Tom Brown Has A Slick Side Hustle
Three buddies from New London Made The Boring Hilarious – And Profitable
Tom Brown
Anybody who has ever spent time with their buddies counting extended measures of rest on a bandstand knows that, in the words of the late, great Rick Danko, you can start having too much fun. Well, three trumpet players in the U.S. Coast Guard Band in New London, Conn., were just the kind of guys for whom having too much fun was a regular occurrence. In their case, it also turned out to be profitable.
Tom Brown, Chris Lane, and Joel Baroody came up with the idea of a new line of brass instrument valve oil, and decided, since they were self-described goofs, to sell what may be one of the most boring products on earth more or less on a dare, with humor as the central marketing gimmick.
“We’re on our 10-year anniversary,” Tom told 8495Jazz. “We were sitting around in a coffee shop that doesn’t exist anymore, grabbing some lunch and shooting the shit. Joel was waiting tables to save some money for his wedding that was coming up. I said, ‘Joel, you’re like a genius. You have your master’s degree. Why are you waiting tables? You could start your own business.’”
The trick, Tom told Joel, was to sell something he knew – like, maybe, valve oil.
“And it was a game of chicken at that point. Nobody could say no.”
And so was born Monster Oil, and from humble beginnings in southeastern Connecticut, their oils and grease are now used all over the world. They recently launched a sustainable plant-based line called Eco-Pro, which Tom calls the best oil he’s ever used (in the interest of full disclosure, the trumpet-playing staff of 8495Jazz uses it and it works very, very well. And in the interest of fuller disclosure, we pay retail, which is still very reasonable)
. They make mouthpieces and lip balm. They make cleaning kits and polishing cloths. And they’ve been successful enough Tom retired from the Coast Guard early.
The secret to Monster’s success, he said, was the serendipitously discovered fact their self-described “sophomoric humor” combined with video interviews (“Brass Chats”) with some of the brass world’s biggest names – think Doc Severinsen and Arturo Sandoval for starters – grabbed musicians’ attention. And a product Tom said was good at the start and has been constantly improved does the rest.
“There are a lot of great oils out there,” he said. “A lot of them work great. I could use any of them. We tested them all. I do think ours is the best – by a little. It’s a commodity.
“Everybody had heard of us through Brass Chats and our marketing. And as we came out with better products it was really easy to market them, because we already had an audience. We’ve had industry insiders tell us, ‘What you guys are doing, nobody has ever done before, and it’s working.’ And we didn’t even have that great of an oil when we started. It was OK, it was good oil.”
Trad jazz in a hot spot
Tom’s other side hustle is as front man for the Tom Brown 6, which plays an assortment of trad jazz, R&B, and jump blues, and he also plays with the New London Big Band. The southeast New England coast, he said, has a uniquely strong trad jazz element that perhaps emanated from the legendary documentary of the 1958 Newport Jazz festival, “Jazz On A Summer’s Day.” The film featured a Yale University trad band (it was called Dixieland back then) called Eli’s Chosen Six.
“It’s a weird pocket of traditional jazz,” Tom said. “I think it sort of emanated from Yale – it was separate from New York, a weird Connecticut thing. There are a bunch of guys in the area who can play trad jazz so it was easy to start a band. I still have a list of guys four or five deep on every instrument I can call who know the tunes.”
It was, ironically, the buttoned-down Coast Guard Band that gave Tom his opportunity to play trad jazz for a living. Classically trained but also steeped in soul and the blues growing up, he was taking auditions for low-paying orchestra gigs when he saw the Coast Guard opening, which called for half-time playing in concert band and half-time in their trad jazz band. And, though he plays other styles of jazz now and then, he said trad jazz “is just energy. It goes and goes, it’s more about the ensemble thing. Maybe the listener and the musician get a deeper relationship with longer solos in straight ahead jazz, but trad jazz has the energy that can just get you going.”
Tom is moving out of the area soon, but Monster Oil will remain firmly rooted in Connecticut and the Monster brain trust will carry on in the cloud.
“It’s going to be sad, being away from the guys,” Tom said. “But we got the Meta Quest headsets and we’ll have business meetings in the metaverse.”
Out and about in SNE with 8495Jazz
Upcoming club and concert highlights (all information is current at press time, please confirm by contacting the venue):
8495Jazz Wild Card Gig of the Week
Not much to go on beyond a graphic, but New Haven Jazz Underground and Yale bands present Yale Jazz Combos, directed by Wayne Escoffery on Wednesday (Oct. 2) at Rudy’s, 1227 Chapel Street at 8. If the Ivy League kids can go out on a school night, why can’t we?
Happy anniversary, Parkville Sounds! (teaser alert)
Hartford’s Parkville Sounds will be hosting a one-year anniversary of its present location (1800 Park St.) Tuesday (Oct. 1) from 6-9 pm. The studio’s Instagram says attractions will include Pressing Plant spinning vinyl, natural wines from Vino Crudo, and an “epic” jam session. “BYO instrument! All creatives welcome…Visual artists, dancers, theater people, and of course musicians…If you’re on the tour bus, you belong here.”
(Stay tuned for next week’s 8495Jazz mainbar to find out how you can enjoy Parkville even if you don’t play an instrument)
Firehouse 12, New Haven, CT
Jay Leonhart (bass), trio, Fri., Oct. 4, 8:30 and 10 pm. $20/8:30, $15/10 pm set.
Elicit Brewery, Manchester, CT
Hartford Jazz Orchestra, Mon., Sept. 30, 7 pm. Free.
Bijou Theater, Bridgeport, CT
Vinny & Ray Afro Cuban Jazz, Sat., Oct. 5, 8 pm. $27- $42.
Blue Room, Cranston, RI
Paula Clare and Joe Parillo’s New Ensemble (Brazilian/standards), Wed., Oct. 2, 7 pm. $10.
Uncle Cheef, Brewster, NY
Matt Garrison (sax), Sat., Oct. 5, 7:30 and 9 pm. $15-$25, one ticket good for both sets, $25 per person minimum per set.
Jams
Cafe Nine, New Haven CT
New Haven Jazz Underground jam, usually 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month: Highlights include Ed Cherry (guitar), Tue., Oct. 8 7 pm, session at 8, free admission
Jazz Societies and Organizations (great info on events, festivals, and more)
Jazz Society of Fairfield County
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