worked tirelessly to produce the first Bachelor of Education, Mrs Angeline Boslem (nee McCloy, Jean’s niece). She went on to train further B.Eds before retiring due to the amount of travel. Even in retirement she continued to help her son Ronnie, who had taken on the school in an advisory capacity helping with bands and she loved nothing better than working with the young players.
On the ‘home front’ Jean helped her grandson Jonathan with his music training, leading to some British titles but, like herself he had other musical talent and now plays drums in a ceilidh band. As mentioned earlier, several pupils went on to full or part-time musical careers either as teachers or performers. One of the earliest pupuls taught at the school was Tom Alexander of the Alexander Brothers (an outstanding classical player.) as were Alistair Gillespie (now in Biggar who went on to teach full-time), Dave Cormack (Hamilton), Alan Stute (Coatbridge),Una Bryson (Strathaven now Lesmahagow), Alan and David Preston (Shotts) and Angeline McCloy as well as several who graduated to Scottish dance / ceilidh music, Allan Smith (Kirkfieldbank), Ian and Alec Graham (Carluke), Charlie Todd (Carmichael / Thankerton) and more recently Stuart Law, Angus Lyon, Patrick Black, Louise Harkness and Colin Train.
Jean was awarded the N.S.O.’s Merit Award in 1991. She was only the second recipient and the first female to gain this award. In the early 90s Jean also became an Examiner for David Keen’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama. The J.R. Brown Music School held a special Dinner for Jean in 1990 in The Popinjay Hotel, Rosebank to celebrate her 40th teaching year and the event was attended by pupils, former pupils, parents, friends and musicians from all over Scotland.
Jean is survived by her son Ronnie and grandson Jonathan. Ronnie is continuing with the Music School and on August 14th 2009, along with Gary Blair, Brian and Graham Laurie and Alistair Gillespie, has helped organize a Memorial Concert for Mrs Jean Brown and Mrs Iris Laurie in the GLO Centre, Motherwell at 7pm followed by a Ceilidh with The Andrew Gordon Ceilidh Band in Saint Bride’s Hall, Motherwell with all proceeds going to the Stroke Charity.
P.S.
Sadly Ronnie Brown was to die just eight years later, in October 2017, from motor neuron disease.
Jean had spent six decades teaching youngsters to play music and giving them the chance to showcase their talents to a wider audience. One of her Accordion Orchestras played to a live audience at The Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow for Radio Clyde.
The youngest of a large family in Cambusnethan, Wishaw, Jean had seven older brothers and sisters. As a youngster she traveled by bus once a week to take accordion lessons from the man who was Glasgow’s best accordion teacher – Mr Tony Verrichio. Money was tight in those days and to help fund those lessons she worked in a local hairdressing salon down Caledonian Road, Wishaw.
Jean’s progress and dedication were phenomenal. She discovered herself to be a natural sight reader, reading sheet music scored for the piano since at that time there was no music published specifically for the relatively new accordion, and was fortunate to have in Tony Verrichio a teacher of the highest ability and with the most demanding standards. It was while she was learning the accordion that she met fellow pupil William Brown whom she was to marry on the 21st June 1951. Jean and Bill (as he was better known) lad considerable success at both Local and National Competitions traveling as far as London to compete and among the many awards they gained were Scottish and British Titles in Solos, Duets and Quartets. Jean won the 1950 Scottish Open Senior Classical Title. Photos from the time show her playing a 5-row Continental chromatic, as well as the piano keyed accordion, but it was the latter for which she was known and which she taught (although she was also a gifted clarinet player which very few people knew.)
Jean and Bill were two of the many West of Scotland accordionists that went to Tony Verrichio who dedicated their lives to music. In fact he formed a dynasty of young teachers who shaped the future of accordion music in that part of the country. Jean and Bill formed ‘The Brown School of Accordionists’ in late 1949, and after their marriage in 1951 taught from their home at 281 McAuslin Street, Glasgow with lessons also being given at other venues in Wishaw, Hamilton and Lanark.
But tragedy was waiting in the wings and sadly Bill passed away in October 1959 aged just 36, just five years after the birth of their son Ronnie. With family members rallying round Jean continued the Music School including trips out from Glasgow from Glasgow on a Sunday to continue the Accordion Orchestras they had started to bring together. These were to become a lifelong passion of Jean’s and over the years enjoyed many successes at national competitions.
In the 1950’s Jean took an Orchestra of Accordionists over to Sweden, where they had a brilliant time and due to sponsorship from ‘Scotch Sellotape’ these local players got a chance to show their talents and to make lasting friendships. By that time the name of the school had been changed to ‘The Jean Brown Accordion School’. Jean remarried in March 1968 (to her father-in-law) and although her new husband Walter was not himself a musician, he helped her run the school until his dather on the 15th May 1981.
In 1965 at the time when Glasgow’s re-modernisation was taking place, which included the proposed demolition of their flat, they took the decision to relocate to Wishaw. Since at that time Jean was teaching one day in Glasgow, one in Hamilton and four in Wishaw it seemed the right thing to do as it cut down her traveling time. And so it was that Jean was to spend the rest of her life at 66 Abbotsfords Road, Coltness, Wishaw.
Later she was to teach solely in Wishaw, firstly at Scotts Factory, then the old Co-operative Oakcake Factory on Cambusnethan Street, then in Kirk Road before finally moving into Wishaw YMCA. The school held Annual Concerts in the Wishaw area where the pupils were presented with the Awards for exams and Festival wins and played their party piece. Jean organised these concerts with the help of senior pupils and parents. For many years the school was of such a size that parents and friends easily filled the ‘big hall’ at Motherwell’s Civic Centre – quite an achievement. In 1976 she was joined on the teaching side by her son Ronnie and both worked hard to continue building up the school. Ronnie became a partner in 1980 and the school was renamed the J.R. Brown Music School. During the 1980s the school experienced phenomenal success and at one point Jean was producing at least one British Champion every year and the J.R. Brown Orchestras were winning both local and national titles with annual visits to the All Britain Championships. One Orchestra won an International Orchestra Title at Folkestone in 1984.
Further recognition of Jean’s outstanding talent as a teacher came when she was approached by Douglas Academy Music School in Milngavie and she became the first teacher of Free Bass accordion at the school. Douglas Academy is a specialist music school where they train talented youngsters who want to further their musical careers. Jean traveled once a week to the school and held the post for many years. Two of the pupils she trained there went on to the London Royal Academy to graduate, other to the RSAMD in Glasgow and some to local universities. When the first accordionists applied for the RSAMD in Glasgow , the Academy approached Jean and asked her to join their staff, which she did. Jean looked on it as a tremendous honour to be asked and worked tirelessly to produce the first Bachelor of Education, Mrs Angeline Boslem (nee McCloy, Jean’s niece). She went on to train further B.Eds before retiring due to the amount of travel. Even in retirement she continued to help her son Ronnie, who had taken on the school in an advisory capacity helping with bands and she loved nothing better than working with the young players.
On the ‘home front’ Jean helped her grandson Jonathan with his music training, leading to some British titles but, like herself he had other musical talent and now plays drums in a ceilidh band. As mentioned earlier, several pupils went on to full or part-time musical careers either as teachers or performers. One of the earliest pupuls taught at the school was Tom Alexander of the Alexander Brothers (an outstanding classical player.) as were Alistair Gillespie (now in Biggar who went on to teach full-time), Dave Cormack (Hamilton), Alan Stute (Coatbridge),Una Bryson (Strathaven now Lesmahagow), Alan and David Preston (Shotts) and Angeline McCloy as well as several who graduated to Scottish dance / ceilidh music, Allan Smith (Kirkfieldbank), Ian and Alec Graham (Carluke), Charlie Todd (Carmichael / Thankerton) and more recently Stuart Law, Angus Lyon, Patrick Black, Louise Harkness and Colin Train.
Jean was awarded the N.S.O.’s Merit Award in 1991. She was only the second recipient and the first female to gain this award. In the early 90s Jean also became an Examiner for David Keen’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama. The J.R. Brown Music School held a special Dinner for Jean in 1990 in The Popinjay Hotel, Rosebank to celebrate her 40th teaching year and the event was attended by pupils, former pupils, parents, friends and musicians from all over Scotland.
Jean is survived by her son Ronnie and grandson Jonathan. Ronnie is continuing with the Music School and on August 14th 2009, along with Gary Blair, Brian and Graham Laurie and Alistair Gillespie, has helped organize a Memorial Concert for Mrs Jean Brown and Mrs Iris Laurie in the GLO Centre, Motherwell at 7pm followed by a Ceilidh with The Andrew Gordon Ceilidh Band in Saint Bride’s Hall, Motherwell with all proceeds going to the Stroke Charity.
P.S.
Sadly Ronnie Brown was to die just eight years later, in October 2017, from motor neuron disease.