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Biography
Clifford Brown was born
October 30, 1930 in Wilmington, Delaware. As a
young high school student Brown began playing
trumpet and within a very short time was active in
college and other youth bands. By his late teens
he had attracted the favourable attention of
leading jazzmen, including fellow trumpeters Dizzy
Gillespie, Miles Davis and Fats Navarro. At the
end of the 40s he was studying music at Maryland
University and in 1952, following recovery from a
serious road accident, he made his first records
with Chris Powell and Tadd Dameron. In the autumn
of 1953 he was a member of the big band Lionel
Hampton took to Europe. Liberally filled with
precocious talent, this band attracted
considerable attention during its tour. Contrary
to contractual stipulations, many of the young
musicians moonlighted on various recordings and
Brown in particular was singled out for such
sessions. Back in the USA, Brown was fired along
with most of the rest of the band when Hampton
learned of the records they had made. Brown then
joined Art Blakey and in mid-1954 teamed up with
Max Roach to form the Clifford Brown-Max Roach
Quintet. The quintet was quickly recognized as one
of the outstanding groups in contemporary jazz and
Brown as a major trumpeter and composer. On June
26th, 1956, while driving between engagements
during a nationwide tour, Brown and another
quintet member, pianist Richie Powell, were killed
in a road accident.
The early death of
musicians in jazz, and of talented artists in
other fields, has often led to the creation of
legends. Inevitably, in many cases the legend
greatly exceeds the reality, and speculation on
what might have been relies more upon the
imagination of the recounter than upon any hard
evidence. In the case of Clifford Brown, the
reality of the legend is impossible to refute. At
a time when many modern jazz trumpeters sought
technical expertise at the expense of tone, Brown,
in common with his friend and paradigm, Navarro,
had technique to spare but also developed a rich,
full and frequently beautiful tone. At the same
time, whether playing at scorching tempos or on
languorous ballads, his range was exhaustive. He
was enormously and brilliantly inventive but his
search for original ideas was never executed at
the expense of taste. In all his work, Brown
displayed the rare combination of supreme
intelligence and great emotional depths. His
playing was only one aspect of his talent; he was
also a fine composer, creating many works that
have become modern jazz standards. Although his
career was brief, Brown's influence persisted for
a while in the work of Lee Morgan and throughout
succeeding decades in that of Freddie Hubbard.
Fortunately for jazz fans, Brown's own work
persists in the form of his recordings, almost any
of which can be safely recommended as outstanding
examples of the very best of jazz. Indeed, all of
his recordings with Roach are classics.
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