Lester Raymond Brown (March 14, 1912 - January 4, 2001) was an American jazz musician who for over six decades (1938-2000) led his big band, later called Les Brown and His Band of Renown.

Brown was born in Reinerton, Pennsylvania. He enrolled in the Conway Military Band School (later part of Ithaca College) in 1926, studying with famous bandleader Patrick Conway for three years before receiving a music scholarship to the New York Military Academy, where he graduated in 1932. Brown attended college at Duke University from 1932 to 1936. There he led the group Les Brown and His Blue Devils, who performed regularly on Duke's campus and up and down the east coast. Brown took the band on an extensive summer tour in 1936. At the end of the tour, while some of the band members returned to Duke to continue their education, others stayed on with Brown and continued to tour, becoming in 1938 the Les Brown Orchestra. The band's original drummer, Don Kramer, became the acting manager and helped define their future.

The band appeared regularly on the Spotlight Band radio programme, which broadcast to a military audience and made them permanent favorites of millions of men in uniform. Also on this show, the band was first referred to as "Les Brown & His Band of Renown" in 1942. The moniker stuck and became the official bandname from the 1950s onwards.

In 1941, Brown's band had a #1 hit, "Joltin' Joe DiMagio", with his lead vocalist Betty Bonney. In 1942, Brown and his band concluded work on an RKO picture, Sweet and Hot; played at the Palladium Ballroom, Hollywood. A few years later, in 1945, this band brought Doris Day into prominence with their recording of "Sentimental Journey". The song's release coincided with the end of World War II in Europe and became an unofficial homecoming theme for many veterans. The band had nine other number-one hit songs, including "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" (1949).

In 1952-53, Brown was the orchestra leader on Day's radio program, The Doris Day Show, on CBS.

Les Brown and the Band of Renown performed with Bob Hope on radio, stage and television for almost fifty years. They did 18 USO Tours for American troops around the world, and entertained over three million people. Before the Super Bowls were televised, the Bob Hope Christmas Specials were the highest-rated programs in television history. Tony Bennett was "discovered" by Bob Hope and did his first public performance with Brown and the Band.