Clifford Brown
Encyclopedia
Clifford Brown aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American
jazz
trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings. Nonetheless, he had a considerable influence on later jazz trumpet players, including Donald Byrd
, Lee Morgan
, Booker Little
, Freddie Hubbard
, Woody Shaw
, Valery Ponomarev
, Wynton Marsalis
, and many others.
He won the Down Beat
critics' poll for the 'New Star of the Year' in 1954; he was inducted into the Down Beat
'Jazz Hall of Fame' in 1972 in the critics' poll.
. After briefly attending Delaware State University
and Maryland State College
, he was injured in a serious car accident in June 1950. During his year-long hospitalization, Dizzy Gillespie
visited the younger trumpeter and pushed him to pursue his musical career. Brown moved into playing music professionally, where he quickly became one of the most highly regarded trumpeters in jazz.
He was influenced and encouraged by Fats Navarro
, sharing Navarro's virtuosic technique and brilliance of invention. His sound was warm and round, and notably consistent across the full range of the instrument. He could articulate every note, even at the high tempos which seemed to present no difficulty to him; this served to enhance the impression of his speed of execution. His sense of harmony was highly developed, enabling him to deliver bold statements through complex harmonic progressions (chord
changes), and embodying the linear, "algebraic" terms of bebop
harmony. In addition to his up-tempo prowess, he could express himself deeply in a ballad performance.
He performed with R&B bandleader Chris Powell, Tadd Dameron
, Lionel Hampton
, and Art Blakey
before forming his own group with Max Roach
. The Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet was a high water mark of the hard bop
style. The group's pianist, Richie Powell
(younger brother of Bud
), contributed original compositions, as did Brown himself. The partnership of Brown's trumpet with Harold Land
's tenor saxophone
made for a very strong front line. Teddy Edwards
briefly replaced Land before Sonny Rollins
took over for the remainder of the group's existence. In their hands the bebop vernacular reached a peak of inventiveness.
The clean-living Brown has been cited as perhaps breaking the influence of heroin on the jazz world, a model established by Charlie Parker
. Clifford stayed away from drugs and was not fond of alcohol.
In June 1956, Brown and Richie Powell
were being driven from Philadelphia to Chicago
by Powell's wife Nancy for the band's next appearance. While driving on a rainy night on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
, west of Bedford, she lost control of the car and it went off the road. All three were killed in the resulting crash. Brown is buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery, in Wilmington, Delaware.
Clifford Brown died on the second anniversary of his marriage to his wife LaRue, which was also LaRue's 22nd birthday.
, who had done a stint in Lionel Hampton's band with Brown, wrote "I Remember Clifford
" to honour his memory. The piece became a jazz standard, as musicians paid tribute by recording their own interpretations of it.
Helen Merrill
, who recorded with Brown in 1954 (Helen Merrill
, EmArcy), recorded a tribute album in 1995 entitled Brownie: Homage to Clifford Brown
. The album features solos and ensemble work by trumpeters Lew Soloff
, Tom Harrell
, Wallace Roney
, and Roy Hargrove
.
Arturo Sandoval
's entire second album
after fleeing from his native Cuba, titled I Remember Clifford
, was likewise a tribute to Brown.
Each year Wilmington
, Delaware hosts the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival
.
Brownie Speaks, a video documentary, is the culmination of years of research by Wilmington-born jazz pianist Don Glanden, research that has included interviews with Brown's friends, family, contemporaries, and admirers. Glanden's son Brad edited these interviews, along with archival materials and newly shot video footage. The documentary premiered in 2008 at the "Brownie Speaks" Clifford Brown Symposium hosted by The University of the Arts. The three-day symposium featured performances from close friends and bandmates of Brown such as Benny Golson
and Lou Donaldson
and other prominent artists inspired by Brown such as Marcus Belgrave
, Terence Blanchard
, and John Fedchock
.
With J.J. Johnson
With Helen Merrill
With Sarah Vaughan
With Sonny Rollins
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings. Nonetheless, he had a considerable influence on later jazz trumpet players, including Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
, Lee Morgan
Lee Morgan
Edward Lee Morgan was an American hard bop trumpeter.-Biography:...
, Booker Little
Booker Little
Booker Little, Jr was an American jazz trumpeter and composer.-Biography:Despite his premature death from kidney failure at the age of 23, Little made an important contribution to jazz. Stylistically, his sound is rooted in the playing of Clifford Brown, featuring crisp articulation, a burnished...
, Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
, Woody Shaw
Woody Shaw
Woody Shaw was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer and band leader, often referred to as the "last innovator" in the jazz trumpet lineage...
, Valery Ponomarev
Valery Ponomarev
Valery Ponomarev, Russian: Вале́рий Миха́йлович Пономарёв, Valery Mikhaylovich Ponomaryov, is a Russian born jazz trumpeter. He has lived in the United States since 1973.-Career:...
, Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
, and many others.
He won the Down Beat
Down Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
critics' poll for the 'New Star of the Year' in 1954; he was inducted into the Down Beat
Down Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
'Jazz Hall of Fame' in 1972 in the critics' poll.
Biography
Brown was born in Wilmington, DelawareWilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...
. After briefly attending Delaware State University
Delaware State University
Delaware State University , is an American historically black, public university located in Dover, Delaware, and there are two satellite campuses located in Wilmington, Delaware, and Georgetown, Delaware...
and Maryland State College
University of Maryland Eastern Shore
University of Maryland Eastern Shore located on 776 acres in Princess Anne, Maryland, United States, is part of the University System of Maryland...
, he was injured in a serious car accident in June 1950. During his year-long hospitalization, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
visited the younger trumpeter and pushed him to pursue his musical career. Brown moved into playing music professionally, where he quickly became one of the most highly regarded trumpeters in jazz.
He was influenced and encouraged by Fats Navarro
Fats Navarro
Theodore "Fats" Navarro 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, most notably Clifford Brown.-Life:Navarro was born in Key West, Florida, to Cuban-Black-Chinese parentage...
, sharing Navarro's virtuosic technique and brilliance of invention. His sound was warm and round, and notably consistent across the full range of the instrument. He could articulate every note, even at the high tempos which seemed to present no difficulty to him; this served to enhance the impression of his speed of execution. His sense of harmony was highly developed, enabling him to deliver bold statements through complex harmonic progressions (chord
Chord (music)
A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
changes), and embodying the linear, "algebraic" terms of bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
harmony. In addition to his up-tempo prowess, he could express himself deeply in a ballad performance.
He performed with R&B bandleader Chris Powell, Tadd Dameron
Tadd Dameron
Tadley Ewing Peake "Tadd" Dameron was an American jazz composer, arranger and pianist. Saxophonist Dexter Gordon called Dameron the "romanticist" of the bop movement, while reviewer Scott Yanow writes that Dameron was the "definitive arranger/composer of the bop era".-Biography:Born in Cleveland,...
, Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
, and Art Blakey
Art Blakey
Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....
before forming his own group with Max Roach
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...
. The Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet was a high water mark of the hard bop
Hard bop
Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz which incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano...
style. The group's pianist, Richie Powell
Richie Powell
Richie Powell was an American bebop jazz pianist.Powell was born into a musical family in New York City, and was the younger brother of Bud Powell...
(younger brother of Bud
Bud Powell
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...
), contributed original compositions, as did Brown himself. The partnership of Brown's trumpet with Harold Land
Harold Land
Harold de Vance Land 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. His tone was strong and emotional, yet displayed a certain fragility that made him easy to...
's tenor saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
made for a very strong front line. Teddy Edwards
Teddy Edwards
Theodore Marcus "Teddy" Edwards was an American jazz tenor saxophonist based on the West Coast of the US. Some consider him to be one of the most influential jazz saxophonists.-Biography:...
briefly replaced Land before Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
took over for the remainder of the group's existence. In their hands the bebop vernacular reached a peak of inventiveness.
The clean-living Brown has been cited as perhaps breaking the influence of heroin on the jazz world, a model established by Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
. Clifford stayed away from drugs and was not fond of alcohol.
In June 1956, Brown and Richie Powell
Richie Powell
Richie Powell was an American bebop jazz pianist.Powell was born into a musical family in New York City, and was the younger brother of Bud Powell...
were being driven from Philadelphia to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
by Powell's wife Nancy for the band's next appearance. While driving on a rainy night on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Pennsylvania Turnpike
The Pennsylvania Turnpike is a toll highway system operated by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. The three sections of the turnpike system total . The main section extends from Ohio to New Jersey and is long...
, west of Bedford, she lost control of the car and it went off the road. All three were killed in the resulting crash. Brown is buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery, in Wilmington, Delaware.
Clifford Brown died on the second anniversary of his marriage to his wife LaRue, which was also LaRue's 22nd birthday.
Legacy
Benny GolsonBenny Golson
Benny Golson is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger.-Biography:While in high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Golson played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and...
, who had done a stint in Lionel Hampton's band with Brown, wrote "I Remember Clifford
I Remember Clifford (song)
I Remember Clifford is the name of a jazz threnody written by jazz tenor saxophone player Benny Golson in memory of Clifford Brown, the influential and highly-rated jazz trumpeter who died in an auto accident when he was only 25 years old...
" to honour his memory. The piece became a jazz standard, as musicians paid tribute by recording their own interpretations of it.
Helen Merrill
Helen Merrill
Helen Merrill is an internationally known jazz vocalist.Merrill's recording career has spanned six decades and she is popular with fans of jazz in Japan and Italy as well as in her native United States...
, who recorded with Brown in 1954 (Helen Merrill
Helen Merrill (album)
Helen Merrill is the debut studio album by Helen Merrill, accompanied by trumpeter Clifford Brown.Merrill recorded a tribute album to Brown in 1995.-Reception:...
, EmArcy), recorded a tribute album in 1995 entitled Brownie: Homage to Clifford Brown
Brownie: Homage to Clifford Brown
Brownie: Homage to Clifford Brown is a 1995 studio album by Helen Merrill, recorded in tribute to the trumpeter Clifford Brown.Merrill had recorded an album with Brown in 1956.-Reception:...
. The album features solos and ensemble work by trumpeters Lew Soloff
Lew Soloff
Lew Soloff is a jazz trumpeter, composer and actor. He studied trumpet at the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School. He is likely best known for his work with Blood, Sweat & Tears from 1968 to 1973...
, Tom Harrell
Tom Harrell
Tom Harrell is a renowned American post-bop jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer and arranger.-Biography:Tom Harrell was born in Urbana, Illinois but moved to the San Francisco Bay Area at the age of five. He started playing trumpet at eight and within five years, started playing gigs with...
, Wallace Roney
Wallace Roney
Wallace Roney is an American hard bop and post-bop trumpeter.Roney took lessons from Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie and studied with Miles Davis from 1985 until the latter's death in 1991...
, and Roy Hargrove
Roy Hargrove
Roy Anthony Hargrove is an American jazz trumpeter. He won worldwide notice after winning two Grammy Awards for differing types of music, in 1997, and in 2002...
.
Arturo Sandoval
Arturo Sandoval
Arturo Sandoval is a jazz trumpeter and pianist. He was born in Artemisa, in the newest renamed Artemisa Province, Cuba....
's entire second album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
after fleeing from his native Cuba, titled I Remember Clifford
I Remember Clifford (album)
I Remember Clifford is a 1992 album by Arturo Sandoval, the second album he made after fleeing from his native Cuba.The entire album is a tribute to Clifford Brown, who was a great influence on Sandoval; Brown was an influential, highly-rated and much-loved jazz trumpeter who died in an auto...
, was likewise a tribute to Brown.
Each year Wilmington
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...
, Delaware hosts the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival
Clifford Brown Jazz Festival
The Clifford Brown Jazz Festival is a free jazz music festival held annually in June at Rodney Square in Wilmington, Delaware. The first festival was held in 1989 on the open lawn in the center of the city, and has grown into the largest free jazz festival on the East Coast...
.
Brownie Speaks, a video documentary, is the culmination of years of research by Wilmington-born jazz pianist Don Glanden, research that has included interviews with Brown's friends, family, contemporaries, and admirers. Glanden's son Brad edited these interviews, along with archival materials and newly shot video footage. The documentary premiered in 2008 at the "Brownie Speaks" Clifford Brown Symposium hosted by The University of the Arts. The three-day symposium featured performances from close friends and bandmates of Brown such as Benny Golson
Benny Golson
Benny Golson is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger.-Biography:While in high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Golson played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and...
and Lou Donaldson
Lou Donaldson
Lou Donaldson is a jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Badin, North Carolina. 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 era, heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.His first recordings were...
and other prominent artists inspired by Brown such as Marcus Belgrave
Marcus Belgrave
Marcus Belgrave is a jazz trumpet player from Detroit, born in Chester, Pennsylvania. He has recorded with a variety of famous musicians, bandleaders, and record labels since the 1950s. Notable among them are: Ray Charles, Charles Mingus, Gunther Schuller, Motown Records, Tribe Records, Blue Note...
, Terence Blanchard
Terence Blanchard
Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz...
, and John Fedchock
John Fedchock
John Fedchock is an American jazz trombonist, bandleader, and arranger.Fedchock studied at Ohio State University and the Eastman School of Music. He worked for several years in the Woody Herman Orchestra in the 1980s, and was particularly noted for his arrangements during this time...
.
As leader
- Memorial AlbumMemorial AlbumMemorial Album is an album by American jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown composed of tracks recorded at two sessions in 1953 and originally released on the Blue Note label in 1956...
(Blue Note, 1953) - MemorialMemorial (Clifford Brown album)Memorial is a 1956 jazz album by late trumpeter Clifford Brown. It was originally released on the Prestige label as PRLP 7055. It principally includes fast bop pieces, also arranged for a brass section...
(Prestige, 1953) - The Clifford Brown Big Band in Paris (Prestige, 1953)
- The Clifford Brown Sextet in Paris (Prestige, 1953)
- DaahoudDaahoudDaahoud is an album by Max Roach and Clifford Brown, released on Mainstream Records in 1954.-Track listing:#"Daahoud"#"I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You"#"Joy Spring"#"I Get a Kick out of You"#"These Foolish Things "...
(Mainstream RecordsMainstream RecordsMainstream Records was an American record label, which released jazz, rock music, and soundtracks during the 1970s.It was founded in 1964 by Bob Shad, and in its early history reissued material from Commodore Records and Time Records in addition to some new jazz material...
, 1954) - Clifford Brown: Jazz Immortal (Pacific Jazz, 1954, Rudy Van Gelder remastering, 2001)
- Brown and Roach Incorporated (EmArcy, 1954)
- Study in BrownStudy in BrownStudy in Brown is a Clifford Brown and Max Roach album. The album consists predominantly of originals by members of the band. The songs "Lands End," by tenor saxophonist Harold Land, and "Sandu", by Brown, have gone on to become jazz standards...
(EmArcy, 1955) - Max Roach and Clifford Brown in Concert (GNP Crescendo, 1955)
- Clifford Brown and Max Roach (EmArcy, 1955)
- Clifford Brown with Strings (EmArcy, 1955)
- Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin StreetClifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin StreetClifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street is a 1956 album by the Clifford Brown and Max Roach Quintet, the last album the quintet officially recorded. It is also one of the last major albums Brown recorded before his untimely death in 1956...
(EmArcy, 1956)
As sideman
With Art BlakeyArt Blakey
Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....
- A Night at Birdland Vol. 1A Night at Birdland Vol. 1A Night at Birdland Vol. 1 is a 1954 release by jazz artist Art Blakey. It was first released by Blue Note Records as a 10" LP and then as a 12" LP containing material from the third 10" album...
(Blue Note, 1954) - A Night at Birdland Vol. 2A Night at Birdland Vol. 2A Night at Birdland Vol. 2 is a 1954 release by jazz drummer Art Blakey. It was first released by Blue Note Records as BLP 5038 and two years later as BLP 1521 incorporating material from the third 10" release...
(Blue Note, 1954) - A Night at Birdland Vol. 3A Night at Birdland Vol. 3A Night at Birdland Vol. 3 is a 1954 jazz 10" LP release by Art Blakey Quintet for Blue Note Records. It was originally the third in a series of albums recorded during a pre-Jazz Messengers date at Birdland Jazz Club with Blakey leading...
(Blue Note, 1954)
With J.J. Johnson
J.J. Johnson
J. J. Johnson was a United States jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. He was sometimes credited as Jay Jay Johnson....
- The Eminent J. J. Johnson Volume 1 (Blue Note, 1953)
With Helen Merrill
Helen Merrill
Helen Merrill is an internationally known jazz vocalist.Merrill's recording career has spanned six decades and she is popular with fans of jazz in Japan and Italy as well as in her native United States...
- Helen MerrillHelen Merrill (album)Helen Merrill is the debut studio album by Helen Merrill, accompanied by trumpeter Clifford Brown.Merrill recorded a tribute album to Brown in 1995.-Reception:...
(EmArcy, 1954)
With Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
- Sarah Vaughan with Clifford BrownSarah Vaughan with Clifford BrownSarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown, also known as Sarah Vaughan, is a 1954 jazz album featuring Grammy Award winning singer Sarah Vaughan and influential trumpeter Clifford Brown, released on the EmArcy label. It was the only collaboration between the pair, and though originally eponymous was...
(EmArcy, 1954)
With Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
- Sonny Rollins Plus 4Sonny Rollins Plus 4Sonny Rollins Plus 4 is a jazz album by Sonny Rollins, released in 1956 on Prestige Records. On this album Rollins plays with the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet, of which he was a member at the time. The album was the last full recording including pianist Richie Powell and trumpeter Clifford...
(Prestige, 1956)
Sources
- Nick Catalano, Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter (Oxford University Press, 2001)