Clifford+brown

Clifford Brown - Brownie: The Complete EmArcy Recordings of Clifford Brown (1989) {10CD + bonus CD Box Set rec 1954-1956}
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© 1954-56, 1989 EmArcy / Nippon Phonogram | 838 307-2~838 316-2 / 874 788-3
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Trumpet

Although undoubtedly an expensive acquisition, this ten-CD set is perfectly done and contains dozens of gems. The remarkable but short-lived trumpeter Clifford Brown has the second half of his career fully documented (other than his final performance) and he is showcased in a wide variety of settings. The bulk of the numbers are of Brownie's quintet with co-leader and drummer Max Roach, either Harold Land or Sonny Rollins on tenor, pianist Richie Powell, and bassist George Morrow (including some previously unheard alternate takes), but there is also much more.

In line with the series' after-hours policy, the Clifford Brown edition of Jazz 'Round Midnight features the trumpeter on a series of ballads and easy strolling swingers of the highest quality. This, of course, is fortuitous for any fan of Brown's work, considering one gets to really hear his stellar and rich tone in these spacious settings. And he's always in command, whether with arranger Neil Hefti and a string orchestra ("Laura"), supporting vocalists Sarah Vaughan ("Lullaby of Birdland") and Dinah Washington ("No More"), or in the combo he co-led with drummer Max Roach ("Land's End"). A fine choice for the jazz newcomer wary of the more frenetic side of the music.

Clifford Brown - The Clifford Brown Big Band In Paris (1953) {Prestige OJCCD-359-2 rel 1989}
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© 1953, 1989 Prestige / Fantasy / OJC | OJCCD-359-2
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Big Band / Trumpet

Although Lionel Hampton forbid his sidemen from recording during their trip to France in 1953, many of the musicians fortunately ignored his orders; the band broke up soon anyway. Trumpeter Clifford Brown is heard on this LP mostly with a big band actually put together by Gigi Gryce. A few of these tracks are excerpts but the two takes of "Brownskins" and "Keeping up with Jonesy" are fairly long as is a nearly eight-minute "Chez Moi." The music is not essential but Brownie did not live long enough to record anything less than excellent.

1955 album by 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". 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. 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". Originally released on the EmArcy label, it has been multiply re-issued, including in a 2000 edition by Verve Records that contains additional tracks.

Although Clifford Brown did a phenomenal amount of commercial recordings during his all too brief lifetime (he died prior to his 26th birthday in a car crash that also took the life of his quintet's pianist Richie Powell, Bud's younger brother), relatively few of the recordings he made were on stage. Fortunately, this CD includes performances from two 1956 broadcasts from the old Basin Street club in New York City, and two tracks from a Carnegie Hall concert the previous year. Although the MC talks over some of the music and the fidelity is typical for Airchecks preserved from the era (distorted rhythm section, barely audible piano and bass), the strong playing of both Brown and tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins still comes through the noisy clutter.

Clifford Brown All Stars - Best Coast Jazz +1 (1954) {EmArcy Japan PHCE-3062 rel 1996}
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© 1954, 1996 EmArcy / Mercury Japan | PHCE-3062 | 24/96 mastering
Jazz / Bop / Cool

Clifford Brown: "Best Coast Jazz" is the Five Star bookend session to "Clifford Brown All Stars", both having been recorded at the same session in Los Angeles in 1954. On the vinyl LP, each song took up a side, allowing for plenty of blowing room. "BCJ" would be released in 1955. One year later, Clifford Brown (and pianist Richie Powell and wife) would be dead from a car wreck on the Penn Turnpike during a rainstorm. Thus altering the course of jazz trumpet history in one tragic act. "CBAS" would be hurriedly released following the accident and we would once again shake our heads at the tremendous loss of trumpet genius Clifford Brown.

Clifford Brown - The Complete Paris Collection (1953) {3CD Set Vogue Japan, K30Y-6184~6, Early Press rel 1987}
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© 1953, 1987 Disques Vogue / King Records Japan | K30Y-6184~6
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Trumpet

In a way, Brown was the Wynton Marsalis of his time; like Marsalis, Brown came on the jazz scene following a period of significant stylistic change. However, unlike Marsalis (who rejected the free jazz made famous by the generation just preceding his own), Brown chose to embrace the innovations of his immediate elders. In the process, Brown became one of the great post-Gillespie trumpeters, developing a voice that spoke the language of bebop with a distinct, personal inflection. In September 1953 – having just recorded his first dates as a leader for Blue Note – Brown went to Europe with Lionel Hampton.

Clifford Brown - The Complete Paris Sessions (1953) {3CD Set, Vogue 668 001 rel 1991}
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© 1953, 1991 Vogue | 668 001
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Trumpet

While in Paris, Brown recorded a series of sides with mostly French rhythm sections for the Vogue label, several of which are reissued here. Half the cuts feature Brown as a featured soloist with a big band comprised of Hampton's bandmembers and led by alto saxophonist Gigi Gryce. Gryce's tunes are solid, but the date would be unmemorable without Brown, whose flair for spontaneous invention elevates the banality of the context.

Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, Phil Woods - International Jam Sessions (1995) {Xanadu XCD1232 rec 1950-1957}
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© 1950-57, 1995 Xanadu Records | XCD1232
Jazz / Bebop / Saxophone / Trumpet

This Xanadu LP has an odd title because only half of the music can be described as international. There are four valuable selections that feature the remarkable altoist Charlie Parker with a group of Swedes (including trumpeter Rolf Ericson) and the great trumpeter Clifford Brown is heard playing a lengthy "Indiana" in 1953 with a group of erratic Danish musicians. Side two of the album is from New York with altoist Phil Woods, Frank Socolow on tenor and baritonist Cecil Payne in a sextet performing fairly long versions of "Yardbird Suite" and "Scrapple from the Apple"; those renditions have since been reissued by Savoy.