Clifford Brown Four Classic Albums

Avid Jazz continues with its Four Classic album series with a re-mastered 2CD release by Curtis Counce, complete with original artwork and liner notes. Tedddy Charles - ”Collaboration West”; “You Get More Bounce With Curtis Counce”; “Exploring The Future” and “Carl’s Blues”. Perhaps not as widely known as some of his contemporary bassist’s like Mingus (only last name required!), Red Callender, Oscar Pettiford, Art Davis, Ray Brown, Paul Chambers or Milt Hinton, our featured artist Curtis Counce was a very highly regarded bassist who played with amongst others Lester Young, Shelly Manne, Teddy Charles, Clifford Brown, Wardell Gray, Shorty Rogers and Stan Kenton as well as making his own albums. Three fine examples of which we feature here alongside Counce’s excellent contribution to the Teddy Charles led album “Collaboration West”.

AVID Jazz presents the latest release in our Four Classic Album series with a second re-mastered 2CD release from Donald Byrd, complete with original artwork, liner notes and personnel details.

Born Giacinto Figlia in Palermo, Italy in 1924 the young George Wallington was schooled in opera and the classics by his father and had moved to New York City by 1925. It was hearing Lester Young playing in the Basie band that led to him to get involved in the New York jazz scene where he soon found himself accompanying Billie Holiday at George’s club in Greenwich Village and perhaps more unlikely also playing opposite Liberace in Philadelphia! Wallington was back in New York when Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie set the place on fire with a new sound called Be Bop. Although he had arrived at his style independently he was likened to Bud Powell and he became one of the few white musicians to be invited to play what was essentially a black musical movement…

Along with Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Horace Silver, the prolific Benny Golson created some of the most memorable compositions in the jazz repertoire. This reissue features his first albums as a leader, and many of his most familiar originals are to be found here. In a 1958 Downbeat article Ralph Gleason highlighted “the extraordinary attention jazz musicians are currently paying to his compositions”. Indeed by the early 60s it seemed that every rehearsal band in the UK and everyone on the jazz club circuit had at least three or four of his originals in the book…

We start off in March 1956 with ‘Sonny Rollins Plus 4’ where unsurprisingly we find Sonny accompanied, by you guessed it, four stellar jazzmen. Clifford Brown on trumpet, Max Roach on drums, George Morrow on bass and Richie Powell on piano. Recorded a little later the same year in December 1956 our second offering is ‘Sonny Rollins Volume One’ where Sonny is found in the company of Donald Byrd on trumpet, Wynton Kelly on piano, Gene Ramey on bass and our old friend Max Roach on drums. CD2 moves on to 1957 for ‘Sonny Rollins Volume Two’ where Sonny is joined by another fantastic line up including Thelonious Monk playing piano on his own classic compositions ‘Misterioso’ and ‘Reflections’…

Clifford Brown - Brownie: The Complete EmArcy Recordings of Clifford Brown (1989) {10CD + bonus CD Box Set rec 1954-1956}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.80 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.39 Gb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 158 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 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.