Clem (1922-2023) & Harold (1920-2016) Brau<\/p>\n
Inducted 1995<\/p>\n
Clem & Harold Brau graduated from playing barn dances in the Lucan-Milroy-Vesta, Minnesota area during the late 1930s and went on to bookings at the leading ballrooms throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas. Bandleader Clem, whose only instruction was six years of piano lessons, became proficient on the clarinet, trumpet, saxophone, electric organ, and vibraharp. Clem & Harold Brau’s story also concerns their brother Norbert as well as their sister Hildegard. All four formed The Clem Brau Orchestra, which enjoyed immediate popularity. “We played six or seven nights a week, all during high school”, Clem recalls. “I had special permission from school authorities to sleep in the mornings, and report to school at 1 PM”. The band was usually six pieces then, with two “non-Braus” hired to fill in, playing all over the Southwest corner of Minnesota. WWII forced disbandment in 1942 with Harold bound for The United States Army and Clem soon following him overseas the next year. Both brothers played in military-outfit bands- Harold with The 40th Engineers in the European Theater and Clem on a Pacific island with The 13th Air Force Band. The Braus played for USO shows and for such personalities as Kay Kyser, Danny Kaye, and Red Skeleton. Upon discharge in 1946, Clem didn’t initally take up where he left off, and spent a year arranging music for an eight-piece orchestra. The Brau brothers, equal partners in their entertainment venture, learned from pre-War experience that the demand for “new-time” modern dance music was not great enough to keep them constantly engaged, and there was a growing demand for the toe-tapping rhythms of “old-tyme” music. An idea came up to have two different bands, in name only to please the public and The Jolly Lumberjacks were born in the 1960s to focus on old-tyme music. Another innovation was added in order to play special parties and lounges. The smaller Versatile Combo was born with Clem and Harold available in that style if the occasion called for it. If a larger group was needed, The Braus added one or two extra sidemen. “It’s a rough life”, said Clem, but he pegged his business on the genuine interest of people and their love for music, which kept The Clem Brau Orchestra, The Jolly Lumberjacks, and The Versatile Combo going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Clem (1922-2023) & Harold (1920-2016) Brau Inducted 1995 Clem & Harold Brau graduated from playing barn dances in the Lucan-Milroy-Vesta, Minnesota area during the late 1930s and went on to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,6],"tags":[143,151,148,149,65,150,57,45],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-19","category-inductee","tag-143","tag-arlington","tag-clem-brau","tag-harold-brau","tag-inductee","tag-jolly-lumberjacks","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-music-hall-of-fame"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}