Elaine Brown, the rare, self-titled album from the first and only female Chair of the Black Panther Party, is reissued on vinyl today by Motown/UMe. First issued in 1973 and long out of print, the LP includes the single “Until We’re Free.” The new 150-gram vinyl edition is presented in a tip-on jacket with replicated original artwork.
Purchase Elaine Brown vinyl LP: https://UMe.lnk.to/ElaineBrownPR
The album was the second for Brown, who wrote all nine songs. It was produced by Motown’s Freddie Perren and Fonce Mizell, who were then one-half of The Corporation™ production team that had created a string of hits for the Jackson 5; Brown’s LP was one of their first projects separate from the group. Elaine Brown was arranged and conducted by Horace Tapscott, a pianist, composer and founder of the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. The album art was created by Emory Douglas, the Black Panther Party’s Minister of Culture.
“These are love songs expressing Elaine Brown’s deep and abiding sense of oneness with all oppressed humankind,” wrote Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton in the album’s liner notes.
Brown, who left the Panthers in 1977, became an advocate for prison reform. She is currently CEO of the non-profit organization Oakland & the World Enterprises, Inc., dedicated to launching and sustaining for-profit businesses for cooperative-ownership by formerly incarcerated people and others facing barriers to economic survival.
Brown attended Temple University, UCLA, Mills College and Southwestern University School of Law. She has lectured at colleges and universities throughout the world, and her papers have been acquired by Emory University. Brown sought the Green Party nomination for U.S. President in the 2008 election. She is the author of A Taste of Power, a memoir, and the novel The Condemnation of Little B.
Elaine Brown was the eighth and final album release on Black Forum, Motown’s 1970s imprint focusing on African-American consciousness.
