Clifford Brown

• Born: October 30, 1930
• Birthplace: Wilmington, Delaware
• Died: June 26, 1956
• Place of death: near Bedford, Pennsylvania

Jazz musician

Brown was a major figure in hard bop, the intense and virtuosic style that emerged during the 1950’s in the wake of bebop. Although his career was short, Brown’s influence has been lasting. Techniques developed by Brown can be heard in the playing of generations of subsequent jazz trumpeters.

Area of achievement: Music: jazz

Early Life

Clifford Benjamin Brown was born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1930. He did not begin to study the trumpet until his high school years, but his abilities emerged quickly and he was soon active in college and other bands. This activity continued during his studies at Delaware State College (mathematics) and Maryland State College (music), and he subsequently enjoyed opportunities to work in the Philadelphia area with leading jazz musicians, including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Fats Navarro. Navarro, in particular, would exert a strong influence upon Brown’s musical development.

In June, 1950, serious injuries from an automobile accident sidelined Brown, but in 1952 he was able to resume his career, including work with Chris Powell’s Blue Flames, a Philadelphia rhythm-and-blues band. Brown’s first major recording opportunity came in 1953, when he worked with Tadd Dameron’s band. Brown subsequently toured Europe with Lionel Hampton’s big band, and during that time he recorded with American and European jazz artists.

Life’s Work

Brown emerged as a major force in the jazz trumpet world in 1954, when he joined Art Blakey and Horace Silver as a member of the Jazz Messengers. His tenure with that landmark ensemble was brief but notable. In a performance at Birdland, Brown was introduced as “the new trumpet sensation,” and his solos throughout the session highlighted Brown’s already impressive technical skills and musical abilities. Brown worked with a number of notable musicians on the Blue Note and Pacific Jazz labels, recording albums in New York and Los Angeles, where he recorded Jazz Immortal (1954) with a number of West Coast musicians.

In 1954, Brown accepted an invitation to form a quintet with bebop veteran drummer Max Roach. According to Roach, they had not previously worked together, but he was aware of Brown from recordings and reputation. This partnership would endure throughout the remainder of Brown’s short career, and the group was active in the recording studio. A pair of recordings (At Basin Street and Sonny Rollins Plus 4) compiled from sessions in January through March, 1956, show Brown to be at the very zenith of his abilities. Three months later, while on their way to a date in Chicago, Brown and the quintet’s pianist, Richie Powell (younger brother of bebop master pianist Bud Powell), and Richie’s wife were killed in an automobile accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, near the town of Bedford.

Brown was a complete player. Years of disciplined practicing gave him incredible agility, clean articulation, a big sound, and an above-average range. His understanding of theory also was advanced, and his recordings consistently showcase his ability to handle the complex harmonic progressions that were a hallmark of the hard bop style. Brown’s recordings show a continuous development, and by the time of his last recordings, he was putting together long, flowing lines punctuated by clean articulation and supported by an ability to explore the upper register.

Brown usually preferred to stay within the chords and generally relegated nonharmonic tones to weaker beats. A November, 1955, performance informally recorded by Roach and eventually released as Live at the Bee Hive (1979) might provide some clues as to the direction Brown might have taken had he not died in 1956. The performance of each work in this session is greatly extended in comparison with their studio recordings. Roach described the atmosphere at the Bee Hive as “wide open,” and that environment allowed Brown to solo over sections of static harmony and experiment when given the opportunity to move beyond the one or two choruses that the quintet’s studio recording practices allowed. That Roach subsequently worked with avant-garde artists also suggests that Brown might also have explored the more innovative 1960’s styles.

Significance

Even though his career was brief, Brown exerted an enormous influence on other musicians. His immediate influence is best heard in the line of trumpeters who worked during the 1960’s with Blakey or Silver, including Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, and Woody Shaw. Recording reissues during the 1980’s and 1990’s brought Brown’s work to the attention of a new generation of jazz trumpeters, including Wynton Marsalis and Terence Blanchard. Brown remains one of the most esteemed trumpeters in jazz history.

Bibliography

Baker, David N. The Jazz Style of Clifford Brown: A Musical and Historical Perspective. Miami: Belwin, 1982. The centerpiece of this work is a series of fifteen solos, transcribed from Brown’s recordings. Baker also provides an analysis of Brown’s improvisational tendencies, information on the trumpeter’s biography, a list of tunes composed by Brown, and a select bibliography.

Catalano, Nick. Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. This biography focuses mainly on the chain of events in Brown’s life.

Schudel, Matt. “Fifty Years Later, Unmuted Awe for Clifford Brown.” The Washington Post, June 26, 2006. A detailed, laudatory profile of Brown published on the fiftieth anniversary of his death. Includes quotations from other musicians and record executives who worked with Brown.