Since Loud Enuff studio appeared on 55th Street and Lisbon Avenue, it was added to a mental checklist of things to look into. Of course, that list is long, so it sometimes takes a while to get around to things but I planned to give them a call, ask what music they were working on and write something.
Sadly, now I'm writing about the Uptown neighborhood recording studio, but not about its music. Producer JeTannue Clayborn, who opened the studio, and a rising young R&B singer -- Yolanda "La La" Brown -- were found dead inside the studio, where they were living, on Friday. A few days earlier, the studio was apparently broken into and much of the gear taken.
Now, at the entrance, where one could see musicians coming and going, there is a melancholy shrine of stuffed animals and messages of sorrow fill Brown's MySpace page.
Brown was 21 and Clayborn, nicknamed Kool Aid, 22. Brown has a 5-year-old daughter, Clayborn a 2-year-old son.
Clayborn had returned to Milwaukee from out west and graduated from Custer in 2004 and began to pursue his love for music, recording talent of all stripes: gospel, R&B, hip-hop.
Brown had been recording for a decade and started to make waves, having worked with Lyfe Jennings. Brown sang on Jennings' "S.E.X.," and appeared in the video for the top 10 hit.
Milwaukee is a city full of talent that comes in all styles, all shapes, sizes and colors. Let's hope this is the last time there's a need to write this kind of thing about that talent.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
