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CLIFFORD BROWN
1930 -1956
Clifford Brown was born October 30, 1930 in Wilmington,
Delaware. Brown took up trumpet at the age of 13 and under the tutelage
of his band director at high school, Harry Andrews, developed an
extraordinary technical facility. While studying mathematics at Delaware
State  College, 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. All of whom
praised and encouraged him. 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’s Blue Flames and Tadd
Dameron.
He joined Tadd Dameron's band for a recording session (the
results of which were later issued as The Clifford Brown Memorial Album)
and for appearances in summer 1953 at Atlantic City, New Jersey. In the
autumn of 1953 he was a member of the big band Lionel Hampton took to Europe.
Hampton's
trumpet section at the time consisted of Art Farmer, Quincy Jones, Walter
Williams, and Brown, all of whom were superb players. 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.
On his return to the USA, Brown was fired along with most of
the rest of the band when Hampton learned of the records they had made. Brown went
on to perform with several East Coast groups before joining a newly formed
ensemble led by Art Blakey with Max Roach, he formed the Brown-Roach Quintet,
with which he was associated until he was killed two years later in an
automobile accident. The quintet, whose other members were Harold Land
(replaced in December 1955 by Sonny Rollins), George Morrow, and Richie Powell,
was one of the most significant groups of the 1950s and had a major influence
on the establishment of the style later known as hard bop.
 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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