by Andrea Hall
Kitchener Citizen
October 16, 2014

In the blues world, Mel Brown is legend. And in Kitchener, he found a home.

The guitarist showed up in 1989 and never left. His talent and persona inspired a legion of young musicians and a thriving blues scene. Five years after his death, his remarkable life is being told through a documentary by a local crew who watched him make a mark in Kitchener.

“We had an amazing story about a world class musician who impacted our community, and we had music that had a real groove to it,” said Sean Jasmins, the director of Love Lost & Found: The Story of Mel Brown. “The goal was to create a film that was cool, and had as much groove as Mel did.”

Brown was born in Mississippi to a musical family. Before long he was rubbing shoulders with the best –
​T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, and Stevie Ray Vaughan to
name a few. After years of touring, recording, and jamming in the United States, he ended up here in Kitchener, where he stayed until his death.

Glenn Smith is responsible for drawing him up to Canada. He now owns Ethel’s Lounge in Waterloo, but in the late 80s he started up a local blues club called Pop the Gator in downtown Kitchener, recruiting Brown to anchor the house band.

“I just told him, almost on a whim, that I was looking to put a house band together,” he said.

In the film, Smith details how the whole conversation, which took place at Willie Nelson’s golf club in Texas, lasted about 30 seconds.

“He was available and I had a club so we made it work,” Smith said. “We never really had any discussion as to whether he’d be here 6 months or 6 weeks. Ended up being, you know, he was here for the rest of his life.”
It was during Brown’s time at Pop the Gator that Jasmins first encountered him.

“I thought it was amazing this guitar player from Mississippi had somehow landed in Kitchener of all places.”

Later, as marketing director for Centre in the Square, Jasmins fielded requests from performers like B.B. King and Buddy Guy who knew Brown from his pre-Kitchener days. Jasmins was responsible for arranging backstage meetings between the old friends, and got to know Brown, eventually bringing up the idea of making a documentary.

“The pitch to Mel was, wouldn’t it be great to take you back to Mississippi and we’ll interview you along the way and you can pick up some gigs along the way,” Jasmins said, but the proposal came too late, a year before Mel died. At a CD release party following his death, Jasmins said he realized the documentary idea wasn’t totally off the table.

He and his team, including co-producer Philip Bast and editor Rob Ring, worked on the film for three and a half years, with a shoestring budget partially funded by an arts grant from Waterloo Region. It’s Jasmins’ first film, but despite the challenges he said he found a lot of support in the community, a testament to Brown’s impact in Kitchener.

“It was my idea to tell the story, but as soon as people found out we were doing this people were coming out of the woodwork to help,” Jasmins said.

Brown’s widow Miss Angel narrates the film, which features archival concert footage and an all Mel Brown soundtrack courtesy of Electro-Fi Records. Jasmins said they also shot footage at multiple Kitchener Blues Fests, an event largely inspired by Brown’s presence in the city.

“He gave us credibility in the beginning of the Blues Festival. If an artist like Mel Brown was in the community, other blues artists would understand that.”

Kitchener is now home to one of the largest blues festivals in the country. More than 100,000 people come each summer to catch the four days of free concerts. Brown was the only musician to take the stage every single year from its inception, until his death in 2009.

“It was that generous spirit that Mel had that really led to this blues scene beginning to percolate and led to the birth of the Kitchener Blues Festival,” said Jasmins.

The documentary opened to a sold out screening at Princess Twin Cinemas in June. DVDs are available at Encore Records, and the film will return to the big screen at the Registry theatre on November 1, as part of the second annual NightShift, a nocturnal arts festival.

The free, midnight screening will be preceded by a $10 blues review concert, featuring a number of local artists.
For more information on Mel Brown and the film, go to www.lovelostandfoundmovie.com.
Love Lost & Found: The Story of Mel Brown
Mel Brown film documents the evolution of the blues in Kitchener
Blues legend Mel Brown
(Photo courtesy of Blue Fusion Productions. Photographer: Gary Collver)
At the premiere of Love Lost and Found film, from left: Rob Deyman, Executive Director of the Kitchener Blues Festival; Philip Bast, Co-Producer; Miss Angel Brown, Mel Brown’s widow; Steve Strongman, Juno Award Winning Musician; Sean Jasmins, Director, Writer, Producer.

(Photo courtesy of Blue Fusion Productions. Photographer: Dawne Taylor Gilders)
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