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Odell Brown

 


Odell Brown | Marlin Levison/Star Tribune | tc241

Jazz organist Odell Elliott Brown Jr. was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on February 2, 1940.  A child prodigy who began playing the piano at 4, he turned to organ by his teens. He was drafted and served with the Army Post Band. He secured a recording deal with Cadet Records. Odell Brown and the Organisers are O’Dell Brown, Artee “Duke” Payne, Tommy Purvis and Curtis Prince.

In the 1970s he decided to work as an independent arranger, producer & studio musician, and worked with Minnie Ripperton, Curtis Mayfield, Johnny Nash and Marvin Gaye, co-writing the song “Sexual Healing”.

Odell Brown died in Richfield, Minnesota, on May 3, 2011.

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