Oscar Brown Jr. Dies

Singer/playwright/actor Oscar Brown Jr., 78, died in a Chicago hospital May 29th of complications from a blood infection.

Brown composed several jazz classics including “Brown Baby,” “The Snake,” and “Signifyin’ Monkey,” and wrote the lyrics for Miles Davis’ “All Blues.”

He was a civil rights activist in the ’60s and recorded for Columbia Records.

Brown had been an artist-in-residence at several colleges since the ’70s and was a regular on the ABC series “Brewster Place” in 1990.