SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
SUMMER, 2016
VOLUME THREE NUMBER ONE
MARY LOU WILLIAMS
Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:
JULIUS HEMPHILL
June 18-24
ARTHUR BLYTHE
June 25-July 1
OSCAR BROWN, JR.
July 2-July 8
DONNY HATHAWAY
July 9-July 15
EUGENE McDANIELS
July 16-July 22
ROBERTA FLACK
July 23-July 29
WOODY SHAW
July 30-August 5
FATS DOMINO
August 6-August 12
CLIFFORD BROWN
August 13-August 19
BLIND WILLIE McTELL
August 20-August 26
RAHSAAN ROLAND KIRK
August 27-September 2
CHARLES BROWN
September 3-September 9
https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/cliffordbrown
Clifford Brown
(1930-1956)
He was the most brilliant trumpet player of his generation, an
original and memorable composer, a dynamic stage presence and one of the
authentic legends of modern jazz.
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 favorable
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.
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.
During his remarkable three year run, Brown made more than a dozen albums among the ones on the EmArcy label are Brown & Roach Inc (1954), Study in Brown (1955), Clifford Brown With Strings(1955), A Study in Brown(1955) Clifford Brown All Stars (1956), Memorial Album (1956), Clifford Brown & Max Roach at Basin St. East (1956), and Pure Genius (1956) these are prime models of the art of jazz trumpet. There are many compilations available, as are box sets as the Complete Blue Note-Pacific Jazz (Mosaic) and the EmArcy 10 disc set Brownie: The Complete Clifford Brown.
Many
of his compositions became standards, including the uptempo “Daahoud,”
reflective “Joy Spring”, and “Sandu.” His version of “Cherokee” though
not his composition, is still considered the definitive one. Benny
Golson did a memorable “I Remember Clifford,” a moving tribute to the
young trumpeter, and is a perennial jazz favorite.
Clifford Brown
had established himself as the most potent trumpeter in jazz to arrive
on the scene since Dizzy Gillespie. Equally influenced (and encouraged)
by Fats Navarro and Gillespie, Brown possessed both a remarkable
technique for high-speed playing, with every note perfectly placed and
formed, and also a beautiful lyrical ballad style. He developed an
innate sense of solo form, a rich tone, and a virtuoso technique in all
trumpet ranges. His style included brilliant high notes, high rhythmic
detail, and a generous incorporation of grace notes and varied
inflections, all of which he played with rare grace and ease. He was
especially noted for the melodic qualities of his improvising, which
often flowed in long phrases. His impact and influence on the jazz world
is only matched by his artistry on the trumpet.
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. Clifford Brown was twenty five years old.
Source: James Nadal
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/clifford-brown-mn0000789775/biography
Clifford Brown
(1930-1956)
Artist Biography by Scott Yanow
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/clifford-brown-mn0000789775/biography
Clifford Brown
(1930-1956)
Artist Biography by Scott Yanow
Clifford Brown's death in a car accident at the age of 25 was one of the great tragedies in jazz history. Already ranking with Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis
as one of the top trumpeters in jazz, Brownie was still improving in
1956. Plus he was a clean liver and was not even driving; the
up-and-coming pianist Richie Powell and his wife (who was driving) also perished in the crash.
Clifford Brown
accomplished a great deal in the short time he had. He started on
trumpet when he was 15, and by 1948 was playing regularly in
Philadelphia. Fats Navarro, who was his main influence, encouraged Brown, as did Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.
After a year at Maryland State University, he was in a serious car
accident in June 1950 that put him out of action for a year. In 1952, Brown made his recording debut with Chris Powell's Blue Flames (an R&B group). The following year, he spent some time with Tadd Dameron, and from August to December was with Lionel Hampton's band, touring Europe and leading some recording sessions. In early 1954, he recorded some brilliant solos at Birdland with Art Blakey's quintet (a band that directly preceded the Jazz Messengers) and by mid-year had formed a quintet with Max Roach. Considered one of the premiere hard bop bands, the group lasted until Brown's death, featuring Harold Land (and later Sonny Rollins) on tenor and recording several superb sets for Emarcy. Just hours before his death, Brownie
appeared at a Philadelphia jam session that was miraculously recorded,
and played some of the finest music of his short life.
Clifford Brown had a fat warm tone, a bop-ish style quite reminiscent of the equally ill-fated Fats Navarro,
and a mature improvising approach; he was as inventive on melodic
ballads as he was on rapid jams. Amazingly enough, a filmed appearance
of him playing two songs in 1955 on a Soupy Sales
variety show turned up after being lost for 40 years, the only known
footage of the great trumpeter. Fortunately, virtually all of his
recordings are currently available, including his Prestige dates (in the
OJC series), his work for Blue Note and Pacific Jazz (on a four-CD
set), and his many Emarcy sessions (reissued on a magnificent ten-disc
set). But the one to pick up first is Columbia's The Beginning and the End, which has Brown's first and last recordings.
http://www.montereyjazzfestival.org/artists/brownie-speaks-life-music-legacy-clifford-brown
Doug
is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz
Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he
settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities
including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle,
Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, DC. His writing about
jazz has paralleled his life in journalism... [Read More]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/25/AR2006062500962.html
Monday, June 26, 2006
There may be no sadder tale in modern music than that of Clifford Brown. All but forgotten today outside a coterie of jazz buffs, he remains a heart-tugging example of what-might-have-been, as musicians and critics continue to debate the wonders he could have achieved, if only he had lived.
Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter
by Nick Catalano
Series: Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter
Paperback: 232 pages
Oxford University Press (May 24, 2001)
Although he died in a tragic car accident at twenty-five, Clifford Brown is widely considered one of the most important figures in the history of jazz--now, in this absorbing work, Nick Catalano gives us the first major biography of this musical giant.
Based on extensive interviews with Brown's family, friends, and fellow jazz musicians, this is a fascinating portrait of a remarkable musician. Catalano colorfully depicts Brown's life, showing how he developed a dazzling technique that few jazz players have equaled. We read of his meteoric rise in Philadelphia, his tour of Europe with Lionel Hampton, and his formation of the Brown-Roach Quintet with prominent drummer Max Roach. The book also features an informed analysis of Brown's major recorded solos, highlighting his originality and revealing why he remains such a great influence today.
Reviews
Amazon.com Review
In the early '50s, Clifford Brown was one of the most dominant trumpeters of the Hard Bop period. Nick Catalano, professor of literature and music at Pace University, has written the first book on this important artist, and it's a winner. "In addition to his artistic achievements, Brown exuded virtue and magnanimity," Catalano writes. "He wasn't just a 'nice guy'; he was much more than that." At a time when jazzmen where generally portrayed as drug addicted hustlers, Brown was the exception. He was college educated, rarely smoked or drank, and was a positive role model to other musicians. Had he not been killed in a tragic car accident at the tender age of 25, he may have altered the future of jazz. As it is, he has left a lasting impression on the art form.
Beginning with his nurturing childhood in Wilmington, Delaware, Catalano chronicles Brown's extraordinary rise as a Dizzy Gillespie-inspired upstart, to a seasoned professional who continued to practice and play R&B dates despite terrible pain from a near-fatal car accident. Catalano highlights Brown's work with heavyweights like Lionel Hampton, Quincy Jones, John Lewis, and Art Blakey, and his analyses of Brown's crisp trumpet style and compositions, including "Joy Spring" and "Dahooud," are detailed and entertaining. At the summit of his career, while co-leading a trailblazing combo that featured Max Roach and Sonny Rollins, Brown perished on the rain-soaked Pennsylvania Turnpike on the way to a gig in Chicago. Catalano shows that, even in death, his influence lives on in trumpeters like Freddie Hubbard and Wynton Marsalis, and in the Tony Award-winning Broadway play, Sideman. If there is such a thing as a jazz saint, Clifford Brown was it. --Eugene Holley Jr. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Long known as the jazz trumpeters' trumpeter, Clifford Brown has yet to gain wider recognition for his influence over the development of bebop. Born in Wilmington, Del., in 1930, Brown's trumpet playing was often described as uninspired, but intense practice led to a technically superb style that was lauded by such greats as Dizzy Gillespie. The modest, unpretentious trumpeter lived an unruffled life; his great discipline offered a different model for jazz musicians long under the influence of Charlie Parker's drug abuse. Catalano, the director of performing arts at Pace University, presents Brown's abbreviated life (he died in a car crash at age 25) in a terse, matter-of-fact manner, with scrupulous attention to detail. A vivid account of his 1953 adventures with Lionel Hampton's band (which included Art Farmer and Quincy Jones) in Europe is one of the few sections that delves deeply into Brown's musical genius, describing solos and specific performances, and praising his high energy and fun approach to trading fours with Farmer. In another chapter, Catalano recalls Brown's friendship with Max Roach, paying homage to such landmark recordings as "Delilah" and "Darn That Dream." While some jazz fans may tire of the meticulous recounting of facts, true buffs will be enthralled with the honest interviews and wide breadth of research this bio offers.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
The history of music in general, and jazz in particular, is filled with stories of legendary performers with blazing talent who succumb early to their own excesses. Brown's brief life and brilliant career prove to be the exception to that rule. He was a formally trained musician from a stable family in Wilmington, DE, when, in 1949, Dizzy Gillespie discovered his skill on the trumpet. Soon he was a major part of the next generation of bebop musicians, one that would take the genre to unimagined artistic heights. Brown's healthy lifestyle and studious attitude toward his craft proved to be as influential for a generation of jazz artists as his innovative work with drummer Max Roach. Unfortunately, a tragic auto accident in 1956 cost Brown his life and the world of jazz one of its most positive role models. Catalano's (director of cultural affairs and performing arts, Pace Univ.) well-researched look at the life and music of Brown will be a welcome addition to all serious music collections.
-Dan Bogey, Clearfield Cty. P.L. Federation, Curwensville, PA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Good-natured, honest, loyal to friends and family, and clean-living when many musicians drank and drugged too much, Brown (1930^-56) was jazz's angel. Moreover, he was exceptionally talented and creative, playing trumpet with a gloriously full, round tone and so seldom treating the same solo identically that alternate takes from his recording sessions are more interesting than those of virtually any other jazz artist. But he verified that adage about the good dying young. Early in his career, he was so badly injured in a car accident that half a year elapsed before he could play again, and very few years later, racing from Philadelphia to a Chicago gig, another crash killed him (he was not driving). Fortunately for filling out what would be a very short book if Brown's life apart from music were all Catalano had to write about, nearly all his recordings are readily available. Catalano comments accurately and insightfully on that legacy, so that even those very familiar with Brown's art stand to have their appreciation of his music sharpened. Ray Olson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
Clifford Brown's premature death deprived jazz of one of its greatest trumpetersa loss that seems even more poignant some forty years later. Born in 1930, in Wilmington, Delaware, Brown began playing in school bands and informal dance groups in his early teens. Encouraged by his parents and teachers, he practiced constantly and soon became a local star. An important influence was Fats Navarro, a brilliant bebop trumpeter whose life was cut short by heroin use. Taking warning from Navarro's fate, Brown became a model for clean living among his generation of jazzmen, and was noted for his amiable disposition. His playing blossomed as he gigged and jammed with top players in the jazz clubs of Philadelphia. After a series of record dates as sideman, and a European tour with Lionel Hampton's band, he returned to the US in 1954 and formed a seminal quintet with drummer Max Roach. In the two years before Brown and pianist Richie Powell died in a car crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, that group made a strong impact on jazz listeners. Unfortunately, Catalano (Performing Arts/Pace Univ.), assuming his readers are intimately familiar with Brown's music, relies primarily on verbal descriptions of his solos, providing only two passages of written music. A few of his other judgments are even more questionable. He takes several gratuitous potshots at Miles Davis, overlooking the possibility that even had Brown survived, he might never have rivaled the later success of the charismatic Davis. Nor did Brown's death send jazz into a tailspin, as Catalano implies; the music remained strong for nearly a decade before rock drove it from popular awareness. Still, the authors enthusiastic and well-researched summary of Brown's career should send jazz buffs back to their record collections for serious listening. A worthy project diminished by Catalanos impressionistic approach and special pleading. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"This study of a vitally important artist is a book for all jazz collections."--Choice
"The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter is the first full biography of the man known as 'Brownie' and should be required reading for any serious jazz fan. Catalano's account will definitely have you, to paraphrase Benny Golson's famous composition, 'remembering Clifford'."--Alabama Times
"A generation before Wynton Marsalis, Clifford Brown exhibited a similar mastery of modern jazz phrasing, tone control, and trumpet technique. Alas, Brown was never destined to achieve the fame and rewards such rare talents deserved. His moving story with its wry mixture of triumph and tragedy is now told with rich detail in Nick Catalano's highly readable Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter."--Ted Gioia, author of The History of Jazz and West Coast Jazz
"The author's enthusiastic and well-researched summary of Brown's career should send jazz buffs back to their record collections for serious listening."--Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
A University Performing Arts director and Professor of Music and Literature at Pace University, Dr. Nick Catalano has played, produced, taught and written about jazz throughout his life. He has also had an extensive television career as a writer-producer of films and documentaries. Dr. Catalano lives and writes in New York and East Hampton.
THE MUSIC OF CLIFFORD BROWN: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH MR. BROWN:
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's fatal automobile accident in 1956".[2] The album was critically well received and includes several notable tracks, including two that have since become jazz standards. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.[3] It is included in Jazz: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings at #34, where it is described by New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff as "one of the strongest studio albums up to that time".[4]
First released as a 10" vinyl in December 1954 (MG 26043), it included only five tracks: "Delilah", "Parisian Thoroughfare", "Daahoud", "Joy Spring" and "Jordu", all recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood, in August 1954.[5] In 1955, EmArcy released a regular 12" vinyl (MG-36036),[6] adding "The Blues Walk" and "What Am I Here For", from a February 1955 session at Capitol Studios in New York City.[7] Since then, it has been multiply reissued, including in a 2000 edition by Verve Records that contains additional takes and a previously unissued track.[8]
The album was critically well received. The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Jazz
ranks it as among the best of the short-lived quintet, which in its 2½
years of existence "left behind a body of music that encapsulates all
the best virtues of hard bop".[12]
"The numerous felicities of this tightly-knit working band", author
Barry Dean Kernfeld wrote, "were seldom better displayed than in these
dynamic performances".[13] In its review, AllMusic
describes it as "by far some of the warmest and most sincere bebop
performed and committed to tape", indicating that "[i]t represents bop
at its best and is recommended for collectors and casual fans alike".[8]
Also notable is the album's version of the Victor Young theme song for the Cecil B. DeMille film Samson and Delilah, which Village Voice columnist Gary Giddins selected as the outstanding jazz track for 1954, though he describes it as "the most unlikely of vehicles".[17] In a 2006 interview with The New York Times, jazz drummer Paul Motian also singled out the song, "Delilah", for reference, praising its organization and arrangement, declaring it "Simple, but great".[18] The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Jazz comments of the song that its "exotic mood" was "cleverly exploited", also noting that "[i]n Brown's sweeping solo, the commentary supplied by Roach is worthy of special study, as he seemingly anticipates every nuance of his co-leader's lines".[12]
Billboard Dec 11, 1954
Minor, E. Kyle (September 3, 2000) A bebop master comes to call The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-05-28.
Grammy Hall of Fame past recipients grammy.com Retrieved on 2008-05-28.
Ratliff, Ben (2000). Jazz: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings. New York Times Essential Library. MacMillan. pp. 92–93. ISBN 0-8050-7068-0.
"Delilah"
and "Parisian Thoroughfare" on August 2; "Jordu" on August 3'; "Joy
Spring" and "Daahoud" on August 6. Kernfeld, 275. See also Clifford Brown & Max Roach at Verve Music.
RYM.com entry
"The Blues Walk" on February 24; "What Am I Here For?" on February 25.
Clifford Brown & Max Roach at AllMusic
Except where otherwise noted, section source: Kernfeld, Barry Dean (1995). The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Jazz. Blackwell Publishing. p. 274. ISBN 0-631-19552-1.
Gioia, Ted; William Claxton (1998). West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945–1960. University of California Press. pp. 132–133. ISBN 0-520-21729-2..
Allmusic review
Kernfeld, Barry Dean (1995). The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Jazz. Blackwell Publishing. p. 274. ISBN 0-631-19552-1.
Kernfeld, 275.
Carr, Ian; Brian Fairweather; Charles Alexander Priestley (2004). The Rough Guide to Jazz. Rough Guides. p. 102. ISBN 1-84353-256-5.
Spellman, A.B. and Murray Horwitz. (June 10, 2005) Max Roach: 'Clifford Brown and Max Roach' NPR Retrieved on 2008-05-028.
Ratliff Jazz, 93.
Giddins, Gary. (2005) "Post-War Jazz: An Arbitrary Road Map." in Matt Groenig, ed. De Capo Best Music Writing 2003: The Year's Finest Writing on Rock, Pop, Jazz, Country and More. (pp. 172–203) De Capo Press, 179. ISBN 0-306-81236-3
Ratliff, Ben. (January 20, 2006) Paul Motian: rhythm melodist New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-05-28.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Brown
Clifford Brown (October 30, 1930 – June 26, 1956), aka "Brownie", was an American jazz trumpeter. He died at the age of 25 in a car accident,[1] 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, Arturo Sandoval and Freddie Hubbard.[citation needed] He was also a composer of note: two of his compositions, "Joy Spring"[2] and "Daahoud",[3] have become jazz standards.[4]
Brown 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.[1]
Brown briefly attended Delaware State University[6] as a math major, before he switched to Maryland State College, which was a more prosperous musical environment. As Nick Catalano points out, Brown's trips to Philadelphia grew in frequency after he graduated from high school and entered Delaware State University; it could be said that, although his dorm was in Dover, his classroom was in Philadelphia. Brown played in the fourteen-piece, jazz-oriented, Maryland State Band. In June 1950, he was seriously injured in a car accident after a successful gig. During his year-long hospitalization, Dizzy Gillespie visited the younger trumpeter and pushed him to pursue his musical career.[7] Brown's injuries limited him to the piano for months; he never fully recovered and would routinely dislocate his shoulder for the rest of his life.[5] Brown moved into playing music professionally, where he quickly became one of the most highly regarded trumpeters in jazz.[1]
Brown was influenced and encouraged by Fats Navarro,[7] 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 very fast 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.
His first recordings were with R&B bandleader Chris Powell,[7] following which he performed with Tadd Dameron, J. J. Johnson, 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, with all the members of the group except for bassist George Morrow contributing original songs. Brown's trumpet was originally partnered with Harold Land's tenor saxophone. After Land left in 1955 in order to spend more time with his wife, Sonny Rollins joined and remained a member of the group for the rest of its existence. In their hands the bebop vernacular reached a peak of inventiveness.[1]
The clean-living Brown escaped the influence of heroin on the jazz world, a model established by Charlie Parker. Brown stayed away from drugs and was not fond of alcohol.[1] Rollins, who was recovering from a 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."[8]
In June 1956, Brown and Richie Powell 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, she must have lost control of the car which went off the road.[9] All three were killed in the resulting crash. Brown is buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery, in Wilmington, Delaware.
Duke Pearson wrote "Tribute To Brownie", which was recorded by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet on their 1957 album, Sophisticated Swing. It also appeared on an album by Louis Smith.
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, entitled I Remember Clifford, was likewise a tribute to Brown.
Each year, Wilmington 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 in Philadelphia. The three-day symposium featured performances from close friends and bandmates of Brown such as Golson and Lou Donaldson and other artists inspired by Brown, including Marcus Belgrave, Terence Blanchard, and John Fedchock.
In 1994, Brown's widow, LaRue Brown Watson, established the Clifford Brown Jazz Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to Brown's memory and inspiring a love for jazz among young people. The Foundation is currently[when?] under the direction of Clifford Brown III, Brown's grandson and a respected Bay Area trumpeter and music producer.
allmusic Biography
"Jazz Standards Songs and Instrumentals (Joy Spring)". JazzStandards.com. Retrieved June 18, 2012.
"Jazz Standards Songs and Instrumentals (Daahoud)". JazzStandards.com. Retrieved June 18, 2012.
Carr, Ian; Fairweather, Digby; Priestley, Brian (2004). The Rough Guide to Jazz. Rough Guides. p. 102. ISBN 1-84353-256-5.
Catalano, Nick (2000). Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 208. ISBN 0-19-510083-2.
Carson, Charles (July 10, 2010). "Clifford Brown's Philadelphia". Scribd. p. 5. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
Rosenthal, David, H. Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music 1955–1965. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505869-0.
"Brown, Clifford".
Brownie Speaks: The Life, Music & Legacy of Clifford Brown
A native of Wilmington, Delaware, jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown
made an outstanding and influential contribution to music. In an era
when many musicians were emulating Charlie Parker’s drug abuse, Brown
inspired others to achieve greatness while living a clean life.
Ironically, he was killed in a car accident at the age of 25.
This feature-length documentary presents a richly detailed account of Brown’s life, and examines his historical importance in the context of three criteria–innovation, influence, and individuality.
Featuring interviews with:
Benny Golson
Lou Donaldson
Jimmy Heath
Donald Byrd
Harold Land
Wynton Marsalis
Arturo Sandoval
Clifford Solomon
Herb Geller
Clora Bryant
Vance Wilson
LaRue Brown Watson
Bonus Materials:
Interview outtakes
A message from Clifford Brown, Jr.
Extensive notes by the director
A GREAT FILM ABOUT A GREAT MAN...
"I did see Brownie Speaks and I thought it was wonderful. It’s really great. Very, very touching, very moving...a terrific job. I just wish it could have wide, wide distribution... A great film about a great man! Thanks for making it...really, really wonderful." —Sonny Rollins
"Brownie Speaks is a must see. He said so much musically in a short life time. Amazing!" —Jimmy Heath
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Very proud of the job you all did. Long time coming but an amazing view of my dad's life & music." —Clifford Brown Jr.
"This thoroughly researched and fascinating documentary about legendary jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown reveals the full scope of the man and his music through extensive interviews, recordings, photos, and both new and archival film and video footage... The heartfelt sincerity of Brownie Speaks along with its devotion to historical accuracy and detail earn it a five-star rating and a secure place as an important telling of jazz history... A ground-breaking documentary." —Victor L. Schermer, All About Jazz
"It is the best video biography of a leading jazz musician I have seen and essential for Brownie’s many admirers and others who want to know more about him." —Bob Weir, Jazz Journal, March 2015
Brownie Speaks: A Video Documentary: The Life, Music & Legacy of Clifford Brown
USA, 2014
87 minutes
Director: Don Glanden
Writers: Brad Glanden, Don Glanden
Producer: Don Glanden
Editor: Brad Glanden
Color and Black & White
http://jazztimes.com/articles/26454-clifford-brown-a-short-life-well-lived
JazzTimes
08/24/10
Clifford Brown: A Short Life Well-Lived
As if this weren’t enough for Clifford to deal with, about a month after the accident Clifford’s mentor, friend and source of deep musical inspiration, the great trumpet player Fats Navarro, died at the age of 26. Clifford heard the news while in the hospital. Later, when asked in a questionnaire by Leonard Feather to name his favorite trumpet players, Clifford wrote just one name, Fats Navarro. And Larue Brown Watson, Clifford’s widow, in a 1980 interview with Feather said, “(Clifford) idolized Fats Navarro. That was his heart.” Navarro’s death was an immense loss for Brown amidst the others that he was experiencing.
The young Clifford was confronted with numerous losses: the sudden and violent deaths of friends, the loss of his mobility, the loss of his good health, the loss of his ability to play his trumpet and the halting of his musical career, the loss of a beloved mentor. His academic career was also halted, as he was a student at what was then called Maryland State College. How could one not experience a sense of anger, despair and hopelessness? His convalescence was long and difficult. Several months after the accident while recuperating at his parents’ home, though he was in substantial pain, he picked up his horn and attempted to practice throughout the day. He had to stop, however, as the healing process of his shoulder did not progress and the pain was intolerable. Yet he gradually found his way back to music — first via the piano during the time when he could not hold up his trumpet, and eventually, he began playing his trumpet again.
Before the accident, even given his relatively young age, Brown had been making a name for himself on the jazz scene. His kind-heartedness and welcoming spirit earned him many friends who provided encouragement during his rough times-most notably from Dizzy Gillespie who paid him a visit in the hospital and told him that he had to keep going. This no doubt made a huge impression on the young and developing musician. How important for him to be acknowledged and encouraged in this way.
Yet Clifford Brown also possessed an uncommon inner strength to move beyond these traumatic events and in fact to use this experience to fuel his musical and personal development, an inner strength and determination that was evident even as a young boy. It was an inner strength also that was rooted in his family and the community in which he was raised.
As a junior high school student, Clifford Brown was brought for trumpet lessons to Robert Lowery a noted teacher and performer with the Aces of Rhythm. In an interview with Nick Catalano, author of, Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter, Mr. Lowery was asked to evaluate Clifford Brown as a student. Lowery showed no hesitation in his response. Clifford Brown was not the most talented of those students whom Lowery was teaching. And Ben Cashman, the manager of the Aces of Rhythm, a trumpet player himself, upon hearing Clifford play at the time at which he began to study with Mr. Lowery said, as quoted in Nick Catalano’s book, “I never thought he would amount to anything to tell you the truth. He had such poor tone and he was so sloppy.” Yet when Cashman heard Clifford play two years later, he said, “I never heard anything like it in my life…How could a guy get that kind of technique in that short a time? I’ll never forget it!” So when Catalano asked Lowery to account for what made Clifford so accomplished, Lowery responded, “Because he was determined to succeed,” and Lowery slapped his hand down hard for emphasis on the arm of the sofa on which he was sitting as he said the word “determined.”
The roots of Clifford’s sense of determination run deep to his upbringing, to his family and also to the community within which he was raised. Clifford’s father had clear expectations for his children and did not shy from making it known to them with a firm hand as needed. He was a loving father, and when it came to conveying the importance of work and responsibility, he was forthright in his discipline. Clifford’s father himself, with persistence, drive and a firm hand worked hard to instill a serious approach to music and education in his children. All of his eight children were involved in music either vocally or instrumentally. Mr. Brown appears to have been quite a determined man on his own account. It is reported by his son Leon that he played the same tune over and over for twenty years –one doesn’t get much more determined than that.
Clifford in many ways was quite fortunate to have been raised in the familial and social context that he was raised in. He lived in a close-knit community that very much valued close social relationship, as well as educational achievement and accomplishment. As he was growing up in East Wilmington, he experienced a community that valued and exhibited pride and self-respect. Importantly, against an historical and social backdrop of oppression and disadvantage, this was a community and a family within a community that developed an inner strength and sense of purpose and resolve in the face of tough times, in response to and as an outgrowth of this historical backdrop. This was Clifford Brown’s inheritance, and he took it in for himself and used it well.
Brown’s shoulder would continue to periodically become dislocated throughout the rest of his life, and he was left with a limp after the accident. His life threatening accident at nineteen shows us something of his underlying capacity to deal with adversity, and the character that he brought to it, in moving beyond it and undertaking the arduous process of getting his chops back – this trauma did not crush him. As Brown got stronger, he felt the lure of Philadelphia clubs once again. In the spring of 1951, at 20 years of age, he played with Charlie Parker. In a 1954 Downbeat interview with Nat Hentoff, Brown acknowledged that Parker helped his morale greatly during his extended recovery period. As Catalano notes, importantly, both Parker and Gillespie were key figures in helping Brown decide to solely focus on playing and leave his academic career behind. Indeed, their support was a testament to the promise that this young trumpet player held.
Yet Brown’s life threatening accident itself was a pivotal moment for him psychologically. Here was a situation where he nearly lost his life. He lost friends, lost his ability to play, and lost an important mentor. Is there a more powerful set of circumstances to show us just how short and precious life is? If this experience wouldn’t lead to a sense of urgency and a re-examination of purpose in one’s life, what would? In this context we can’t help but think of the many comments from those who have heard him play that describe him as “playing like there’s no tomorrow.” This period of crisis in his life likely facilitated his truly finding himself, and affirming with particular force that which he was most passionate about – his playing – and propelled him to devote himself even more fully and single-mindedly to it. Indeed he did not return to school after his recuperation. Perhaps he would not have become the musician he was without this year of trial. How fitting that he found his way to develop as fully as he could as a musician and as a person; how tragic that he died six years later, also in an automobile accident.
There has been much speculation as to how Clifford Brown would have continued to develop as a musician had he lived and what would have come to jazz as a result. Who knows? Many musicians reach their peak in their mid 20’s. It’s an important and compelling and sad question, but ultimately a futile exercise and of course a question that’s impossible to answer. Nevertheless, we would have to be encouraged about the likelihood of Clifford Brown continuing to be a positive force in the jazz world. In 1953, during the tour with Hampton’s band, when Clifford was nearly 23, Quincy Jones was interviewed about Brown. He said (as quoted in Catalano’s Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Trumpeter).
“About Clifford Brown, I’ll put it like this. If any musician of the present day can be compared to Parker, it’s Clifford. I can honestly say that he is the most unblossomed talent of this generation. He should not only be judged by his present talent (which is still of superior quality) but by its potentialities. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and all the other influences were not judged until they reached maturity. It takes a young musician many years to rid the mind of clichés and to unscramble the millions of young ideas into what it takes to make a mature and original musical influence. By knowing Clifford very well, I’m aware of his sensitivity and superior taste; he will never lower his standards and play without sincere feeling, whatever the mood. He is a young musician in age but already a comparatively mature one in ideas. When he matures in his own standards, I do believe he will be a major jazz influence. He is the kind of person who would excel at anything attempted.”
Thankfully and happily the power of Clifford Brown’s example as a life lived is timeless. This life example can’t help but inspire to bring out the best in us all.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/don-glanden-remembering-clifford-brown-clifford-brown-by-victor-l-schermer.php?page=1
by
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/more-from-clifford-brown-by-nick-catalano.php
by
Study in Brown, mentioned by Clifford in the interview, is one of the important albums by the quintet he led with drummer Max Roach. The Dinah Washington jam session with Brown, Roach, Maynard Ferguson, Clark Terry and Herb Geller–among others–is another basic repertoire item for serious jazz listeners.
This feature-length documentary presents a richly detailed account of Brown’s life, and examines his historical importance in the context of three criteria–innovation, influence, and individuality.
Benny Golson
Lou Donaldson
Jimmy Heath
Donald Byrd
Harold Land
Wynton Marsalis
Arturo Sandoval
Clifford Solomon
Herb Geller
Clora Bryant
Vance Wilson
LaRue Brown Watson
Bonus Materials:
Interview outtakes
A message from Clifford Brown, Jr.
Extensive notes by the director
A GREAT FILM ABOUT A GREAT MAN...
"I did see Brownie Speaks and I thought it was wonderful. It’s really great. Very, very touching, very moving...a terrific job. I just wish it could have wide, wide distribution... A great film about a great man! Thanks for making it...really, really wonderful." —Sonny Rollins
"Brownie Speaks is a must see. He said so much musically in a short life time. Amazing!" —Jimmy Heath
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Very proud of the job you all did. Long time coming but an amazing view of my dad's life & music." —Clifford Brown Jr.
"This thoroughly researched and fascinating documentary about legendary jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown reveals the full scope of the man and his music through extensive interviews, recordings, photos, and both new and archival film and video footage... The heartfelt sincerity of Brownie Speaks along with its devotion to historical accuracy and detail earn it a five-star rating and a secure place as an important telling of jazz history... A ground-breaking documentary." —Victor L. Schermer, All About Jazz
"It is the best video biography of a leading jazz musician I have seen and essential for Brownie’s many admirers and others who want to know more about him." —Bob Weir, Jazz Journal, March 2015
Brownie Speaks: A Video Documentary: The Life, Music & Legacy of Clifford Brown
USA, 2014
87 minutes
Director: Don Glanden
Writers: Brad Glanden, Don Glanden
Producer: Don Glanden
Editor: Brad Glanden
Color and Black & White
http://jazztimes.com/articles/26454-clifford-brown-a-short-life-well-lived
JazzTimes
08/24/10
Clifford Brown: A Short Life Well-Lived
The legacy of the noted jazz trumpeter by Howard Gillis, Ph.D. and Alan Hood
by Howard Gillis, Ph.D
We are all tested at certain points in our lives. Clifford Brown’s test came in the summer of 1950 when he was 19 years old, and already a relatively accomplished musician. Clifford had finished playing a gig at a party, and while riding in a car with three friends, a deer suddenly appeared in the road. The car swerved, overturned and crashed. The accident killed the driver and his girlfriend. Clifford and the other passenger were critically injured. Clifford’s injuries were so extensive that his life was threatened. Bones were broken in his torso and both legs. He subsequently wore a full body cast for months. He had skin grafts that reached from his ankle to his armpits. Difficulties with his shoulder socket would make supporting his trumpet initially impossible and then very painful for months to come.As if this weren’t enough for Clifford to deal with, about a month after the accident Clifford’s mentor, friend and source of deep musical inspiration, the great trumpet player Fats Navarro, died at the age of 26. Clifford heard the news while in the hospital. Later, when asked in a questionnaire by Leonard Feather to name his favorite trumpet players, Clifford wrote just one name, Fats Navarro. And Larue Brown Watson, Clifford’s widow, in a 1980 interview with Feather said, “(Clifford) idolized Fats Navarro. That was his heart.” Navarro’s death was an immense loss for Brown amidst the others that he was experiencing.
The young Clifford was confronted with numerous losses: the sudden and violent deaths of friends, the loss of his mobility, the loss of his good health, the loss of his ability to play his trumpet and the halting of his musical career, the loss of a beloved mentor. His academic career was also halted, as he was a student at what was then called Maryland State College. How could one not experience a sense of anger, despair and hopelessness? His convalescence was long and difficult. Several months after the accident while recuperating at his parents’ home, though he was in substantial pain, he picked up his horn and attempted to practice throughout the day. He had to stop, however, as the healing process of his shoulder did not progress and the pain was intolerable. Yet he gradually found his way back to music — first via the piano during the time when he could not hold up his trumpet, and eventually, he began playing his trumpet again.
Before the accident, even given his relatively young age, Brown had been making a name for himself on the jazz scene. His kind-heartedness and welcoming spirit earned him many friends who provided encouragement during his rough times-most notably from Dizzy Gillespie who paid him a visit in the hospital and told him that he had to keep going. This no doubt made a huge impression on the young and developing musician. How important for him to be acknowledged and encouraged in this way.
Yet Clifford Brown also possessed an uncommon inner strength to move beyond these traumatic events and in fact to use this experience to fuel his musical and personal development, an inner strength and determination that was evident even as a young boy. It was an inner strength also that was rooted in his family and the community in which he was raised.
As a junior high school student, Clifford Brown was brought for trumpet lessons to Robert Lowery a noted teacher and performer with the Aces of Rhythm. In an interview with Nick Catalano, author of, Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter, Mr. Lowery was asked to evaluate Clifford Brown as a student. Lowery showed no hesitation in his response. Clifford Brown was not the most talented of those students whom Lowery was teaching. And Ben Cashman, the manager of the Aces of Rhythm, a trumpet player himself, upon hearing Clifford play at the time at which he began to study with Mr. Lowery said, as quoted in Nick Catalano’s book, “I never thought he would amount to anything to tell you the truth. He had such poor tone and he was so sloppy.” Yet when Cashman heard Clifford play two years later, he said, “I never heard anything like it in my life…How could a guy get that kind of technique in that short a time? I’ll never forget it!” So when Catalano asked Lowery to account for what made Clifford so accomplished, Lowery responded, “Because he was determined to succeed,” and Lowery slapped his hand down hard for emphasis on the arm of the sofa on which he was sitting as he said the word “determined.”
The roots of Clifford’s sense of determination run deep to his upbringing, to his family and also to the community within which he was raised. Clifford’s father had clear expectations for his children and did not shy from making it known to them with a firm hand as needed. He was a loving father, and when it came to conveying the importance of work and responsibility, he was forthright in his discipline. Clifford’s father himself, with persistence, drive and a firm hand worked hard to instill a serious approach to music and education in his children. All of his eight children were involved in music either vocally or instrumentally. Mr. Brown appears to have been quite a determined man on his own account. It is reported by his son Leon that he played the same tune over and over for twenty years –one doesn’t get much more determined than that.
Clifford in many ways was quite fortunate to have been raised in the familial and social context that he was raised in. He lived in a close-knit community that very much valued close social relationship, as well as educational achievement and accomplishment. As he was growing up in East Wilmington, he experienced a community that valued and exhibited pride and self-respect. Importantly, against an historical and social backdrop of oppression and disadvantage, this was a community and a family within a community that developed an inner strength and sense of purpose and resolve in the face of tough times, in response to and as an outgrowth of this historical backdrop. This was Clifford Brown’s inheritance, and he took it in for himself and used it well.
Brown’s shoulder would continue to periodically become dislocated throughout the rest of his life, and he was left with a limp after the accident. His life threatening accident at nineteen shows us something of his underlying capacity to deal with adversity, and the character that he brought to it, in moving beyond it and undertaking the arduous process of getting his chops back – this trauma did not crush him. As Brown got stronger, he felt the lure of Philadelphia clubs once again. In the spring of 1951, at 20 years of age, he played with Charlie Parker. In a 1954 Downbeat interview with Nat Hentoff, Brown acknowledged that Parker helped his morale greatly during his extended recovery period. As Catalano notes, importantly, both Parker and Gillespie were key figures in helping Brown decide to solely focus on playing and leave his academic career behind. Indeed, their support was a testament to the promise that this young trumpet player held.
Yet Brown’s life threatening accident itself was a pivotal moment for him psychologically. Here was a situation where he nearly lost his life. He lost friends, lost his ability to play, and lost an important mentor. Is there a more powerful set of circumstances to show us just how short and precious life is? If this experience wouldn’t lead to a sense of urgency and a re-examination of purpose in one’s life, what would? In this context we can’t help but think of the many comments from those who have heard him play that describe him as “playing like there’s no tomorrow.” This period of crisis in his life likely facilitated his truly finding himself, and affirming with particular force that which he was most passionate about – his playing – and propelled him to devote himself even more fully and single-mindedly to it. Indeed he did not return to school after his recuperation. Perhaps he would not have become the musician he was without this year of trial. How fitting that he found his way to develop as fully as he could as a musician and as a person; how tragic that he died six years later, also in an automobile accident.
There has been much speculation as to how Clifford Brown would have continued to develop as a musician had he lived and what would have come to jazz as a result. Who knows? Many musicians reach their peak in their mid 20’s. It’s an important and compelling and sad question, but ultimately a futile exercise and of course a question that’s impossible to answer. Nevertheless, we would have to be encouraged about the likelihood of Clifford Brown continuing to be a positive force in the jazz world. In 1953, during the tour with Hampton’s band, when Clifford was nearly 23, Quincy Jones was interviewed about Brown. He said (as quoted in Catalano’s Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Trumpeter).
“About Clifford Brown, I’ll put it like this. If any musician of the present day can be compared to Parker, it’s Clifford. I can honestly say that he is the most unblossomed talent of this generation. He should not only be judged by his present talent (which is still of superior quality) but by its potentialities. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and all the other influences were not judged until they reached maturity. It takes a young musician many years to rid the mind of clichés and to unscramble the millions of young ideas into what it takes to make a mature and original musical influence. By knowing Clifford very well, I’m aware of his sensitivity and superior taste; he will never lower his standards and play without sincere feeling, whatever the mood. He is a young musician in age but already a comparatively mature one in ideas. When he matures in his own standards, I do believe he will be a major jazz influence. He is the kind of person who would excel at anything attempted.”
Thankfully and happily the power of Clifford Brown’s example as a life lived is timeless. This life example can’t help but inspire to bring out the best in us all.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/don-glanden-remembering-clifford-brown-clifford-brown-by-victor-l-schermer.php?page=1
Don Glanden: Remembering Clifford Brown
Benny Golson's timeless ballad, "I Remember Clifford" is but one measure of the reverence and love with which Clifford Brown
was regarded by musicians, friends, family, and fans. The affection in
which he was held during his lifetime was made all the more poignant by
his untimely death at the peak of his rapidly advancing career. Over the
years, legends and myths have grown up around Brownie, and, although
most are based on loving memories, many of the details of his life were
lost in the shuffle. Don Glanden,
pianist and Division Head of Graduate Jazz Studies at The University of
the Arts in Philadelphia, has devoted twenty years to documenting the
life and times of this legendary musician, getting the facts right, and
producing a ground-breaking documentary on the man and his music called Brownie Speaks.
Like any good biopic, the documentary inevitably leaves questions in the mind of the viewer. It also makes one realize how much research was necessary to fill in the knowledge gaps about Clifford Brown's life and music. So All About Jazz asked Glanden to give us the lowdown on the film and clarify some of the details and controversies about Clifford Brown's life.
AAJ: How did you as a jazz pianist decide to do a documentary about a legendary trumpet player like Clifford Brown?
DG: I grew up in the same city as Clifford, Wilmington, Delaware. As I was developing my career as a jazz musician, I would often run into people who knew Clifford, his family members, and people who worked with him. So I was always hearing stories about his impact and influence in my own community. For example, I once played at the Hotel Dupont, and someone said, "I really love your group. My uncle was a jazz musician, a trumpet player named Clifford Brown." And I said, "Wow! Do you realize the historical importance of your uncle!"
Much later, while working on the documentary, I was talking with Clifford's widow, LaRue, and she asked me how I got into jazz. I told her that when I was ten years old my father bought us a piano. When the piano tuner showed up and completed the tuning, he started playing jazz and I was captivated. When I told LaRue that his name was Charles Freeman, it gave her goosebumps, because after Clifford and LaRue moved back to the East Coast from California, Charles and his wife Ruth were their first friends as a couple. So early on, I had this connection with people who had interacted within Clifford's circle.
Then when I had to do a major historical work for my masters degree at Rutgers, Clifford Brown was a logical choice. I had access to family, historical records, and many of the locations were in my home city.
AAJ: So that's how the idea for the documentary first arose. In what year did it start to materialize?
DG: The first interviews were in 1994, so it's been a twenty-year journey. I was working on my masters degree in jazz studies at Rutgers, and one of the requirements was to do a historical jazz study, which was overseen by the scholar and critic Dan Morgenstern. When I got all the footage together, he was extremely impressed with it. There's a 28 page accompanying booklet with the DVD that discusses all this in a section called "Making 'Brownie Speaks.'"
AAJ: The date of beginning is extremely important, because the picture changed over the years that you were working on it even long after Clifford died. Some of that, I take it, is in the booklet.
DG: The whole package includes the DVD including the bonus features, and the booklet. To keep the documentary to a reasonable length, there were many relevant things we couldn't include. Some of the historical discoveries can be found in the booklet, and we also put together an extraordinary time line from the day Clifford was born until his death including, for example, the bookings where Clifford performed with Max Roach, and important details about recordings and other significant details of his life and career.
The Detective Work AAJ: What were some of the main discoveries you made in researching and interviewing for the documentary?
DG: We made numerous discoveries that unfolded as we went along. For example, Clifford's sister, Geneva Griffin, told us that their great grandmother, Martha Abrams, was a Cherokee Indian, so we found out there was an American Indian in his family background. Martha lived to be over a hundred years old. She was a street preacher. A picture of her with Clifford's uncle Arthur, a musician, is included in the booklet.
AAJ: Does that have anything to do with Clifford's famous recording of the song, "Cherokee?"
DG: No, it probably was just a coincidence. There are also other coincidences with song titles in the story. Another area where our research was important was in collecting Clifford's school records, which took us many years to gather. We dug up transcripts of his records in elementary and high school, and we got a transcript of the one semester he did at Delaware State College, so all that was new information about his life as a student. We also found out information about the car accident in Princess Anne, Maryland, when he was at Maryland State College. Previous accounts were inaccurate or very incomplete. I was able to get down there and do a lot of research about the specifics of that accident. I found one person who was still alive who was in the car with Clifford. I interviewed him, and he clarified what happened with the accident, and what happened at Maryland State College.
Every biography of Clifford states that he started college right after high school, but I found that he actually took a year off from school. He graduated from Howard High in the spring of 1948, and didn't start at Delaware State College until the fall of 1949. The year in between was when he met Fats Navarro and the year that he sat in with Dizzy Gillespie at the Odd Fellows Temple in Wilmington. So he was practicing and sitting in with various groups during that year off.
AAJ: What year was he at the Maryland State College, now known as University of Maryland Eastern Shore?
DG: He went there for the spring semester of 1950. That June was when the accident happened, and he was laid up for about a year after it. He never went back to college. So he only had one year of college: one semester each at Delaware State and Maryland State.
AAJ: People talk about how great he was in mathematics.
DG: Overall, his grades were not great growing up. But people did talk about him being a brilliant mathematician. He got an A minus in algebra at Delaware State. Quincy Jones talks about him being able to calculate exchange rates for the band in his head when they were touring Europe with Lionel Hampton.
Events Surrounding Clifford Brown's Death AAJ: Jumping ahead to a few years later, I understand that there are lingering questions surrounding the events that occurred on the night of the fatal car accident that killed Clifford, Richie Powell, and Powell's wife, Nancy. What can you tell us?
DG: One very important part of our research has to do with the details surrounding Clifford's death. It was generally believed but not proven that the last night before he was killed he was recorded at Music City on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. That recording was included in an album released by Columbia and it was sold to them by a producer named Don Schlitten. They released it with the title The Beginning and the End (Columbia, 1973) because it included Clifford's first recordings with Chris Powell, plus the tracks that purported to have been recorded on the last night before he died. But there was some uncertainty about it. I wanted to check it out.
A friend of mine, Alan Hood was also doing serious Clifford Brown research and we teamed up to track down Ellis Tollin who was one of the owners of Music City. Ellis also played drums on the recording. I spoke with Ellis by phone and he insisted on the accuracy of the Columbia release, assuring me that the recording took place on the night of the accident. He even volunteered to send me Music City newsletters that would prove it. He sent me the newsletters and they actually proved the opposite of what he said. They were dated over a year before Clifford's death. We shared news of that discovery with Nick Catalano and he included the correction in his book about Clifford. However, the crucial newsletter sent to me by Ellis Tollin now appears in the documentary and is reprinted in the liner notes. It should finally put an end to the controversy. It should be noted that saxophonist Billy Root who plays on the recording, always maintained that the Columbia date was incorrect, stating he was on the road with Stan Kenton when Clifford was killed.
AAJ: But didn't Clifford again play at Music City the night he was killed?
DG: We think he did, but there's no firm documentation. It was a Tuesday night, the regular session night at Music City and the timeline fits perfectly to put Clifford at the accident site at 1:15 AM. Plus, some people remembered Clifford participating in a session that night.
AAJ: Do we have an idea of who may have performed with him the night he was killed?
DG: No. Because almost everyone we talked to mixed up the night of the recording with the night Clifford was killed, so they got the wrong tunes and the wrong personnel, if indeed Clifford played there the night of his death. So we don't know positively what happened that night, but we think it's likely that he did perform at Music City.
We also researched the fatal car accident itself, and we got a look at the coroner's report. I saw the details of the injuries and exact time of death which was 1:15 AM on June 27, 1956. June 26 is often mistakenly indicated in biographies and on memorials.
AAJ: That still hasn't been corrected in many sources. By the way, I know that some people proposed to the Pennsylvania government that a memorial be erected at the site of the accident. Do you know if that has been accomplished?
DG: Patrick Dorian, a music professor, has made an effort to do so, but I don't think it has happened thus far.
AAJ: Sadly, there is a lot of jazz history that isn't properly honored or memorialized.
DG: I agree. Just in Philadelphia, we could easily have a "Freedom Trail" of jazz history.
AAJ: That's a great idea! Somebody should do that! Anyway, it sure sounds like a lot of detective work went into making the documentary.
A Family Tragedy: Clifford's Sister Marie DG: There was one thing that came as a total surprise. Clifford's friend and neighbor, Ralph Morris said: "Clifford had a sister who died, and when I went to the funeral, Clifford was more emotional than anybody." That stuck in my mind, and when I visited the Delaware Public Archives in Dover, I looked through the birth and death certificates for the family. There I came across the death certificate of Marie Vendetta Brown, Clifford's sister. I saw that she died at the Delaware State Hospital, which is a mental hospital in Farnhurst. Having grown up in Wilmington, I knew that was a foreboding place, a very scary place for her to be and to die. Later I found out she'd been there for ten and a half years.
She was born in 1916 and was fourteen years older than Clifford, extremely bright, very religious, and involved with her church. We couldn't figure out why she was institutionalized for so long, and why she had such an influence on Clifford. I couldn't get her medical records because they didn't qualify under the Freedom of Information Act, but I got some information from Clifford's sister Geneva, and other family members.
Microfilm research revealed that during that time African Americans at the Delaware State Hospital were housed in the basement under nightmarish conditions. The head of the hospital sought funding to improve the situation, saying that the basement was a snake pit unfit for human habitation. Marie died there in 1952 of pneumonia with the aggravating condition of bedsores. She was 35 years old when she died. Clifford had just recently joined the Chris Powell band.
So I wondered: did Clifford see this place? Did he visit her? How did she get there? Clifford was merely 10 years old when she was first committed in 1941. What happened? Apparently she had gotten involved with a man who got her strung out on some type of drug. She was brought back to the family home and, according to a niece, withdrew from the drug and exhibited serious mental symptoms. So, we considered the possible effects this experience likely had on Clifford's own lifestyle and his strong views about substance abuse and the effects of addiction.
It was a difficult subject for Marie's siblings to discuss. They were hesitant to talk about this painful history. We decided not to include it in the documentary but we did cover it in the 28-page liner notes. It was a completely new discovery that didn't appear in any previous biography.
The Paradise Club in Atlantic City DG: Another story that emerged has to do with a famous gig at the Paradise Club in Atlantic City. The intersection of a few important musicians and their biographies happened during this 1953 summer gig. It was Tadd Dameron's band which Dameron assembled for a stage show with singers and dancers and for which he composed the music. He got a great band together that included known and soon-to-be-known jazz stars like Clifford Brown and Johnny Coles on trumpets, Philly Joe Jones on drums, Jymie Merritt on bass, Cecil Payne, Bennie Golson, and Gigi Gryce on saxophones, and Don Cole on trombone. After about three weeks, the band started to unravel. There were rumors that there was a drug raid on the show.
Biographies such as Rat Race Blues: The Musical Life of Gigi Gryce by Noal Cohen and Michael Fitzgerald (Berkeley Hills Books, 2002), and Dameronia by Paul Combs (University of Michigan Press, 2013) discuss this pivotal time in Atlantic City.
We researched all this in the Atlantic City newspaper archives and found no reference to a raid on the club. However the arrest of Philly Joe Jones received a lot of press. He had gone to New York and returned with heroin, and the cops set up a trap for him. So Tadd Dameron got nervous, and the whole band started to unravel. Lionel Hampton, who was working in Wildwood at the time, offered jobs to Clifford Brown, Benny Golson and Gigi Gryce. There was a lot of speculation in various biographical accounts, so we were able to document many facts about that summer in Atlantic City.
AAJ: And you've got to wonder how a young man like Clifford Brown, starting out his career and living a clean life, reacted to all that occurred there.
DG: Yes, and there were other young players there, sort of a new wave, who were clean living. They were guys coming around with a different mind set. And Clifford was only 22 and still involved heavily with his family in Wilmington, which was a very different lifestyle than he often encountered on the road or in Atlantic City.
AAJ: What happened to Clifford after Atlantic City?
DG: He joined Lionel Hampton's band and left Atlantic City that summer. The Hampton Band left for Europe on September 2nd and did a three month tour.
Big Breaks and Early Recordings DG: Word had been spreading about Clifford since Dizzy Gillespie heard him in Wilmington in 1949, the same year that Clifford first met Fats Navarro in Philly. After a year-long recovery from the 1950 automobile accident, Clifford also had the opportunity to play several nights with Charlie Parker during the summer of 1951. Then the November 2, 1951 issue of Downbeat mentions Clifford playing in Jimmy Heath's band at Peps. Later that month he joined Chris Powell. His first recordings were with Chris Powell and the Five Blue Flames, an entertainment based rock and roll band. In the documentary, Benny Golson talks about how he first heard Clifford with Chris Powell, and that Brownie's virtuosic jazz solos had nothing to do with the pieces that were being played! [Laughter.] He recorded with Chris Powell in Chicago on March 21, 1952.
After leaving Powell in May 1953 and joining Tadd Dameron, Clifford's jazz recording career exploded as follows: June 9: Lew Donaldson -Clifford Brown Quintet (Blue Note, 1953); June 11: A Study in Dameronia with Tadd Dameron (Prestige, 1953); June 22: The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson (Blue Note, 1955) ; August 28: Clifford Brown-New Star on the Horizon (Blue Note: 1953). It's amazing! That summer he was featured on four major jazz recordings including his first as leader!
From then on, it was off to the races, because that fall he went to Europe with Lionel Hampton and recorded there. In early 1954 he was with Art Blakey for about three weeks during which time he recorded the two volumes of Live at Birdland (Blue Note, 1954). After Blakey, he went to California to form the quintet with Max Roach. So, Clifford's remarkable jazz recording career took place in only a three year period from 1953 to 1956.
AAJ: I'm wondering why Helen Merrill, who made her debut recording with Clifford (Helen Merrill; EmArcy, 1954), and much later memorialized him in another recording (Brownie: A Homage to Clifford Brown; Verve, 1994) is never mentioned in the documentary.
DG: Clifford did three albums with vocalists, including Helen Merrill, but I have no record of her doing any other major performances or gigs with him other than the recording. It's possible, but we didn't see anything. With limited time in the documentary we had to make choices concerning what was most important to serve the underlying themes and fit the narrative.
Encounters with Lee Morgan and Charlie Parker AAJ: A lot of jazz history has taken place in Philadelphia, and Clifford got his start in Philly. Hal Rutenberg, a cardiologist who also is a fine jazz saxophonist, told me he had a memory of seeing and hearing Clifford at a place where a musician had set up an opportunity for young players to be taught and mentored by top performers.
DG: Was it the Heritage House?
AAJ: Yes, I think that was it. And Hal also remembers encountering a young Lee Morgan there. Lee Morgan's playing echoes Clifford in many respects, and so I'm wondering if they met at that place.
DG: Clifford was a mentor to Lee Morgan. Clifford's wife LaRue, who later became very focused on jazz education, said that Clifford had a strong commitment to passing the music down to the next generation. He loved being around youngsters who were playing. Lee Morgan was definitely someone whom he helped. Tom Perchard's Lee Morgan: His Life, Music and Culture (Equinox Publishing Ltd.) addresses the connection between Clifford and Lee.
AAJ: You mentioned that Clifford also performed with Charlie Parker in Philadelphia. I try to imagine a young trumpeter sitting in with Bird and trying to match up to him. He must have felt intimidated.
DG: Roy Haynes was on the gig when Clifford first played with Bird. He said that if Clifford was nervous, he didn't show it. That was in the summer of 1951, and Clifford had just recently recovered from the car accident from which he was laid up for about a year. I worked Tom Darnall, an excellent saxophone player from Chester, PA who was friends with Clifford. Tom sat in with Bird one afternoon at the Club Harlem in Philly. After the session Parker asked for a recommendation for a trumpeter to play an evening set. He had just fired his trumpet player, Benny Harris. Darnall called Clifford who made the gig. According to Roy Haynes, Parker was excited by what he heard and asked Clifford to play the remaining few days of the engagement.
AAJ: I thought that Clifford had gone international soon after he played with Bird. So how does that dovetail with a later time with Morgan? So exactly what is the historical sequence?
DG: That famous meeting of Clifford and Bird reportedly happened in the summer of 1951. In fact, Roy Haynes seemed to recall that Clifford was still using crutches from the 1950 accident. It wasn't until the summer of 1953 that Clifford began recording jazz for major labels. Certainly his reputation was growing prior to the 1953 recording dates and Bird's enthusiastic support contributed to people's awareness of him. Sometime around March of 1954 Clifford left for California to start the group with Max Roach. It was there that he met and married LaRue. His mentoring of Lee Morgan likely began some time after Clifford and LaRue moved back to the Philadelphia area in the fall of 1954. Tom Pechard indicates that Lee Morgan's informal lessons took place in the Browns' home at Sansom and Farragut Streets.
AAJ: I believe McCoy Tyner lived in that neck of the woods, in West Philadelphia, as did other young jazz musicians of that time.
Neglect of Clifford Brown's Burial Site AAJ: Earlier, we talked about memorials to Clifford. I noticed that on an unofficial Clifford Brown website, Donald Byrd posted a blog in which he criticized the deplorable dilapidated condition of the graveyard in which Clifford is buried. I don't know when Byrd wrote that blog, but I'm wondering if something is being done to improve that place, not only for Clifford's sake, but for the others who are buried there.
DG: Despite the valiant efforts of some dedicated volunteers, including "Friends of Mt. Zion Cemetery," the condition of this historically black cemetery is often deplorable. We have a Brownie Speaks Facebook page where I've posted rather heartbreaking photos with an appeal to the City of Wilmington to do something about it. It was originally a church cemetery but there has been ongoing confusion about who is now responsible. The scope of the maintenance task would indicate that city involvement may be required.
AAJ: It concerns me that many places in the history of jazz are either unmarked or improperly cared for. Just as one example, there's no plaque to indicate the location of the Café Society in New York, the first desegregated jazz club, where Billie Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" and so many others got their start. So you could go right by that place and never know it was there. Café Society played a major role in both jazz history and the Civil Rights movement. We call jazz the great American Classical Music, and yet we don't attend to honoring it properly.
Clifford Brown's Contribution to the Jazz Legacy AAJ: One issue explored in the documentary, which I think is first raised by Wynton Marsalis, is whether Clifford Brown should be considered a true musical innovator or more someone who brought forth the quintessence of a particular style of trumpet playing. Marsalis seems to say that he thinks Brownie developed a style, but wasn't an innovator as such. Do you have a personal opinion on the matter?
DG: One of the three major objectives of the film was to examine Clifford's historical significance in the light of three criteria. I had previously, for another project, devised the three "I"s: individuality, innovation, and influence as criteria by which to measure historical importance. Our goals in making the film were first to give as accurate a biographical account as possible, then to make the viewer feel something, in the same way that Clifford made you feel something when he played. And then the third goal was to examine his historical significance in the light of those three "I"s. So I was really happy that Wynton made a definitive statement. He said, "Clifford is the proof of the power of the art form because, although he didn't create a new vocabulary, he achieved a distinctive personality in the existing language."
Immediately after that, Donald Byrd says that "Clifford created a vocabulary that I and everyone since then has adopted." That tension between Clifford as an innovator and as embodying the tradition goes through the film. At the end, Clifford's teacher Boysie Lowery, says Clifford's language is all over the world. So I want the viewer of the film to be sorting out Clifford's historical role in jazz as the film moves along. According to one definition, innovation merely means to introduce something new, or make changes in something established. So there are various degrees involved. Some people are completely revolutionary in their level of innovation.
There are also different areas of innovation such as sound, technique, or tonal organization. In what may be the pivotal statement of the documentary Dizzy Gillespie says "It's not a question of newness. It's a question of evolution. There's not too much newness in anything. It's just the concept he brought out was new. He was definitely the next major voice in the line of trumpeters." My thoughts now are that his greatness may be more like Bach than Beethoven in that he may not have revolutionized a system of tonal organization, but he mastered and expanded the existing vocabulary, was an innovative contributor to the evolutionary process of jazz, and had a style all his own. He was profoundly individualistic. You can recognize his playing immediately. And he still is profoundly influential fifty years after his death.
AAJ: As you say, Clifford Brown created a musical tension between tradition and innovation, and that tension or dialogue may be part of what made him great. And I think he played an important role in the shift from bebop to hard bop.
DG: I spent quite a bit of time in the film on the musical analysis of Brownie's contributions, and much of it addressed his trumpet playing. As Wynton says, he pushed the instrument to higher levels of endurance, and Donald Byrd and others talk about his ability to tongue, to articulate the notes. Nobody in jazz could tongue that fast. And he was so consistent and melodically inventive. For example, when J.J. Johnson was doing different takes of a tune, Clifford was producing brilliant solos on every take. I think that what made him so consistent, above and beyond his melodic gift, was that he thoroughly understood the theoretical rationale of what he was doing. He was grounded in a mathematical and theoretical system from all the way back when he studied with Lowery. He had a system of outlining chords, of playing ornaments around chord tones. He had incredible control over all of this, so that when he improvised, almost every note was like a pearl. He heard it and also understood it intellectually. I think that gave him one of the highest levels of consistency of any jazz improviser in history.
AAJ: As your documentary notes, even in high school, he was a virtuoso on the trumpet. Harry Andrews, his band director at Howard High School, said that he whipped off the famous and difficult trumpet version of the "Carnival of Venice."
DG: Yes. Harry Andrews was another important teacher in Clifford's life. Andrews helped him a great deal with the technical mastery of the trumpet. It's also extraordinary that in the early days of bebop, Boysie Lowery had developed a system to teach the language and develop the ability to hear harmonic movement. So the influence of both teachers was lasting and important.
Concluding Reflections on the Documentary Itself AAJ: What role did your son play in preparing the documentary?
DG: Brad joined the project in 2007 and became an equal partner and co-filmmaker. I had amassed a nearly insurmountable amount of research and film footage beginning with the first interviews in 1994. However, I was in need of a digital video editor to complete the project and realize the vision. Brad's decision to pursue filmmaking as a career came at the perfect time. We co-wrote the documentary, did additional research and filming together, and had endless conversations and debates about creative choices. His expertise as an editor and filmmaker was crucial in turning Brownie Speaks into a movie.
AAJ: What were some of the greatest difficulties and obstacles you encountered in bringing the documentary to fruition?
DG: Absolutely the most difficult part was the business-legal part. photo releases, music licensing, film clip clearances and all related film business. There are many people to thank who made this happen, and they are gratefully acknowledged in the credits. The creative and intellectual demands of a project like this are huge, but they are fun and challenging!
AAJ: In my review, I put forth the idea that Clifford Brown is portrayed as a flawless person in the DVD and that he may have been over-idealized on account of his tragic death. Do you agree or disagree?
DG: I don't believe the manner of his death influenced how we represented him in the film. We were committed to historical accuracy and letting those who knew him tell us about him. Dizzy once said that if he had a son, he'd want him to be like Clifford. Clifford seemed to have a profoundly positive effect on those around him. People loved him. Of course this may have affected the memories that endured. The narrative of the clean living, hard working, kind hearted genius was the prevailing message from countless people who knew him. We do not contend that Clifford was flawless or without many challenges, struggles, and heartache. The film and liner notes point out several examples. But to include uncorroborated references to specific failings or speculate about specific character flaws would have lowered the standard we set for other facets of the work.
Also, we did not intend to produce an homage in the sense of a testimonial, but a presentation of facts in the context of underlying themes. Accuracy and faithful adherence to the true story was paramount and we didn't want to engage in extensive psychological analysis and speculation. The deeper underlying theme was to examine the facts in relationship to Clifford's historical place as a musician. Essentially it's a film made by a jazz musician about a jazz musician. I desired it to be like jazz itself: honest, intellectually consistent, and emotionally deep. By attempting to refrain from projecting a world view on the facts I believe we ended up with a more objective and credible document.
Photo Credit: Mosaic Images, LLC
Like any good biopic, the documentary inevitably leaves questions in the mind of the viewer. It also makes one realize how much research was necessary to fill in the knowledge gaps about Clifford Brown's life and music. So All About Jazz asked Glanden to give us the lowdown on the film and clarify some of the details and controversies about Clifford Brown's life.
AAJ: How did you as a jazz pianist decide to do a documentary about a legendary trumpet player like Clifford Brown?
DG: I grew up in the same city as Clifford, Wilmington, Delaware. As I was developing my career as a jazz musician, I would often run into people who knew Clifford, his family members, and people who worked with him. So I was always hearing stories about his impact and influence in my own community. For example, I once played at the Hotel Dupont, and someone said, "I really love your group. My uncle was a jazz musician, a trumpet player named Clifford Brown." And I said, "Wow! Do you realize the historical importance of your uncle!"
Much later, while working on the documentary, I was talking with Clifford's widow, LaRue, and she asked me how I got into jazz. I told her that when I was ten years old my father bought us a piano. When the piano tuner showed up and completed the tuning, he started playing jazz and I was captivated. When I told LaRue that his name was Charles Freeman, it gave her goosebumps, because after Clifford and LaRue moved back to the East Coast from California, Charles and his wife Ruth were their first friends as a couple. So early on, I had this connection with people who had interacted within Clifford's circle.
Then when I had to do a major historical work for my masters degree at Rutgers, Clifford Brown was a logical choice. I had access to family, historical records, and many of the locations were in my home city.
AAJ: So that's how the idea for the documentary first arose. In what year did it start to materialize?
DG: The first interviews were in 1994, so it's been a twenty-year journey. I was working on my masters degree in jazz studies at Rutgers, and one of the requirements was to do a historical jazz study, which was overseen by the scholar and critic Dan Morgenstern. When I got all the footage together, he was extremely impressed with it. There's a 28 page accompanying booklet with the DVD that discusses all this in a section called "Making 'Brownie Speaks.'"
AAJ: The date of beginning is extremely important, because the picture changed over the years that you were working on it even long after Clifford died. Some of that, I take it, is in the booklet.
DG: The whole package includes the DVD including the bonus features, and the booklet. To keep the documentary to a reasonable length, there were many relevant things we couldn't include. Some of the historical discoveries can be found in the booklet, and we also put together an extraordinary time line from the day Clifford was born until his death including, for example, the bookings where Clifford performed with Max Roach, and important details about recordings and other significant details of his life and career.
The Detective Work AAJ: What were some of the main discoveries you made in researching and interviewing for the documentary?
DG: We made numerous discoveries that unfolded as we went along. For example, Clifford's sister, Geneva Griffin, told us that their great grandmother, Martha Abrams, was a Cherokee Indian, so we found out there was an American Indian in his family background. Martha lived to be over a hundred years old. She was a street preacher. A picture of her with Clifford's uncle Arthur, a musician, is included in the booklet.
AAJ: Does that have anything to do with Clifford's famous recording of the song, "Cherokee?"
DG: No, it probably was just a coincidence. There are also other coincidences with song titles in the story. Another area where our research was important was in collecting Clifford's school records, which took us many years to gather. We dug up transcripts of his records in elementary and high school, and we got a transcript of the one semester he did at Delaware State College, so all that was new information about his life as a student. We also found out information about the car accident in Princess Anne, Maryland, when he was at Maryland State College. Previous accounts were inaccurate or very incomplete. I was able to get down there and do a lot of research about the specifics of that accident. I found one person who was still alive who was in the car with Clifford. I interviewed him, and he clarified what happened with the accident, and what happened at Maryland State College.
Every biography of Clifford states that he started college right after high school, but I found that he actually took a year off from school. He graduated from Howard High in the spring of 1948, and didn't start at Delaware State College until the fall of 1949. The year in between was when he met Fats Navarro and the year that he sat in with Dizzy Gillespie at the Odd Fellows Temple in Wilmington. So he was practicing and sitting in with various groups during that year off.
AAJ: What year was he at the Maryland State College, now known as University of Maryland Eastern Shore?
DG: He went there for the spring semester of 1950. That June was when the accident happened, and he was laid up for about a year after it. He never went back to college. So he only had one year of college: one semester each at Delaware State and Maryland State.
AAJ: People talk about how great he was in mathematics.
DG: Overall, his grades were not great growing up. But people did talk about him being a brilliant mathematician. He got an A minus in algebra at Delaware State. Quincy Jones talks about him being able to calculate exchange rates for the band in his head when they were touring Europe with Lionel Hampton.
Events Surrounding Clifford Brown's Death AAJ: Jumping ahead to a few years later, I understand that there are lingering questions surrounding the events that occurred on the night of the fatal car accident that killed Clifford, Richie Powell, and Powell's wife, Nancy. What can you tell us?
DG: One very important part of our research has to do with the details surrounding Clifford's death. It was generally believed but not proven that the last night before he was killed he was recorded at Music City on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. That recording was included in an album released by Columbia and it was sold to them by a producer named Don Schlitten. They released it with the title The Beginning and the End (Columbia, 1973) because it included Clifford's first recordings with Chris Powell, plus the tracks that purported to have been recorded on the last night before he died. But there was some uncertainty about it. I wanted to check it out.
A friend of mine, Alan Hood was also doing serious Clifford Brown research and we teamed up to track down Ellis Tollin who was one of the owners of Music City. Ellis also played drums on the recording. I spoke with Ellis by phone and he insisted on the accuracy of the Columbia release, assuring me that the recording took place on the night of the accident. He even volunteered to send me Music City newsletters that would prove it. He sent me the newsletters and they actually proved the opposite of what he said. They were dated over a year before Clifford's death. We shared news of that discovery with Nick Catalano and he included the correction in his book about Clifford. However, the crucial newsletter sent to me by Ellis Tollin now appears in the documentary and is reprinted in the liner notes. It should finally put an end to the controversy. It should be noted that saxophonist Billy Root who plays on the recording, always maintained that the Columbia date was incorrect, stating he was on the road with Stan Kenton when Clifford was killed.
AAJ: But didn't Clifford again play at Music City the night he was killed?
DG: We think he did, but there's no firm documentation. It was a Tuesday night, the regular session night at Music City and the timeline fits perfectly to put Clifford at the accident site at 1:15 AM. Plus, some people remembered Clifford participating in a session that night.
AAJ: Do we have an idea of who may have performed with him the night he was killed?
DG: No. Because almost everyone we talked to mixed up the night of the recording with the night Clifford was killed, so they got the wrong tunes and the wrong personnel, if indeed Clifford played there the night of his death. So we don't know positively what happened that night, but we think it's likely that he did perform at Music City.
We also researched the fatal car accident itself, and we got a look at the coroner's report. I saw the details of the injuries and exact time of death which was 1:15 AM on June 27, 1956. June 26 is often mistakenly indicated in biographies and on memorials.
AAJ: That still hasn't been corrected in many sources. By the way, I know that some people proposed to the Pennsylvania government that a memorial be erected at the site of the accident. Do you know if that has been accomplished?
DG: Patrick Dorian, a music professor, has made an effort to do so, but I don't think it has happened thus far.
AAJ: Sadly, there is a lot of jazz history that isn't properly honored or memorialized.
DG: I agree. Just in Philadelphia, we could easily have a "Freedom Trail" of jazz history.
AAJ: That's a great idea! Somebody should do that! Anyway, it sure sounds like a lot of detective work went into making the documentary.
A Family Tragedy: Clifford's Sister Marie DG: There was one thing that came as a total surprise. Clifford's friend and neighbor, Ralph Morris said: "Clifford had a sister who died, and when I went to the funeral, Clifford was more emotional than anybody." That stuck in my mind, and when I visited the Delaware Public Archives in Dover, I looked through the birth and death certificates for the family. There I came across the death certificate of Marie Vendetta Brown, Clifford's sister. I saw that she died at the Delaware State Hospital, which is a mental hospital in Farnhurst. Having grown up in Wilmington, I knew that was a foreboding place, a very scary place for her to be and to die. Later I found out she'd been there for ten and a half years.
She was born in 1916 and was fourteen years older than Clifford, extremely bright, very religious, and involved with her church. We couldn't figure out why she was institutionalized for so long, and why she had such an influence on Clifford. I couldn't get her medical records because they didn't qualify under the Freedom of Information Act, but I got some information from Clifford's sister Geneva, and other family members.
Microfilm research revealed that during that time African Americans at the Delaware State Hospital were housed in the basement under nightmarish conditions. The head of the hospital sought funding to improve the situation, saying that the basement was a snake pit unfit for human habitation. Marie died there in 1952 of pneumonia with the aggravating condition of bedsores. She was 35 years old when she died. Clifford had just recently joined the Chris Powell band.
So I wondered: did Clifford see this place? Did he visit her? How did she get there? Clifford was merely 10 years old when she was first committed in 1941. What happened? Apparently she had gotten involved with a man who got her strung out on some type of drug. She was brought back to the family home and, according to a niece, withdrew from the drug and exhibited serious mental symptoms. So, we considered the possible effects this experience likely had on Clifford's own lifestyle and his strong views about substance abuse and the effects of addiction.
It was a difficult subject for Marie's siblings to discuss. They were hesitant to talk about this painful history. We decided not to include it in the documentary but we did cover it in the 28-page liner notes. It was a completely new discovery that didn't appear in any previous biography.
The Paradise Club in Atlantic City DG: Another story that emerged has to do with a famous gig at the Paradise Club in Atlantic City. The intersection of a few important musicians and their biographies happened during this 1953 summer gig. It was Tadd Dameron's band which Dameron assembled for a stage show with singers and dancers and for which he composed the music. He got a great band together that included known and soon-to-be-known jazz stars like Clifford Brown and Johnny Coles on trumpets, Philly Joe Jones on drums, Jymie Merritt on bass, Cecil Payne, Bennie Golson, and Gigi Gryce on saxophones, and Don Cole on trombone. After about three weeks, the band started to unravel. There were rumors that there was a drug raid on the show.
Biographies such as Rat Race Blues: The Musical Life of Gigi Gryce by Noal Cohen and Michael Fitzgerald (Berkeley Hills Books, 2002), and Dameronia by Paul Combs (University of Michigan Press, 2013) discuss this pivotal time in Atlantic City.
We researched all this in the Atlantic City newspaper archives and found no reference to a raid on the club. However the arrest of Philly Joe Jones received a lot of press. He had gone to New York and returned with heroin, and the cops set up a trap for him. So Tadd Dameron got nervous, and the whole band started to unravel. Lionel Hampton, who was working in Wildwood at the time, offered jobs to Clifford Brown, Benny Golson and Gigi Gryce. There was a lot of speculation in various biographical accounts, so we were able to document many facts about that summer in Atlantic City.
AAJ: And you've got to wonder how a young man like Clifford Brown, starting out his career and living a clean life, reacted to all that occurred there.
DG: Yes, and there were other young players there, sort of a new wave, who were clean living. They were guys coming around with a different mind set. And Clifford was only 22 and still involved heavily with his family in Wilmington, which was a very different lifestyle than he often encountered on the road or in Atlantic City.
AAJ: What happened to Clifford after Atlantic City?
DG: He joined Lionel Hampton's band and left Atlantic City that summer. The Hampton Band left for Europe on September 2nd and did a three month tour.
Big Breaks and Early Recordings DG: Word had been spreading about Clifford since Dizzy Gillespie heard him in Wilmington in 1949, the same year that Clifford first met Fats Navarro in Philly. After a year-long recovery from the 1950 automobile accident, Clifford also had the opportunity to play several nights with Charlie Parker during the summer of 1951. Then the November 2, 1951 issue of Downbeat mentions Clifford playing in Jimmy Heath's band at Peps. Later that month he joined Chris Powell. His first recordings were with Chris Powell and the Five Blue Flames, an entertainment based rock and roll band. In the documentary, Benny Golson talks about how he first heard Clifford with Chris Powell, and that Brownie's virtuosic jazz solos had nothing to do with the pieces that were being played! [Laughter.] He recorded with Chris Powell in Chicago on March 21, 1952.
After leaving Powell in May 1953 and joining Tadd Dameron, Clifford's jazz recording career exploded as follows: June 9: Lew Donaldson -Clifford Brown Quintet (Blue Note, 1953); June 11: A Study in Dameronia with Tadd Dameron (Prestige, 1953); June 22: The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson (Blue Note, 1955) ; August 28: Clifford Brown-New Star on the Horizon (Blue Note: 1953). It's amazing! That summer he was featured on four major jazz recordings including his first as leader!
From then on, it was off to the races, because that fall he went to Europe with Lionel Hampton and recorded there. In early 1954 he was with Art Blakey for about three weeks during which time he recorded the two volumes of Live at Birdland (Blue Note, 1954). After Blakey, he went to California to form the quintet with Max Roach. So, Clifford's remarkable jazz recording career took place in only a three year period from 1953 to 1956.
AAJ: I'm wondering why Helen Merrill, who made her debut recording with Clifford (Helen Merrill; EmArcy, 1954), and much later memorialized him in another recording (Brownie: A Homage to Clifford Brown; Verve, 1994) is never mentioned in the documentary.
DG: Clifford did three albums with vocalists, including Helen Merrill, but I have no record of her doing any other major performances or gigs with him other than the recording. It's possible, but we didn't see anything. With limited time in the documentary we had to make choices concerning what was most important to serve the underlying themes and fit the narrative.
Encounters with Lee Morgan and Charlie Parker AAJ: A lot of jazz history has taken place in Philadelphia, and Clifford got his start in Philly. Hal Rutenberg, a cardiologist who also is a fine jazz saxophonist, told me he had a memory of seeing and hearing Clifford at a place where a musician had set up an opportunity for young players to be taught and mentored by top performers.
DG: Was it the Heritage House?
AAJ: Yes, I think that was it. And Hal also remembers encountering a young Lee Morgan there. Lee Morgan's playing echoes Clifford in many respects, and so I'm wondering if they met at that place.
DG: Clifford was a mentor to Lee Morgan. Clifford's wife LaRue, who later became very focused on jazz education, said that Clifford had a strong commitment to passing the music down to the next generation. He loved being around youngsters who were playing. Lee Morgan was definitely someone whom he helped. Tom Perchard's Lee Morgan: His Life, Music and Culture (Equinox Publishing Ltd.) addresses the connection between Clifford and Lee.
AAJ: You mentioned that Clifford also performed with Charlie Parker in Philadelphia. I try to imagine a young trumpeter sitting in with Bird and trying to match up to him. He must have felt intimidated.
DG: Roy Haynes was on the gig when Clifford first played with Bird. He said that if Clifford was nervous, he didn't show it. That was in the summer of 1951, and Clifford had just recently recovered from the car accident from which he was laid up for about a year. I worked Tom Darnall, an excellent saxophone player from Chester, PA who was friends with Clifford. Tom sat in with Bird one afternoon at the Club Harlem in Philly. After the session Parker asked for a recommendation for a trumpeter to play an evening set. He had just fired his trumpet player, Benny Harris. Darnall called Clifford who made the gig. According to Roy Haynes, Parker was excited by what he heard and asked Clifford to play the remaining few days of the engagement.
AAJ: I thought that Clifford had gone international soon after he played with Bird. So how does that dovetail with a later time with Morgan? So exactly what is the historical sequence?
DG: That famous meeting of Clifford and Bird reportedly happened in the summer of 1951. In fact, Roy Haynes seemed to recall that Clifford was still using crutches from the 1950 accident. It wasn't until the summer of 1953 that Clifford began recording jazz for major labels. Certainly his reputation was growing prior to the 1953 recording dates and Bird's enthusiastic support contributed to people's awareness of him. Sometime around March of 1954 Clifford left for California to start the group with Max Roach. It was there that he met and married LaRue. His mentoring of Lee Morgan likely began some time after Clifford and LaRue moved back to the Philadelphia area in the fall of 1954. Tom Pechard indicates that Lee Morgan's informal lessons took place in the Browns' home at Sansom and Farragut Streets.
AAJ: I believe McCoy Tyner lived in that neck of the woods, in West Philadelphia, as did other young jazz musicians of that time.
Neglect of Clifford Brown's Burial Site AAJ: Earlier, we talked about memorials to Clifford. I noticed that on an unofficial Clifford Brown website, Donald Byrd posted a blog in which he criticized the deplorable dilapidated condition of the graveyard in which Clifford is buried. I don't know when Byrd wrote that blog, but I'm wondering if something is being done to improve that place, not only for Clifford's sake, but for the others who are buried there.
DG: Despite the valiant efforts of some dedicated volunteers, including "Friends of Mt. Zion Cemetery," the condition of this historically black cemetery is often deplorable. We have a Brownie Speaks Facebook page where I've posted rather heartbreaking photos with an appeal to the City of Wilmington to do something about it. It was originally a church cemetery but there has been ongoing confusion about who is now responsible. The scope of the maintenance task would indicate that city involvement may be required.
AAJ: It concerns me that many places in the history of jazz are either unmarked or improperly cared for. Just as one example, there's no plaque to indicate the location of the Café Society in New York, the first desegregated jazz club, where Billie Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" and so many others got their start. So you could go right by that place and never know it was there. Café Society played a major role in both jazz history and the Civil Rights movement. We call jazz the great American Classical Music, and yet we don't attend to honoring it properly.
Clifford Brown's Contribution to the Jazz Legacy AAJ: One issue explored in the documentary, which I think is first raised by Wynton Marsalis, is whether Clifford Brown should be considered a true musical innovator or more someone who brought forth the quintessence of a particular style of trumpet playing. Marsalis seems to say that he thinks Brownie developed a style, but wasn't an innovator as such. Do you have a personal opinion on the matter?
DG: One of the three major objectives of the film was to examine Clifford's historical significance in the light of three criteria. I had previously, for another project, devised the three "I"s: individuality, innovation, and influence as criteria by which to measure historical importance. Our goals in making the film were first to give as accurate a biographical account as possible, then to make the viewer feel something, in the same way that Clifford made you feel something when he played. And then the third goal was to examine his historical significance in the light of those three "I"s. So I was really happy that Wynton made a definitive statement. He said, "Clifford is the proof of the power of the art form because, although he didn't create a new vocabulary, he achieved a distinctive personality in the existing language."
Immediately after that, Donald Byrd says that "Clifford created a vocabulary that I and everyone since then has adopted." That tension between Clifford as an innovator and as embodying the tradition goes through the film. At the end, Clifford's teacher Boysie Lowery, says Clifford's language is all over the world. So I want the viewer of the film to be sorting out Clifford's historical role in jazz as the film moves along. According to one definition, innovation merely means to introduce something new, or make changes in something established. So there are various degrees involved. Some people are completely revolutionary in their level of innovation.
There are also different areas of innovation such as sound, technique, or tonal organization. In what may be the pivotal statement of the documentary Dizzy Gillespie says "It's not a question of newness. It's a question of evolution. There's not too much newness in anything. It's just the concept he brought out was new. He was definitely the next major voice in the line of trumpeters." My thoughts now are that his greatness may be more like Bach than Beethoven in that he may not have revolutionized a system of tonal organization, but he mastered and expanded the existing vocabulary, was an innovative contributor to the evolutionary process of jazz, and had a style all his own. He was profoundly individualistic. You can recognize his playing immediately. And he still is profoundly influential fifty years after his death.
AAJ: As you say, Clifford Brown created a musical tension between tradition and innovation, and that tension or dialogue may be part of what made him great. And I think he played an important role in the shift from bebop to hard bop.
DG: I spent quite a bit of time in the film on the musical analysis of Brownie's contributions, and much of it addressed his trumpet playing. As Wynton says, he pushed the instrument to higher levels of endurance, and Donald Byrd and others talk about his ability to tongue, to articulate the notes. Nobody in jazz could tongue that fast. And he was so consistent and melodically inventive. For example, when J.J. Johnson was doing different takes of a tune, Clifford was producing brilliant solos on every take. I think that what made him so consistent, above and beyond his melodic gift, was that he thoroughly understood the theoretical rationale of what he was doing. He was grounded in a mathematical and theoretical system from all the way back when he studied with Lowery. He had a system of outlining chords, of playing ornaments around chord tones. He had incredible control over all of this, so that when he improvised, almost every note was like a pearl. He heard it and also understood it intellectually. I think that gave him one of the highest levels of consistency of any jazz improviser in history.
AAJ: As your documentary notes, even in high school, he was a virtuoso on the trumpet. Harry Andrews, his band director at Howard High School, said that he whipped off the famous and difficult trumpet version of the "Carnival of Venice."
DG: Yes. Harry Andrews was another important teacher in Clifford's life. Andrews helped him a great deal with the technical mastery of the trumpet. It's also extraordinary that in the early days of bebop, Boysie Lowery had developed a system to teach the language and develop the ability to hear harmonic movement. So the influence of both teachers was lasting and important.
Concluding Reflections on the Documentary Itself AAJ: What role did your son play in preparing the documentary?
DG: Brad joined the project in 2007 and became an equal partner and co-filmmaker. I had amassed a nearly insurmountable amount of research and film footage beginning with the first interviews in 1994. However, I was in need of a digital video editor to complete the project and realize the vision. Brad's decision to pursue filmmaking as a career came at the perfect time. We co-wrote the documentary, did additional research and filming together, and had endless conversations and debates about creative choices. His expertise as an editor and filmmaker was crucial in turning Brownie Speaks into a movie.
AAJ: What were some of the greatest difficulties and obstacles you encountered in bringing the documentary to fruition?
DG: Absolutely the most difficult part was the business-legal part. photo releases, music licensing, film clip clearances and all related film business. There are many people to thank who made this happen, and they are gratefully acknowledged in the credits. The creative and intellectual demands of a project like this are huge, but they are fun and challenging!
AAJ: In my review, I put forth the idea that Clifford Brown is portrayed as a flawless person in the DVD and that he may have been over-idealized on account of his tragic death. Do you agree or disagree?
DG: I don't believe the manner of his death influenced how we represented him in the film. We were committed to historical accuracy and letting those who knew him tell us about him. Dizzy once said that if he had a son, he'd want him to be like Clifford. Clifford seemed to have a profoundly positive effect on those around him. People loved him. Of course this may have affected the memories that endured. The narrative of the clean living, hard working, kind hearted genius was the prevailing message from countless people who knew him. We do not contend that Clifford was flawless or without many challenges, struggles, and heartache. The film and liner notes point out several examples. But to include uncorroborated references to specific failings or speculate about specific character flaws would have lowered the standard we set for other facets of the work.
Also, we did not intend to produce an homage in the sense of a testimonial, but a presentation of facts in the context of underlying themes. Accuracy and faithful adherence to the true story was paramount and we didn't want to engage in extensive psychological analysis and speculation. The deeper underlying theme was to examine the facts in relationship to Clifford's historical place as a musician. Essentially it's a film made by a jazz musician about a jazz musician. I desired it to be like jazz itself: honest, intellectually consistent, and emotionally deep. By attempting to refrain from projecting a world view on the facts I believe we ended up with a more objective and credible document.
Photo Credit: Mosaic Images, LLC
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/more-from-clifford-brown-by-nick-catalano.php
More from Clifford Brown
Ever since I wrote the biography of Clifford Brown (Oxford University
Press, 2000) I've been hoping that someone would come forth with some
newly discovered recording, some new photos of Brownie, or some new
piece of information about his life that wasn't available at the time
the book was published. One of the great bonuses of new-age information
technology is the amazing dissemination of material that seems to come
forth in dribs and drabs. Any biographer hopes that new discoveries will
appear to add to the knowledge of the subject.
So it was with great joy that last month I heard from a dear friend and masterful jazz writer, Doug Ramsey, about an interview that Brownie did which was unknown to me when I wrote the book. From his home in the Pacific Northwest, Ramsay produces a blog Rifftides, which has been widely read and often referenced by jazz enthusiasts. A while back one of his readers told him about a YouTube contributor identifying herself as "Nespasisi" who had posted a recording of Clifford Brown being interviewed by Willis Conover, the famed jazz broadcaster for Voice of America radio. Nespasisi explained that she had found the fragment "on one of my dusty old cassette tapes." The interview was alleged to have occurred shortly before Brownie was killed in the infamous traffic accident on June, 26, 1956.
The interview is quite wonderful. The tape is entirely free of distortion and sounds as if it were produced yesterday. Brownie's softly pitched voice and his well-known mannerly comportment come across immediately. Conover asks him about his trumpet influences and he pays dutiful tribute to Fats Navarro, Dizzy Gillespie, and Louis Armstrong. He notes that Miles Davis might be easy to imitate but that he "swings" and comments that he was very impressed with a recording of Roy Eldridge's "Let Me Off Uptown." He tells of long practice sessions focusing on "slurs" and "staccato" exercises without taking a day off. He notes that the absence of old time vibrato phrasing is necessary for the proper delivery of the jazz that he is playing and insists that a thorough knowledge of chord progressions is essential for successful improvisation.
Elements of the interview will no doubt be examined by scholars (the exact date needs to be verified) and other features of its origin and quality will be analyzed. But as the years go, by writers will be eager to include it in their speculations of what might have been if Brownie had lived longer.
If there are any readers out there who have access to any other previously undiscovered material on Clifford Brown I urge them to follow Doug Ramsey's lead and share with the world.
So it was with great joy that last month I heard from a dear friend and masterful jazz writer, Doug Ramsey, about an interview that Brownie did which was unknown to me when I wrote the book. From his home in the Pacific Northwest, Ramsay produces a blog Rifftides, which has been widely read and often referenced by jazz enthusiasts. A while back one of his readers told him about a YouTube contributor identifying herself as "Nespasisi" who had posted a recording of Clifford Brown being interviewed by Willis Conover, the famed jazz broadcaster for Voice of America radio. Nespasisi explained that she had found the fragment "on one of my dusty old cassette tapes." The interview was alleged to have occurred shortly before Brownie was killed in the infamous traffic accident on June, 26, 1956.
The interview is quite wonderful. The tape is entirely free of distortion and sounds as if it were produced yesterday. Brownie's softly pitched voice and his well-known mannerly comportment come across immediately. Conover asks him about his trumpet influences and he pays dutiful tribute to Fats Navarro, Dizzy Gillespie, and Louis Armstrong. He notes that Miles Davis might be easy to imitate but that he "swings" and comments that he was very impressed with a recording of Roy Eldridge's "Let Me Off Uptown." He tells of long practice sessions focusing on "slurs" and "staccato" exercises without taking a day off. He notes that the absence of old time vibrato phrasing is necessary for the proper delivery of the jazz that he is playing and insists that a thorough knowledge of chord progressions is essential for successful improvisation.
Elements of the interview will no doubt be examined by scholars (the exact date needs to be verified) and other features of its origin and quality will be analyzed. But as the years go, by writers will be eager to include it in their speculations of what might have been if Brownie had lived longer.
If there are any readers out there who have access to any other previously undiscovered material on Clifford Brown I urge them to follow Doug Ramsey's lead and share with the world.
Clifford Brown, interview:
Interviewed by Willis Conover from voice of America broadcast in 1955
http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/2012/10/clifford-brown-1930-1956.html
Rifftides
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
Clifford Brown, 1930-1956
Fifty years ago today at The Seattle Times, as I ripped copy from the wire machines my eye went to a story in the latest Associated Press national split. A young trumpeter named Clifford Brown had been killed early that morning in a car crash. My heart stopped for a beat or two. My stomach churned. I felt ill. I was attempting to master the trumpet and, like virtually all aspiring trumpet players, idolized Brown. The life of a majestically inventive musician had ended violently on a rainy highway in Pennsylvania. He was four months short of his twenty-sixth birthday. When I think about his loss, I
still feel ill.
There has never been a jazz musician who worked harder, lived cleaner, and accomplished or promised more in so short a lifetime. His practice routine encompassed taping himself as he worked out on trumpet and piano. I have listened to some of those tapes. It is moving to hear Brown pursue–and achieve–perfection as he brings complex ideas to fruition through the persistent application of his technical mastery, to hear him sing a phrase and then play it repeatedly until he has polished it nearly to his satisfaction. Like most first-rank artists, he was never truly satisfied with his performance. To listeners, however, Brown’s solos are among the glories of twentieth century music. To trumpet players, his work remains an inspiration. His passion, power, lyricism and flaweless execution constitute a model whose pursuit is bound to bring improvement.
In Today’s Washington Post, Matt Schudel summarizes Brown’s life and contributions. For a fuller account, read Nick Catalano’s biography of Brown. Fortunately, Brown recorded copiously during his few years of playing. Most of his work remains in print. This album captures him at his peak with the group he and drummer Max Roach co-led. This box set covers highlights from his recordings for several labels. If you don’t know Clifford Brown’s work, I suggest that you move immediately toward the nearest CD shop or website.The television comic Soupy Sales loved jazz, knew its history and many of its leading players. Early in his career, when he had a local show in Detroit, he frequently presented jazz stars as guests. After Sales died on October 22 at the age of 83, many obituaries mentioned that the only known video of Clifford Brown performing is from a kinescope recording of the Sales show. For decades, it was assumed lost, but Sales found the film in his garage in the mid-1990s. Here is the trumpeter in February, 1956, five months before that fatal auto crash, playing “Lady Be Good” and “Memories of You.”
Study in Brown, mentioned by Clifford in the interview, is one of the important albums by the quintet he led with drummer Max Roach. The Dinah Washington jam session with Brown, Roach, Maynard Ferguson, Clark Terry and Herb Geller–among others–is another basic repertoire item for serious jazz listeners.
Doug
is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz
Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he
settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities
including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle,
Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, DC. His writing about
jazz has paralleled his life in journalism... [Read More]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/25/AR2006062500962.html
50 Years Later, Unmuted Awe for Clifford Brown
by Matt Schudel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 26, 2006
Clifford Brown died in a car crash on June 26, 1956.
(By Francis Wolff -- Mosaic Images)
|
There may be no sadder tale in modern music than that of Clifford Brown. All but forgotten today outside a coterie of jazz buffs, he remains a heart-tugging example of what-might-have-been, as musicians and critics continue to debate the wonders he could have achieved, if only he had lived.
He was the most brilliant trumpet player of his generation, an original
and memorable composer, a dynamic stage presence and, as everyone who
knew him will tell you, a sweet and gentle soul.
"He had it all," says saxophonist Sonny Rollins, who spent seven formative months working alongside Brown.
Listen to any of his recordings -- fortunately, there are dozens, and they're all worth hearing -- and the liquid excitement of his trumpet leaps from the speakers, by turns bold and bright, tender and graceful.
But it was more than Brown's music that impressed those around him. Brown refused to use drugs, and his quiet example had begun to change the reprobate image of musicians, for whom booze and heroin were part of the jazz life.
For all these reasons, it was nothing less than an American tragedy when Clifford Brown was killed in an after-midnight car accident in Pennsylvania 50 years ago today. He was 25 years old. Any number of rock musicians, from Buddy Holly to Jimi Hendrix to Kurt Cobain, have died young, and classical fans have long speculated on the extinguished gifts of pianist William Kapell, who was killed in an airplane crash in 1953 at age 31. Jazz musician Charlie Parker was 34 when he died in 1955 after years of drug abuse, but by then he'd already made his lasting contribution, creating (with Dizzy Gillespie) the intricate musical language of bebop.
Still, there remains something tantalizingly poignant about Clifford Brown and his unfulfilled future. Decades later, the echoes of his barely tapped talent leave you longing for more.
"He was just like a shooting star," says Rollins. "He's there, and he's gone."
* * *
In 1948, Philadelphia saxophonist Jimmy Heath took his group to Wilmington, Del., to play at a club called the Two Spot. It was the first time he met Clifford Brown.
"This young guy came up, head bowed, a very humble person, and asked if he could sit in," Heath recalls today. "At the age of 17, he was outstanding."
"He had it all," says saxophonist Sonny Rollins, who spent seven formative months working alongside Brown.
Listen to any of his recordings -- fortunately, there are dozens, and they're all worth hearing -- and the liquid excitement of his trumpet leaps from the speakers, by turns bold and bright, tender and graceful.
But it was more than Brown's music that impressed those around him. Brown refused to use drugs, and his quiet example had begun to change the reprobate image of musicians, for whom booze and heroin were part of the jazz life.
For all these reasons, it was nothing less than an American tragedy when Clifford Brown was killed in an after-midnight car accident in Pennsylvania 50 years ago today. He was 25 years old. Any number of rock musicians, from Buddy Holly to Jimi Hendrix to Kurt Cobain, have died young, and classical fans have long speculated on the extinguished gifts of pianist William Kapell, who was killed in an airplane crash in 1953 at age 31. Jazz musician Charlie Parker was 34 when he died in 1955 after years of drug abuse, but by then he'd already made his lasting contribution, creating (with Dizzy Gillespie) the intricate musical language of bebop.
Still, there remains something tantalizingly poignant about Clifford Brown and his unfulfilled future. Decades later, the echoes of his barely tapped talent leave you longing for more.
"He was just like a shooting star," says Rollins. "He's there, and he's gone."
* * *
In 1948, Philadelphia saxophonist Jimmy Heath took his group to Wilmington, Del., to play at a club called the Two Spot. It was the first time he met Clifford Brown.
"This young guy came up, head bowed, a very humble person, and asked if he could sit in," Heath recalls today. "At the age of 17, he was outstanding."
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter
by Nick Catalano
Series: Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter
Paperback: 232 pages
Oxford University Press (May 24, 2001)
Although he died in a tragic car accident at twenty-five, Clifford Brown is widely considered one of the most important figures in the history of jazz--now, in this absorbing work, Nick Catalano gives us the first major biography of this musical giant.
Based on extensive interviews with Brown's family, friends, and fellow jazz musicians, this is a fascinating portrait of a remarkable musician. Catalano colorfully depicts Brown's life, showing how he developed a dazzling technique that few jazz players have equaled. We read of his meteoric rise in Philadelphia, his tour of Europe with Lionel Hampton, and his formation of the Brown-Roach Quintet with prominent drummer Max Roach. The book also features an informed analysis of Brown's major recorded solos, highlighting his originality and revealing why he remains such a great influence today.
Reviews
Amazon.com Review
In the early '50s, Clifford Brown was one of the most dominant trumpeters of the Hard Bop period. Nick Catalano, professor of literature and music at Pace University, has written the first book on this important artist, and it's a winner. "In addition to his artistic achievements, Brown exuded virtue and magnanimity," Catalano writes. "He wasn't just a 'nice guy'; he was much more than that." At a time when jazzmen where generally portrayed as drug addicted hustlers, Brown was the exception. He was college educated, rarely smoked or drank, and was a positive role model to other musicians. Had he not been killed in a tragic car accident at the tender age of 25, he may have altered the future of jazz. As it is, he has left a lasting impression on the art form.
Beginning with his nurturing childhood in Wilmington, Delaware, Catalano chronicles Brown's extraordinary rise as a Dizzy Gillespie-inspired upstart, to a seasoned professional who continued to practice and play R&B dates despite terrible pain from a near-fatal car accident. Catalano highlights Brown's work with heavyweights like Lionel Hampton, Quincy Jones, John Lewis, and Art Blakey, and his analyses of Brown's crisp trumpet style and compositions, including "Joy Spring" and "Dahooud," are detailed and entertaining. At the summit of his career, while co-leading a trailblazing combo that featured Max Roach and Sonny Rollins, Brown perished on the rain-soaked Pennsylvania Turnpike on the way to a gig in Chicago. Catalano shows that, even in death, his influence lives on in trumpeters like Freddie Hubbard and Wynton Marsalis, and in the Tony Award-winning Broadway play, Sideman. If there is such a thing as a jazz saint, Clifford Brown was it. --Eugene Holley Jr. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Long known as the jazz trumpeters' trumpeter, Clifford Brown has yet to gain wider recognition for his influence over the development of bebop. Born in Wilmington, Del., in 1930, Brown's trumpet playing was often described as uninspired, but intense practice led to a technically superb style that was lauded by such greats as Dizzy Gillespie. The modest, unpretentious trumpeter lived an unruffled life; his great discipline offered a different model for jazz musicians long under the influence of Charlie Parker's drug abuse. Catalano, the director of performing arts at Pace University, presents Brown's abbreviated life (he died in a car crash at age 25) in a terse, matter-of-fact manner, with scrupulous attention to detail. A vivid account of his 1953 adventures with Lionel Hampton's band (which included Art Farmer and Quincy Jones) in Europe is one of the few sections that delves deeply into Brown's musical genius, describing solos and specific performances, and praising his high energy and fun approach to trading fours with Farmer. In another chapter, Catalano recalls Brown's friendship with Max Roach, paying homage to such landmark recordings as "Delilah" and "Darn That Dream." While some jazz fans may tire of the meticulous recounting of facts, true buffs will be enthralled with the honest interviews and wide breadth of research this bio offers.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
The history of music in general, and jazz in particular, is filled with stories of legendary performers with blazing talent who succumb early to their own excesses. Brown's brief life and brilliant career prove to be the exception to that rule. He was a formally trained musician from a stable family in Wilmington, DE, when, in 1949, Dizzy Gillespie discovered his skill on the trumpet. Soon he was a major part of the next generation of bebop musicians, one that would take the genre to unimagined artistic heights. Brown's healthy lifestyle and studious attitude toward his craft proved to be as influential for a generation of jazz artists as his innovative work with drummer Max Roach. Unfortunately, a tragic auto accident in 1956 cost Brown his life and the world of jazz one of its most positive role models. Catalano's (director of cultural affairs and performing arts, Pace Univ.) well-researched look at the life and music of Brown will be a welcome addition to all serious music collections.
-Dan Bogey, Clearfield Cty. P.L. Federation, Curwensville, PA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Good-natured, honest, loyal to friends and family, and clean-living when many musicians drank and drugged too much, Brown (1930^-56) was jazz's angel. Moreover, he was exceptionally talented and creative, playing trumpet with a gloriously full, round tone and so seldom treating the same solo identically that alternate takes from his recording sessions are more interesting than those of virtually any other jazz artist. But he verified that adage about the good dying young. Early in his career, he was so badly injured in a car accident that half a year elapsed before he could play again, and very few years later, racing from Philadelphia to a Chicago gig, another crash killed him (he was not driving). Fortunately for filling out what would be a very short book if Brown's life apart from music were all Catalano had to write about, nearly all his recordings are readily available. Catalano comments accurately and insightfully on that legacy, so that even those very familiar with Brown's art stand to have their appreciation of his music sharpened. Ray Olson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
Clifford Brown's premature death deprived jazz of one of its greatest trumpetersa loss that seems even more poignant some forty years later. Born in 1930, in Wilmington, Delaware, Brown began playing in school bands and informal dance groups in his early teens. Encouraged by his parents and teachers, he practiced constantly and soon became a local star. An important influence was Fats Navarro, a brilliant bebop trumpeter whose life was cut short by heroin use. Taking warning from Navarro's fate, Brown became a model for clean living among his generation of jazzmen, and was noted for his amiable disposition. His playing blossomed as he gigged and jammed with top players in the jazz clubs of Philadelphia. After a series of record dates as sideman, and a European tour with Lionel Hampton's band, he returned to the US in 1954 and formed a seminal quintet with drummer Max Roach. In the two years before Brown and pianist Richie Powell died in a car crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, that group made a strong impact on jazz listeners. Unfortunately, Catalano (Performing Arts/Pace Univ.), assuming his readers are intimately familiar with Brown's music, relies primarily on verbal descriptions of his solos, providing only two passages of written music. A few of his other judgments are even more questionable. He takes several gratuitous potshots at Miles Davis, overlooking the possibility that even had Brown survived, he might never have rivaled the later success of the charismatic Davis. Nor did Brown's death send jazz into a tailspin, as Catalano implies; the music remained strong for nearly a decade before rock drove it from popular awareness. Still, the authors enthusiastic and well-researched summary of Brown's career should send jazz buffs back to their record collections for serious listening. A worthy project diminished by Catalanos impressionistic approach and special pleading. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"This study of a vitally important artist is a book for all jazz collections."--Choice
"The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter is the first full biography of the man known as 'Brownie' and should be required reading for any serious jazz fan. Catalano's account will definitely have you, to paraphrase Benny Golson's famous composition, 'remembering Clifford'."--Alabama Times
"A generation before Wynton Marsalis, Clifford Brown exhibited a similar mastery of modern jazz phrasing, tone control, and trumpet technique. Alas, Brown was never destined to achieve the fame and rewards such rare talents deserved. His moving story with its wry mixture of triumph and tragedy is now told with rich detail in Nick Catalano's highly readable Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter."--Ted Gioia, author of The History of Jazz and West Coast Jazz
"The author's enthusiastic and well-researched summary of Brown's career should send jazz buffs back to their record collections for serious listening."--Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
A University Performing Arts director and Professor of Music and Literature at Pace University, Dr. Nick Catalano has played, produced, taught and written about jazz throughout his life. He has also had an extensive television career as a writer-producer of films and documentaries. Dr. Catalano lives and writes in New York and East Hampton.
THE MUSIC OF CLIFFORD BROWN: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH MR. BROWN:
Clifford Brown & Max Roach - "Joy Spring"
Composition by Clifford Brown:
Clifford Brown and Max Roach (1954)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Brown_%26_Max_Roach
Composition by Clifford Brown
Personnel:
Clifford Brown (Trumpet)
Harold Land (Tenor Saxophone)
George Morrow (Bass)
Richie Powell (Piano)
Max Roach (Drums)
Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet - "Daahoud"
Composition by Clifford Brown:
Personnel: Clifford Brown (trumpet), Harold Land (tenor sax), Richie Powell (piano), George Morrow (bass), Max Roach (drums)
from the album 'CLIFFORD BROWN AND MAX ROACH' (EmArcy Records)
Clifford Brown & Max Roach - "Jordu"
Clifford Brown and Max Roach (1954):
Clifford Brown - "Delilah":
Clifford Brown - "Parisian Thoroughfare":
Clifford Brown - "The blues walk"--1955:
Personnel:
Clifford Brown - Trumpet: Harold Land - Tenor Sax; Richie Powell - Piano; George Morrow - Bass; Max Roach - Drums. (1955)
"Brownie Speaks"-- DVD trailer:
Max Roach talks about Clifford Brown:
Clifford Brown - "Sandu":
Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet with Neal Hefti Orchestra - "Laura"--1955:
Personnel:
Clifford Brown (trumpet), Richie Powell (piano), Barry Galbraith
(guitar), George Morrow (bass), Max Roach (drums), Neal Hefti (arrange,
conduct), 6 violins, 2 violas, and 1 cello
from the album 'CLIFFORD BROWN WITH STRINGS' (EmArcy Records)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Brown_%26_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's fatal automobile accident in 1956".[2] The album was critically well received and includes several notable tracks, including two that have since become jazz standards. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.[3] It is included in Jazz: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings at #34, where it is described by New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff as "one of the strongest studio albums up to that time".[4]
First released as a 10" vinyl in December 1954 (MG 26043), it included only five tracks: "Delilah", "Parisian Thoroughfare", "Daahoud", "Joy Spring" and "Jordu", all recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood, in August 1954.[5] In 1955, EmArcy released a regular 12" vinyl (MG-36036),[6] adding "The Blues Walk" and "What Am I Here For", from a February 1955 session at Capitol Studios in New York City.[7] Since then, it has been multiply reissued, including in a 2000 edition by Verve Records that contains additional takes and a previously unissued track.[8]
Contents
History
The album is one of several that resulted from the partnership between Roach and Brown after Roach invited Brown in New York to join him in creating a band.[9] Brown and Roach together selected additional musicians to comprise the quintet from among the jazz musicians currently active in Hollywood. The band's early line-ups included Sonny Stitt, Teddy Edwards, Carl Perkins and George Bledsoe, but by the time the first of these sessions was recorded in August 1954, they had been replaced by the more long-term line-up of Clifford Brown, Harold Land and Richie Powell, the brother of jazz luminary Bud Powell. The band was prominent in the jazz scene; Land, brought in when predecessor Edwards declined to tour with the group, experienced an enormous increase in his reputation in the jazz world, while Land's successor (Sonny Rollins) would be springboarded by the visible position into superstardom.[10]Critical reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [11] |
Notable tracks
According to The Rough Guide to Jazz, two of the songs featured on this album, "Daahoud" and "Joy Spring", have become "part of the standard jazz repertoire".[14] The song "Joy Spring" was composed by Brown in honor of his wife, whom he called his "joy spring".[15] She had been introduced to him by Roach as a student working to prove in her thesis that jazz was inferior to her field of classical music, a thesis Brown convinced her was mistaken. Ratliff describes these two songs, along with the tracks "Parisian Thoroughfare" and "Jordu" as "four of Brown's great performances".[16]Also notable is the album's version of the Victor Young theme song for the Cecil B. DeMille film Samson and Delilah, which Village Voice columnist Gary Giddins selected as the outstanding jazz track for 1954, though he describes it as "the most unlikely of vehicles".[17] In a 2006 interview with The New York Times, jazz drummer Paul Motian also singled out the song, "Delilah", for reference, praising its organization and arrangement, declaring it "Simple, but great".[18] The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Jazz comments of the song that its "exotic mood" was "cleverly exploited", also noting that "[i]n Brown's sweeping solo, the commentary supplied by Roach is worthy of special study, as he seemingly anticipates every nuance of his co-leader's lines".[12]
Track listing
Except where otherwise noted, songs composed by Clifford Brown.[19]- "Delilah" (Victor Young) – 8:06
- "Parisian Thoroughfare" (Bud Powell) – 7:19
- "Daahoud" – 4:05
- "Joy Spring" – 6:50
- "Jordu" (Duke Jordan) – 7:50
- "The Blues Walk" (Chris Woods) – 6:47
- "What Am I Here For?" (Duke Ellington, Frankie Laine) – 3:11
Verve CD additional tracks
- "These Foolish Things" (Harry Link, Holt Marvell, Jack Strachey) – 3:48
- "The Blues Walk" (alternate take) – 6:54
- "Daahoud" (alternate take) – 4:09
- "Joy Spring" (alternate take) – 6:43
Personnel
- Clifford Brown – trumpet
- Harold Land – tenor saxophone
- George Morrow – bass
- Richie Powell – piano
- Max Roach – drums
References
- Track list information for original album from Kernfeld, Barry Dean (1995). The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Jazz. Blackwell Publishing. p. 276. ISBN 0-631-19552-1. Track list information for additional tracks as well as all composer and track length information from Clifford Brown & Max Roach at AllMusic
Clifford Brown
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Clifford Brown | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Also known as | "Brownie" |
| Born | October 30, 1930 Wilmington, Delaware, United States |
| Died | June 26, 1956 (aged 25) Bedford, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Genres | Jazz, bebop, hard bop |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer |
| Instruments | Trumpet |
| Years active | 1949-1956 |
| Associated acts | Max Roach, Harold Land, Lionel Hampton, Sonny Rollins |
Clifford Brown (October 30, 1930 – June 26, 1956), aka "Brownie", was an American jazz trumpeter. He died at the age of 25 in a car accident,[1] 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, Arturo Sandoval and Freddie Hubbard.[citation needed] He was also a composer of note: two of his compositions, "Joy Spring"[2] and "Daahoud",[3] have become jazz standards.[4]
Brown 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.[1]
Contents
Biography
Brown was born into a musical family in a progressive East-Side neighborhood of Wilmington, Delaware. His father organized his four youngest 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, upon entering senior high, his father bought him his own trumpet and provided him with private lessons. As a junior in high school, he received lessons from Robert Boysie Lowery and played in "a jazz group that Lowery organized." He even began making trips to Philadelphia. Brown took pride in his neighborhood and earned a good education from Howard High.[5]Brown briefly attended Delaware State University[6] as a math major, before he switched to Maryland State College, which was a more prosperous musical environment. As Nick Catalano points out, Brown's trips to Philadelphia grew in frequency after he graduated from high school and entered Delaware State University; it could be said that, although his dorm was in Dover, his classroom was in Philadelphia. Brown played in the fourteen-piece, jazz-oriented, Maryland State Band. In June 1950, he was seriously injured in a car accident after a successful gig. During his year-long hospitalization, Dizzy Gillespie visited the younger trumpeter and pushed him to pursue his musical career.[7] Brown's injuries limited him to the piano for months; he never fully recovered and would routinely dislocate his shoulder for the rest of his life.[5] Brown moved into playing music professionally, where he quickly became one of the most highly regarded trumpeters in jazz.[1]
Brown was influenced and encouraged by Fats Navarro,[7] 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 very fast 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.
His first recordings were with R&B bandleader Chris Powell,[7] following which he performed with Tadd Dameron, J. J. Johnson, 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, with all the members of the group except for bassist George Morrow contributing original songs. Brown's trumpet was originally partnered with Harold Land's tenor saxophone. After Land left in 1955 in order to spend more time with his wife, Sonny Rollins joined and remained a member of the group for the rest of its existence. In their hands the bebop vernacular reached a peak of inventiveness.[1]
The clean-living Brown escaped the influence of heroin on the jazz world, a model established by Charlie Parker. Brown stayed away from drugs and was not fond of alcohol.[1] Rollins, who was recovering from a 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."[8]
In June 1956, Brown and Richie Powell 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, she must have lost control of the car which went off the road.[9] All three were killed in the resulting crash. Brown is buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery, in Wilmington, Delaware.
Legacy
Benny Golson, 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.Duke Pearson wrote "Tribute To Brownie", which was recorded by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet on their 1957 album, Sophisticated Swing. It also appeared on an album by Louis Smith.
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, entitled I Remember Clifford, was likewise a tribute to Brown.
Each year, Wilmington 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 in Philadelphia. The three-day symposium featured performances from close friends and bandmates of Brown such as Golson and Lou Donaldson and other artists inspired by Brown, including Marcus Belgrave, Terence Blanchard, and John Fedchock.
In 1994, Brown's widow, LaRue Brown Watson, established the Clifford Brown Jazz Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to Brown's memory and inspiring a love for jazz among young people. The Foundation is currently[when?] under the direction of Clifford Brown III, Brown's grandson and a respected Bay Area trumpeter and music producer.
Discography
As leader or co-leader
- New Star On The Horizon (Blue Note 5032 [10" LP], 1953) - sextet with Gigi Gryce, Charlie Rouse, and John Lewis
- Clifford Brown Quartet (Blue Note 5047 [10" LP], rec. 1953 in Paris; rel. 1954)
- Memorial Album (Blue Note 1526, 1953; rel. 1956; CD reissue: Blue Note/Capitol-EMI 32141, rel. 2001)
- Clifford Brown And Art Farmer With The Swedish All Stars (Prestige 167 [10" LP], 1953)
- Memorial (Prestige 7055, 1953; rel. 1955; CD reissue: OJC-Fantasy 017, rel. 1990) - note: this 12" reissues both Prestige 10" albums, #159 and #167.
- Clifford Brown Quartet In Paris (Prestige 7761, 1953)
- Clifford Brown Sextet In Paris (Prestige 7794, 1953)
- Clifford Brown Big Band In Paris (Prestige 7840, 1953)
- Max Roach and Clifford Brown In Concert (Gene Norman Presents Vol. 5 [10" LP], 1954) - with Teddy Edwards, and Carl Perkins
- Max Roach and Clifford Brown In Concert (Gene Norman Presents Vol. 7 [10" LP], 1954) - with Harold Land, and Richie Powell
- The Best Of Max Roach and Clifford Brown In Concert (Gene Norman Presents GNP-18 [12" LP], rel. 1956)
- Clifford Brown Ensemble (Pacific Jazz LP-19 [10" LP], 1954) - septet with Stu Williamson, Zoot Sims, Bob Gordon, and Russ Freeman
- Clifford Brown: Jazz Immortal (Pacific Jazz PJ-3, 1954; rel. 1955; CD reissue: Pacific Jazz/Capitol-EMI 32142 [remastered Rudy Van Gelder edition], rel. 2001)
- Clifford Brown & Max Roach (EmArcy 26043 [10" LP], 1954; EmArcy 36036 [12" LP], rel. 1955)
- Jam Session (EmArcy 36002, 1954) - with Clark Terry, Maynard Ferguson, and Herb Geller
- Clifford Brown with Strings (EmArcy 36005, 1955)
- Brown and Roach Incorporated (EmArcy 36008, 1954; rel. 1955)
- Study in Brown (EmArcy 36037, 1955)
- Best Coast Jazz (EmArcy 36039, 1954; rel. 1955)
- Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street (EmArcy 36070, 1956)
- Clifford Brown All Stars (EmArcy 36102, 1954; rel. 1956) - note: this album AKA Caravan.
- Daahoud (Mainstream 386, 1954; rel. 1972) - note: all alternate takes of EmArcy material.
- The Beginning And The End (Columbia, rel. 1973) - note: contains material from 1952 with Chris Powell and His Blue Flames, plus a club gig in Philadelphia recorded on either 31 May 1955 (from Nick Catalano's biography) or 25 June 1956 (from the liner notes).
Compilations
- Alone Together: The Best of the Mercury Years (Verve, 1954-60 [1995])
As sideman
With Tadd Dameron- A Study In Dameronia (Prestige 159 [10" LP], 1953)
- Jay Jay Johnson With Clifford Brown (Blue Note 5028 [10" LP], 1953)
- The Eminent J. J. Johnson Volume 1 (Blue Note 1505, rel. 1955)
- Lou Donaldson/Clifford Brown: New Faces-New Sounds (Blue Note 5030 [10" LP], 1953)
- A Night at Birdland Vol. 1 (Blue Note 5037 [10" LP], 1954)
- A Night at Birdland Vol. 2 (Blue Note 5038 [10" LP], 1954)
- A Night at Birdland Vol. 3 (Blue Note 5039 [10" LP], 1954)
- A Night at Birdland Vol. 1 (Blue Note 1521, rel. 1955)
- A Night at Birdland Vol. 2 (Blue Note 1522, rel. 1955)
- Gigi Gryce/Clifford Brown Sextet (Blue Note 5048 [10" LP], rec. 1953 in Paris; rel. 1954)
- Gigi Gryce And His Big Band, Vol. 1 (Blue Note 5049 [10" LP], rec. 1953 in Paris; rel. 1954)
- Gigi Gryce And His Little Band, Vol. 2 (Blue Note 5050 [10" LP], rec. 1953 in Paris; rel. 1954)
- Dinah Jams (EmArcy 36000, 1954)
- Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown (EmArcy 36004, 1954; rel. 1955)
- Helen Merrill (EmArcy 36006, 1954; rel. 1955)
- Sonny Rollins Plus 4 (Prestige 7038, 1956)
CD anthologies of note
- The Complete EmArcy Recordings Of Clifford Brown (Verve-Universal, 2013 [UPC: 600753422526]; 10-CD set)
- Brownie Speaks: The Complete Blue Note Albums (Blue Note-UMe B0020657 02, 2014 [UPC: 602537816125]; 3-CD set) - note: includes all of the material from the six original 10" LP releases: 5028, 5030, 5032, 5037, 5038, 5039, plus 11 alternate takes.
References
- "50 years since Clifford Brown's death". Delaware Online. June 23, 2006. Retrieved August 27, 2013.
Sources
- Nick Catalano, Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter (Oxford University Press, 2001)
