Charles Brown [ tickets ], vocalist and pianist who penned oft-covered blues songs including Please Come Home For Christmas and Merry Christmas Baby, died in his sleep late Thursday (1/21) night after a lengthy hospitalization for congestive heart disease. Brown was 76.

Brown, known for his smooth vocal style and easygoing personality, last appeared in public January 11th at the Great American Music Hall at a benefit organized in part by longtime friend Bonnie Raitt to help cover Brown's mounting medical expenses. Despite his illness, Brown arranged to attend, watching from the side of the stage on a wheeled hospital bed, according to published reports.

Raitt was joined at the show by John Lee Hooker, Charlie Musselwhite, Dr. John and Maria Muldaur, among others. Brown's last concert performance was with Hooker and Musselwhite in Saratoga on August 23rd, 1998, according to his booking agency, the Rosebud Agency.

Raitt will appear on Brown's behalf at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on March 15th, at which Brown will be inducted for his career achievements.

After moving to San Francisco from his native Texas in 1942 with a chemistry degree and not landing a hoped-for laboratory job, Brown reached back to his boyhood classical piano training and dabbled in nightclub work. Brown eventually gathered a following in the Bay Area and set his sights on Los Angeles, becoming part of the burgeoning Central Avenue black music scene in South Central L.A., then populated by artists including Nat ''King'' Cole and Johnny Otis.

Brown recorded with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, writing a series of hits that included with 1947's Merry Christmas Baby and guaranteed him work through the 50's. Following 1960's Please Come Home For Christmas, the music business shifted away from Brown's style of blues, pushing Brown into cameo sets on occasional blues revue shows before even that work dried up.

Brown was reportedly doing one-off gigs in Los Angeles and Oakland and making ends meet with janitorial jobs when Bonnie Raitt saw him perform in Los Angeles in 1988, just prior to the release of her comeback vehicle, Nick of Time. Raitt hired Brown to open her 1989 tour, fueling a new round of marketability for his smooth singing style.

The tour also heralded a round of recognition for Brown, including a 1997 presentation of the Heritage Fellowship of the National Endowment for the Arts, presented by President Clinton, and numerous awards for his career blues accomplishments.

A memorial viewing will take place at Oakland's Fouche's Hudson Memorial Home on Wednesday (1/27). Brown will be buried in the South Central Crenshaw District of Los Angeles on Saturday (1/30). Additional details are available at the Rosebud Agency web site.