Clifford Benjamin Brown (October 30, 1930 – June 26, 1956) was an American jazz trumpeter. pianist and composer. He died at the age of 25 in a car crash, leaving behind four years' worth of recordings. His compositions "Sandu", "Joy Spring", and "Daahoud" have become
jazz standards
Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list ...
. Brown won the '' DownBeat'' magazine Critics' Poll for New Star of the Year in 1954; he was inducted into the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in 1972.
Early career
Brown was born into a musical family in
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington (Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...
. His father organized his four sons, including Clifford, into a vocal quartet. Around age ten, Brown started playing trumpet at school after becoming fascinated with the shiny trumpet his father owned. At age thirteen, his father bought him a trumpet and provided him with private lessons. In high school, Brown received lessons from Robert Boysie Lowery and played in "a jazz group that Lowery organized", making trips to
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
.
Brown briefly attended
Delaware State University
Delaware State University (DSU or Del State) is a public historically black land-grant research university in Dover, Delaware. DSU also has two satellite campuses: one in Wilmington and one in Georgetown. The university encompasses four colle ...
as a math major before he switched to Maryland State College. His trips to Philadelphia grew in frequency after he graduated from high school and entered Delaware State University. He played in the fourteen-piece, jazz-oriented Maryland State Band. In June 1950, he was injured in a car crash after a performance. While in the hospital, he was visited by Dizzy Gillespie, who encouraged him to pursue a career in music. For a time, injuries restricted him to playing the piano.
Brown was influenced and encouraged by
Fats Navarro
Theodore "Fats" Navarro (September 24, 1923 – July 6, 1950) was an American jazz trumpet player. He was a pioneer of the bebop style of jazz improvisation in the 1940s. He had a strong stylistic influence on many other players, including Cl ...
. His first recordings were with R&B bandleader Chris Powell. He worked with Art Blakey,
Tadd Dameron
Tadley Ewing Peake Dameron (February 21, 1917 – March 8, 1965) was an American jazz composer, arranger, and pianist.
Biography
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Dameron was the most influential arranger of the bebop era, but also wrote charts for swin ...
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He work ...
.
One of the most notable developments during Brown's period in New York was the formation of Art Blakey's Quintet, which would become the Jazz Messengers. Blakey formed the band with Brown,
Lou Donaldson
Lou Donaldson (born November 1, 1926) is an American retired jazz Alto saxophone, alto saxophonist. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the bebop ...
,
Horace Silver
Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s.
After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sc ...
, and
Curley Russell
Dillon "Curley" Russell (19 March 1917 – 3 July 1986) was an American jazz musician, who played bass on many bebop recordings.
He was born in New York, United States. He was nicknamed "Curley" for his curly hair.
A member of the Tadd Damero ...
, and recorded the quintet's first album live at the Birdland jazz club. During one of the rehearsal sessions, fellow trumpeter
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...
listened and joked about Clifford Brown's technical ability to play the trumpet. The live recording session ultimately spanned two days with multiple takes needed on only a couple of the tunes.
A week at
Club Harlem
Club Harlem was a nightclub at 32 Kentucky Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Founded in 1935 by Leroy "Pop" Williams, it was the city's premier club for black jazz performers. Like its Harlem counterpart, the Cotton Club, many of Club Harlem' ...
in May 1952 featured alto saxophonist
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...
and Brown. Brown later noted that Parker was impressed by his playing, saying privately to the young trumpeter "I don't believe it."
Just before the formation of the Clifford Brown/
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He work ...
Quintet, journalist
Nat Hentoff
Nathan Irving Hentoff (June 10, 1925 – January 7, 2017) was an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media. Hentoff was a columnist for ''The Village Voice'' from 1958 to 2009. Fo ...
and Brown interviewed for a '' DownBeat'' article titled "Clifford Brown – the New Dizzy".
Later career
Roach's stature had grown as he recorded with a host of other emerging artists (including Bud Powell, Sonny Stitt,
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...
and
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", ...
) and co-founded
Debut
Debut or début (the first public appearance of a person or thing) may refer to:
* Debut (society), the formal introduction of young upper-class women to society
* Debut novel, an author's first published novel
Film and television
* ''The Debu ...
, one of the first artist-owned labels, with Charles Mingus. Having participated in the legendary Jazz at Massey Hall concert of 1953, the drummer had relocated to the Los Angeles area and had replaced
Shelly Manne
Sheldon "Shelly" Manne (June 11, 1920 – September 26, 1984) was an American jazz drummer. Most frequently associated with West Coast jazz, he was known for his versatility and also played in a number of other styles, including Dixieland, sw ...
in the popular Lighthouse All Stars. Roach and Brown formed the joint Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet in the mid-1950s with tenor saxophonist
Harold Land
Harold de Vance Land (December 18, 1928 – July 27, 2001) was an American hard bop and post-bop tenor saxophonist. Land developed his hard bop playing with the Max Roach/ Clifford Brown band into a personal, modern style, often rivalling Cliffo ...
, pianist
Richie Powell
Richard Powell (September 5, 1931 – June 26, 1956) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He was not assisted in his musical development by Bud, his older and better known brother, but both played predominantly in the bebop style. ...
, and bassist George Morrow, with Rollins taking Land's place in 1955. Brown was in the L.A. area from March to August 1954, on the invitation of Roach, who arrived on the West Coast with other well-regarded jazz musicians including
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...
and Charles Mingus. Prior to their first concert, the 1954 Pasadena Auditorium Concert, Roach included Brown on the basis that the two would be co-leaders.
The band's creation began when the two bandleaders rented a studio in California. With Brown able to, in addition to the trumpet, play the piano and drums, Roach and Brown were able to experiment with these instruments extensively at the studio. They settled upon the standard bebop quintet of trumpet, saxophone, piano, bass, and drums, with saxophone, piano, and bass players needed. With first choice Sonny Stitt choosing his own direction for his music, the bandleaders settled upon former Count Basie bassist George Morrow, unconventional pianist Carl Perkins, and tenor saxophone player Teddy Edwards as the first group, although this line-up was short-lived. The group that had formed "sent shock waves throughout the jazz community" according to Sam Samuelson.
As the band was still deciding on its personnel, Brown and Roach met alto saxophone player and multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy, who had his own apartment where he hosted jam sessions. Among the jam session's musicians were future quintet members Harold Land and George Morrow. Bud Powell's brother Richie arrived in the L.A. area around this time and was recruited as the quintet's pianist. The band accepted recording session offers and Brown composed several tunes that were adopted by the new quintet. Meanwhile, a larger, fully arranged band was organized for one of the upcoming recording sessions by
Jack Montrose Jack Montrose (December 30, 1928 – February 7, 2006) was a jazz tenor saxophonist and arranger. After attending college in Los Angeles, he worked with Jerry Gray and then Art Pepper. Montrose also did arrangements for Clifford Brown. He became kno ...
of Pacific Coast Jazz Records. The session "embrace West Coast cool" with "immaculately performed charts," according to reviewer Gordon Jack of ''
Jazz Journal
''Jazz Journal'' is a British jazz magazine established in 1946 by Sinclair Traill (1904–1981). It was first published in London under the title ''Pick Up'', which Traill founded as a locus for serious jazz criticism in Britain.Roberta Freund Sc ...
''.
An early session of the Brown/Roach Quintet, featuring its new lineup, was titled ''Clifford Brown & Max Roach'' and featured several of Brown's new compositions. Samuelson referred to the album as a "nice gamut between boplicity and pleasant balladry". Other albums during the Brown/Roach collaboration included ''Brown and Roach, Inc.'' and ''Study in Brown''.
Brown also recorded albums outside of the quintet, including the Pacific Coast Jazz session and two albums with jazz vocalist
Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s songs". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performe ...
. Both of these were recorded from the jam session setting and featured other jazz trumpeters including Maynard Ferguson and Clark Terry. Following the Dinah Washington recordings, Brown slowed the pace of the recordings and traveled back to the East Coast, recording an album with Sarah Vaughan in December 1954.
The experiments in bop continued in the 1955 session ''Study in Brown'', such as use of instrument sounds to mimic an inner city environment in "Parisian Thoroughfare" and "international flavor" in "George's Dilemma". Jazz critic Scott Yanow referred to the album as "premiere early hard bop" and noted the quintet's "unlimited potential."
A 1955 live performance by Clifford Brown with Billy Root and Ziggy Vines, sometimes mistakenly thought to have been recorded just before Brown's death a year later, was released on tape in 1973. Following this live session, the group, with Blakey temporarily replacing Roach at one point following a car accident, toured, visiting Chicago and then Rhode Island for the
Newport Jazz Festival
The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hir ...
. Roach returned for this performance and jam session at Newport.
Released in 1956, the final "official album" by the quintet – ''At Basin Street'' – introduced tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins. The album was a "hard bop classic," and "highly recommended" by Scott Yanow. While previous quintet albums included original compositions, this album consisted mostly of jazz standards, although it did have a couple Richie Powell compositions.
Personal life
Brown married Emma LaRue Anderson (1933–2005), whom he called "Joy Spring", in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, in 1954. The two had been introduced by Max Roach. They celebrated their marriage vows three times, partly because their families were on opposite coasts and partly because of their different religious denominations – Brown was
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
and Anderson was
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. They were first married in a private ceremony June 26, 1954, in Los Angeles (on Anderson's st birthday). They again celebrated their marriage in a religious setting on July 16, 1954, with the certificate being registered in Los Angeles County. A reception was held at the Tiffany Club where the Art Pepper/
Jack Montrose Jack Montrose (December 30, 1928 – February 7, 2006) was a jazz tenor saxophonist and arranger. After attending college in Los Angeles, he worked with Jerry Gray and then Art Pepper. Montrose also did arrangements for Clifford Brown. He became kno ...
Quintet had been replaced, a few days earlier, by the
Red Norvo
Red Norvo (born Kenneth Norville; March 31, 1908 – April 6, 1999) was an American musician, one of jazz's early vibraphonists, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone, marimba, and vibraphone as jazz instruments. His reco ...
Trio with
Tal Farlow
Talmage Holt Farlow (June 7, 1921 – July 25, 1998) was an American jazz guitarist. He was nicknamed "Octopus" because of how his large, quick hands spread over the fretboard. As Steve Rochinski notes, "Of all the guitarists to emerge in th ...
and Red Mitchell. Anderson's parish priest followed them to
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
where, on August 1, 1954, they performed their marriage ceremony at Saint Richards Church in the Roxbury neighborhood."Clifford Brown in Los Angeles," by Eddie Spencer Meadows, PhD; born 1939; ''Black Music Research Journal,'' published by the Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College Chicago and University of Illinois Press, Vol. 31, No. 1, Spring 2011, pps. 45–63; JSTOR ; ;
Brown stayed away from drugs and was not fond of alcohol. Rollins, who was recovering from heroin addiction, said that "Clifford was a profound influence on my personal life. He showed me that it was possible to live a good, clean life and still be a good jazz musician." Brown's enthusiasm to practice the trumpet was noted by Lou Donaldson, who said that he would "do lip exercises and mouth exercises all day."
Death
In June 1956, Brown and
Richie Powell
Richard Powell (September 5, 1931 – June 26, 1956) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He was not assisted in his musical development by Bud, his older and better known brother, but both played predominantly in the bebop style. ...
embarked on a drive to Chicago for their next appearance. Powell's wife Nancy was at the wheel so that Clifford and Richie could sleep. While driving at night in the rain on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, west of
Bedford
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...
, she is presumed to have lost control of the car, which went off the road, killing all three in the resulting crash. Brown is buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery, in Wilmington, Delaware.
Legacy
Jazz historian
Ira Gitler
Ira Gitler (December 18, 1928 – February 23, 2019) was an American jazz historian and journalist. The co-author of ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'' with Leonard Feather—the most recent edition appeared in 1999—he wrote hundreds of ...
said of Brown, "l’m sorry I never got to know him better. Not that it necessarily follows that one who plays that beautifully is also a marvelous person, but I think one can discern in Clifford Brown’s case that the particular kind of extraordinary playing was linked to an equally special human being... Photographs of Clifford Brown reveal some of that inner self; the shots in which he is depicted in a playing attitude show his intensity, that utter concentration and total connection with his instrument."
In the 1990s, video from the TV program ''Soupy's On'' (starring comedian
Soupy Sales
Milton Supman (January 8, 1926 – October 22, 2009), known professionally as Soupy Sales, was an American comedian, actor, radio-television personality, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television serie ...
, who was a big jazz fan and booked several top musical stars for his show) was discovered of Clifford Brown playing two tunes. This is the only video recording known to exist of Brown.
His nephew, drummer Rayford Griffin ''(né'' Rayford Galen Griffin; born 1958), modernized Brown's music on his 2015 album ''Reflections of Brownie.'' Brown's grandson, Clifford Benjamin Brown III (born 1982), plays trumpet on one of the tracks, "Sandu".
Discography
As leader/co-leader
* 1953: ''New Faces, New Sounds'' with
Lou Donaldson
Lou Donaldson (born November 1, 1926) is an American retired jazz Alto saxophone, alto saxophonist. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the bebop ...
(
Blue Note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical c ...
, 1953) 0 inch* 1953: ''New Star on the Horizon'' (Blue Note, 1953) 0 inch* 1953: ''A Study In Dameronia'' (Prestige, 1955) 0 inch* 1953: ''Clifford Brown and Art Farmer with The Swedish All Stars'' with Art Farmer (Prestige, 1954) 0 inch* 1954: ''
Clifford Brown & Max Roach
''Clifford Brown & Max Roach'' is a 1954 album by influential jazz musicians Clifford Brown and Max Roach as part of the Clifford Brown and Max Roach Quintet, described by ''The New York Times'' as "perhaps the definitive bop group until Mr. Brown ...
Brown and Roach Incorporated
''Brown and Roach Incorporated'' is an album by American jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown and drummer Max Roach featuring tracks recorded in August 1954 and released on the EmArcy label.Clifford Brown All Stars
''Clifford Brown All Stars'' (also released as ''Caravan'') is an album by American jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown featuring tracks recorded in 1954 but released on the EmArcy label posthumously in 1956.Best Coast Jazz
''Best Coast Jazz'' is an album by American jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown featuring tracks recorded in 1954 and released on the EmArcy label.Jam Session'' with Clark Terry and Maynard Ferguson (EmArcy, 1954) – live
* 1955: ''
Clifford Brown with Strings
''Clifford Brown with Strings'' is a 1955 studio album by trumpeter Clifford Brown.
Track listing
# " Yesterdays" (Otto Harbach, Jerome Kern) – 2:59
# " Laura" ( Johnny Mercer, David Raksin) – 3:26
# "What's New?" ( Johnny Burke, Bob Ha ...
'' (EmArcy, 1955)
* 1955: '' Study in Brown'' (EmArcy, 1955)
* 1956: ''
Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street
''Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street'' (also known as ''At Basin Street'') is a 1956 album by the Clifford Brown and Max Roach Quintet, the last album the quintet officially recorded. Apart from '' Sonny Rollins Plus 4'', it was the la ...
'' (EmArcy, 1956)
Posthumous releases
* '' Memorial Album'' (Blue Note, 1956) – LP version of ''New Faces, New Sounds'' plus ''New Star on the Horizon''
* '' Memorial'' (Prestige, 1956) – LP version of ''Clifford Brown and Art Farmer with The Swedish All Stars'' plus ''A Study In Dameronia''
* ''Jazz Immortal'' featuring
Zoot Sims
John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...
(
Pacific Jazz
Pacific Jazz Records was a Los Angeles-based record company and label best known for cool jazz or West coast jazz. It was founded in 1952 by producer Richard Bock (1927–1988) and drummer Roy Harte (1924–2003). Harte, in 1954, also co-founded ...
, 1960)
* ''The Clifford Brown Sextet In Paris'' (Prestige, 1970) – recorded in 1953
* '' The Beginning And The End'' (Columbia, 1973) – compilation
* ''Raw Genius - Live at Bee Hive Chicago 1955'' Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 with Max Roach (Victor, 1977) – live recorded in 1955. Japan only. also released as ''Live at The Bee Hive'' (Columbia, 1979) LP* ''Pure Genius'' (Volume One) with Max Roach (Elektra Musician, 1982) – live recorded in 1956
* ''More Study in Brown'' (EmArcy, 1983)
* ''Jams 2'' (EmArcy, 1983) – recorded in 1954
* ''Alternate Takes'' (Blue Note, 1984) – recorded in 1953
Box set
* ''The Complete Blue Note and Pacific Jazz Recordings of Clifford Brown'' (Mosaic Records, 1984) LPref>
The Jazz Messengers
The Jazz Messengers were a jazz combo that existed for over thirty-five years beginning in the early 1950s as a collective, and ending when long-time leader and founding drummer Art Blakey died in 1990. Blakey led or co-led the group from the o ...
A Night at Birdland Vol. 2
''A Night at Birdland Vol. 2'' is a 1954 release by jazz drummer Art Blakey, and a quintet which featured Clifford Brown, Lou Donaldson, Horace Silver and Curley Russell. It was first released by Blue Note Records as a 10" LP (BLP 5038). Two years ...
'' (Blue Note, 1954)
* Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, '' A Night at Birdland Vol. 3'' (Blue Note, 1954)
*
Helen Merrill
Helen Merrill (born Jelena Ana Milcetic; July 21, 1930) is an American jazz vocalist. Her first album, the eponymous 1954 recording '' Helen Merrill'' (with Clifford Brown), was an immediate success and associated her with the first generation ...
, ''
Helen Merrill
Helen Merrill (born Jelena Ana Milcetic; July 21, 1930) is an American jazz vocalist. Her first album, the eponymous 1954 recording '' Helen Merrill'' (with Clifford Brown), was an immediate success and associated her with the first generation ...
Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s songs". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performe ...
, '' Dinah Jams'' (EmArcy, 1955) – live recorded in 1954
Daahoud
''Daahoud'' is an album by Max Roach and Clifford Brown released on Mainstream Records in 1973 consisting of alternate takes of tracks recorded in 1954 for the albums ''Brown and Roach Incorporated'' and ''Clifford Brown & Max Roach''.
"
References
Bibliography
* Nick Catalano, ''Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter'' (Oxford University Press, 2001),