Noel Browne, a member of the respected Browne music family of Jamaica, died in the United Kingdom on September 17 at age 64. His younger brother, Cleveland Browne, confirmed his death.
Cleveland, best known as half of the mega-successful Steely and Clevie production team, told the Jamaica Observer newspaper that he last spoke to his brother two days before his death. Noel told him he was working on a number of projects from his home studio.
He is the second of the five Browne brothers to die in two years. Dalton, a guitarist and longtime musical director of Freddie McGregor’s band, died in November, 2020, also at age 64.
The versatile Noel worked with top acts such as McGregor, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, Michael Rose and Sister Carol as keyboardist, drum programmer, engineer and mixing engineer.
The Browne brothers were once known as The Browne Bunch, which recorded several songs in the early 1970s including “We’ve Got A Good Thing Going”, originally done by The Jackson 5.
Glen, the eldest brother, played bass guitar for many years with Jimmy Cliff, Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers and Tarrus Riley. He played the memorable acoustic guitar intro to Buju Banton’s “Untold Stories”.
Danny, the youngest brother, was head of Main Street Records, which produced numerous dancehall hit songs by Richie Stephens, Red Rat, Buccaneer and General Degree during the 1990s.
Written By Howard Campbell