Clifford Benjamin Brown (October 30, 1930 – June 26, 1956) was an American jazz trumpeter, pianist and composer. He died at the age of 25 in a car crash, leaving behind four years' worth of recordings. His compositions "Sandu", "Joy Spring", and "Daahoud" have become

jazz standards Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive List ...

. Brown won the ''

DownBeat ''DownBeat'' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm that it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1 ...

'' magazine Critics' Poll for New Star of the Year in 1954; he was inducted into the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in 1972.

Early career

Brown was born into a musical family in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

. His father organized his four 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, his father bought him a trumpet and provided him with private lessons. In high school, Brown received lessons from Robert Boysie Lowery and played in "a jazz group that Lowery organized", making trips to

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. His trips to Philadelphia grew in frequency after he graduated from high school. Brown briefly attended

Delaware State University Delaware State University (DSU or Del State) is a Statutory college#Outside New York State, privately governed, state-assisted Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Land-grant university, land-grant research universi ...

as a math major before he switched to Maryland State College. He played in the fourteen-piece, jazz-oriented Maryland State Band. In June 1950, he was injured in a car crash after a performance. While in the hospital, he was visited by

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improvisation, improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy El ...

, who encouraged him to pursue a career in music. For a time, injuries restricted him to playing the piano. Brown was influenced and encouraged by Fats Navarro. His first recordings were with R&B bandleader Chris Powell. He worked with

Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...

Tadd Dameron Tadley Ewing Peake Dameron (February 21, 1917 – March 8, 1965) was an American jazz composer, arranger, and pianist. Biography Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Dameron was the most influential arranger of the bebop era, but also wrote charts for swi ...

Lionel Hampton Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and bandleader. He worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, an ...

and J. J. Johnson, before forming a band with

Max Roach Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He wo ...

. One of the most notable developments during Brown's period in New York was the formation of

's Quintet, which would become the Jazz Messengers. Blakey formed the band with Brown,

Lou Donaldson Louis Andrew Donaldson Jr. (November 1, 1926 – November 9, 2024) was an American jazz Alto saxophone, alto saxophonist. He was best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was he ...

Horace Silver Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sch ...

, and Curley Russell, and recorded the quintet's first album live at the Birdland jazz club. During one of the rehearsal sessions, fellow trumpeter

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

listened and joked about Clifford Brown's technical ability to play the trumpet. The live recording session ultimately spanned two days with multiple takes needed on only a couple of the tunes. A week at

Club Harlem Club Harlem was a nightclub at 32 North Kentucky Avenue in the Northside, Atlantic City, Northside neighborhood of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Founded in 1935 by Leroy "Pop" Williams, it was the city's premier club for black jazz performers. Like ...

in May 1952 featured alto saxophonist

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz Saxophone, saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of beb ...

and Brown. Brown later noted that Parker was impressed by his playing, saying privately to the young trumpeter "I don't believe it." Just before the formation of the Clifford Brown/

Quintet, journalist

Nat Hentoff Nathan Irving Hentoff (June 10, 1925 – January 7, 2017) was an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media. Hentoff was a columnist for ''The Village Voice'' from 1958 to 2009. F ...

and Brown interviewed for a ''

'' article titled "Clifford Brown – the New Dizzy".

Later career

Roach's stature had grown as he recorded with a host of other emerging artists (including

Bud Powell Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell (September 27, 1924 – July 31, 1966) was an American jazz pianist and composer. A pioneer in the development of bebop and its associated contributions to jazz theory,Grove Powell's application of complex phrasing to ...

Sonny Stitt Sonny Stitt (born Edward Hammond Boatner Jr.; February 2, 1924 – July 22, 1982) was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. Known for his warm tone, he was one of the best-documented saxophonists of his era, recording over ...

and

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk ( October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the Jazz standard, standard jazz repertoire, includ ...

) and co-founded Debut, one of the first artist-owned labels, with

Charles Mingus Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz Double bass, upright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author. A major proponent of collective Musical improvisation, improvisation, he is considered one of ...

. Having participated in the legendary Jazz at Massey Hall concert of 1953, the drummer had relocated to the Los Angeles area and had replaced

Shelly Manne Sheldon "Shelly" Manne (June 11, 1920 – September 26, 1984) was an American jazz drummer. Most frequently associated with West Coast jazz, he was known for his versatility and also played in a number of other styles, including Dixieland, ...

in the popular Lighthouse All Stars. Roach and Brown formed the joint Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet in the mid-1950s with tenor saxophonist

Harold Land Harold de Vance Land (December 18, 1928 – July 27, 2001) was an American hard bop and post-bop tenor saxophonist. Land developed his hard bop playing with the Max Roach/Clifford Brown band into a personal, modern style, often rivalling Clifford ...

, pianist Richie Powell, and bassist George Morrow, with tenor saxophonist

Sonny Rollins Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American retired jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, Rollins recorded over sixt ...

taking Land's place in 1955. Brown was in the L.A. area from March to August 1954, on the invitation of Roach, who arrived on the West Coast with other well-regarded jazz musicians including

and

. Prior to their first outing, the 1954 Pasadena Auditorium Concert, Roach included Brown on the basis that the two would be co-leaders. The band started when Brown and Roach rented a studio in California. With Brown able to play piano and drums in addition to trumpet, the co-leaders could experiment extensively with these instruments in the studio. They settled on the standard bebop quintet of trumpet, saxophone, piano, bass, and drums, with sax, piano, and bass players needed. When first choice tenor player Sonny Stitt chose his own musical direction, the bandleaders settled on sax player Teddy Edwards, former Count Basie bassist George Bledsoe, and unconventional pianist

Carl Perkins Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998)#nytimesobit, Pareles. was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rockabilly great and pioneer of rock and roll, he began his recording career at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, Tennes ...

. Though the lineup was short-lived, the group "sent shock waves throughout the jazz community," according to Sam Samuelson. As the band was still deciding on its personnel, Brown and Roach met alto player and multi-instrumentalist

Eric Dolphy Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. (June 20, 1928 – June 29, 1964) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader. Primarily an alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist, and flautist, Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain ...

, who had his own apartment where he hosted jam sessions. Among the jam sessions' musicians were future quintet members Harold Land and George Morrow. Bud Powell's brother Richie arrived in the L.A. area around this time and was recruited as the quintet's pianist. The band accepted recording session offers and Brown composed several tunes that were adopted by the new quintet. Meanwhile, a larger, fully arranged band was organized for one of the upcoming recording sessions by

Jack Montrose Jack Montrose (December 30, 1928 – February 7, 2006) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and arranger. After attending college in Los Angeles, he worked with Jerry Gray and then Art Pepper. Montrose also did arrangements for Clifford Brown. ...

of Pacific Coast Jazz Records. The session "embrace West Coast cool" with "immaculately performed charts," according to reviewer Gordon Jack of ''

Jazz Journal ''Jazz Journal'' is a British jazz magazine established in 1946 by Sinclair Traill (1904–1981). It was first published in London under the title ''Pick Up'', which Traill founded as a locus for serious jazz criticism in Britain.Roberta Freund S ...

''. An early session of the Brown/Roach Quintet, ''Clifford Brown & Max Roach,'' featured the new lineup performing several of Brown's latest compositions. Samuelson referred to the album as a "nice gamut between boplicity and pleasant balladry." Other albums featuring the Brown/Roach collaboration included ''Brown and Roach, Inc.'' and ''Study in Brown''. Brown also recorded albums outside the quintet including the Pacific Coast Jazz session and two albums with jazz vocalist

Dinah Washington Dinah Washington (; born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, one of the most popular black female recording artists of the 1950s. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a ...

. Both were recorded from a jam session setting and featured other jazz trumpeters including

Maynard Ferguson Walter Maynard Ferguson CM (May 4, 1928 – August 23, 2006) was a Canadian jazz trumpeter and bandleader. He came to prominence in Stan Kenton's orchestra before forming his own big band in 1957. He was noted for his bands, which often served ...

and

Clark Terry Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American Swing music, swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator. He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948� ...

. Following the Dinah Washington recordings, Brown slowed the pace of his recordings and returned to the East Coast, recording an album with

Sarah Vaughan Sarah Lois Vaughan (, March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer and pianist. Nicknamed "Sassy" and "List of nicknames of jazz musicians, The Divine One", she won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, ...

in December 1954. The experiments in bop continued in the 1955 session ''Study in Brown'', such as use of instrument sounds to mimic an inner city environment in "Parisian Thoroughfare" and "international flavor" in "George's Dilemma". Jazz critic Scott Yanow referred to the album as "premiere early hard bop" and noted the quintet's "unlimited potential." A 1955 live performance by Brown with Billy Root and Ziggy Vines (sometimes mistakenly thought to have been recorded just before Brown's death a year later) was released on tape in 1973. Following this session, with Blakey temporarily replacing Roach following a car accident, the group toured, visiting Chicago and then Rhode Island for the

Newport Jazz Festival The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hire ...

. Roach returned for this performance and jam session at Newport. Released in 1956, ''At Basin Street'' – the quintet's final "official album" – introduced Rollins. The album was called a "hard bop classic" and "highly recommended" by Scott Yanow. While previous quintet albums included original compositions, this one consisted mainly of jazz standards, although it did include a couple of Richie Powell compositions.

Personal life

In June 1954, Brown married Emma LaRue Anderson (1933–2005), whom he called "Joy Spring". The two had been introduced by Max Roach. Clifford and LaRue celebrated their marriage vows three times, partly because their families were on opposite coasts and partly because of their different religious denominations – Brown was

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

and Anderson was

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. They were first married in a private ceremony June 26, 1954, in Los Angeles (on Anderson's st birthday). They again celebrated their marriage in a religious setting on July 16, 1954, with the certificate being registered in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

. A reception was held at the Tiffany Club where the

Art Pepper Arthur Edward Pepper Jr. (September 1, 1925 – June 15, 1982) was an American jazz musician, most known as an alto saxophonist. He occasionally performed and recorded on tenor saxophone, clarinet (his first instrument) and bass clarinet. Active ...

Quintet had been replaced, a few days earlier, by the

Red Norvo Red Norvo (born Kenneth Norville; March 31, 1908 – April 6, 1999) was an American musician, one of jazz's early vibraphonists, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone, marimba, and vibraphone as jazz instruments. His recor ...

Trio with Tal Farlow and Red Mitchell. Anderson's parish priest followed them to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

where, on August 1, 1954, they performed their marriage ceremony at Saint Richards Church in the Roxbury neighborhood."Clifford Brown in Los Angeles," by Eddie Spencer Meadows, PhD; born 1939; ''Black Music Research Journal,'' published by the Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College Chicago and University of Illinois Press, Vol. 31, No. 1, Spring 2011, pps. 45–63; JSTOR ; ; Brown stayed away from drugs and was not fond of alcohol. Rollins, who was recovering from 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." Brown's enthusiasm for practicing the trumpet was noted by Lou Donaldson, who said Clifford would "do lip exercises and mouth exercises all day."

Death

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 Clifford and Richie could sleep. While driving at night in the rain on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, she presumably lost control of the car which went off the road west of

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

, killing all three in the resulting crash. Brown is buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery, in Wilmington, Delaware.

Legacy

Jazz historian Ira Gitler said of Brown, "l'm sorry I never got to know him better. Not that it necessarily follows that one who plays that beautifully is also a marvelous person, but I think one can discern in Clifford Brown's case that the particular kind of extraordinary playing was linked to an equally special human being ... Photographs of Clifford Brown reveal some of that inner self; the shots in which he is depicted in a playing attitude show his intensity, that utter concentration and total connection with his instrument." In the 1990s, video from the TV program ''Soupy's On'' (starring comedian

Soupy Sales Milton Supman (January 8, 1926 – October 22, 2009), known professionally as Soupy Sales, was an American comedian, actor, radio-television personality, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television ser ...

, who was a big jazz fan and booked several top musical stars for his show) was discovered of Clifford Brown playing two tunes. This is the only video recording known to exist of Brown. Brown's nephew, drummer Rayford Griffin ''(né'' Rayford Galen Griffin; b. 1958), modernized Brown's music on his 2015 album ''Reflections of Brownie.'' Brown's grandson, Clifford Benjamin Brown III (b. 1982), plays trumpet on one of the tracks, "Sandu".

Benny Golson Benny Golson (January 25, 1929 – September 21, 2024) was an American bebop and hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a p ...

composed " I Remember Clifford" in 1957 as a tribute to Brown, and

Jon Hendricks John Carl Hendricks (September 16, 1921 – November 22, 2017), known professionally as Jon Hendricks, was an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and re ...

added lyrics.

Art Farmer Arthur Stewart Farmer (August 21, 1928 – October 4, 1999) was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet–flugelhorn combination especially designed for him. He and his identical twin brother, doub ...

, and Golson himself used the song to pay tribute throughout subsequent years.

Arturo Sandoval Arturo Sandoval (born November 6, 1949) is a Cuban-American jazz trumpeter, pianist, timbalero, and composer. While living in his native Cuba, Sandoval was influenced by jazz musicians Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1977 ...

dedicated an album, '' I Remember Clifford'', to Brown in 1992.

Discography

As leader/co-leader

* 1953: ''New Faces, New Sounds'' with

(

Blue Note Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue no ...

, 1953) 0 inch* 1953: ''New Star on the Horizon'' (Blue Note, 1953) 0 inch* 1953: ''Clifford Brown and Art Farmer with The Swedish All Stars'' with

(Prestige, 1954) 0 inch* 1954: '' Clifford Brown & Max Roach'' (EmArcy, 1954) 0 inch* 1954: ''

Brown and Roach Incorporated Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model ...

'' (EmArcy, 1955) * 1954: '' Clifford Brown All Stars'' (EmArcy, 1956) * 1954: '' Best Coast Jazz'' (EmArcy, 1956) * 1954: ''

Jam Session A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without ...

'' with

and

(EmArcy, 1954) – live * 1955: '' Clifford Brown with Strings'' (EmArcy, 1955) * 1955: '' Study in Brown'' (EmArcy, 1955) * 1956: '' Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street'' (EmArcy, 1956) Posthumous releases * '' Memorial Album'' (Blue Note, 1956) – LP version of ''New Faces, New Sounds'' plus ''New Star on the Horizon'' * ''

Memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...

'' (Prestige, 1956) – LP version of ''Clifford Brown and Art Farmer with The Swedish All Stars''
plus ''A Study In Dameronia'' * ''Jazz Immortal'' featuring

Zoot Sims John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...

( Pacific Jazz, 1960) * ''The Clifford Brown Sextet In Paris'' (Prestige, 1970) – recorded in 1953 * '' The Beginning And The End'' (Columbia, 1973) – compilation * ''Raw Genius - Live at Bee Hive Chicago 1955'' Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 with Max Roach (Victor, 1977) – live recorded in 1955. Japan only.
Also released as ''Live at The Bee Hive'' (Columbia, 1979) LP* ''Pure Genius'' (Volume One) with Max Roach (Elektra Musician, 1982) – live recorded in 1956 * ''More Study in Brown'' (EmArcy, 1983) * ''Jams 2'' (EmArcy, 1983) – recorded in 1954 * ''Alternate Takes'' (Blue Note, 1984) – recorded in 1953 Box set * ''The Complete Blue Note and Pacific Jazz Recordings of Clifford Brown'' (Mosaic Records, 1984) LP* ''Brownie: The Complete EmArcy Recordings of Clifford Brown'' (EmArcy / Nippon Phonographic, 1989) 0CD

As sideman

, ''Live Messengers'' (Blue Note, 1978) * J. J. Johnson, '' Jay Jay Johnson with Clifford Brown'' (Blue Note, 1953), reissued as '' The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Volume 1'' * Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, '' A Night at Birdland Vol. 1'' (Blue Note, 1954) * Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, '' A Night at Birdland Vol. 2'' (Blue Note, 1954) * Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, '' A Night at Birdland Vol. 3'' (Blue Note, 1954) * Tadd Dameron, ''A Study In Dameronia'' (Prestige, 1953) 0 inch*

Helen Merrill Helen Merrill (born Jelena Ana Milcetic; July 21, 1929) is an American jazz vocalist. Her first album, the eponymous 1954 recording ''Helen Merrill (album), Helen Merrill'' (with Clifford Brown on EmArcy), was an immediate success and associat ...

, ''

'' (EmArcy, 1955) – recorded in 1954 *

, '' Sonny Rollins Plus 4'' (Prestige, 1956) (also issued in Brown's name as '' Three Giants'') *

, ''

'' (EmArcy, 1955) – recorded in 1954 *

, '' Dinah Jams'' (EmArcy, 1955) – live recorded in 1954

Filmography

: 1988: '' Let's Get Lost'' – " Joy Spring" and " Daahoud"

References

Bibliography

* Nick Catalano, ''Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter'' (Oxford University Press, 2001),

External links

"50 Years Later, Unmuted Awe for Clifford Brown"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Clifford 1930 births 1956 deaths 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American trumpeters African-American jazz musicians American jazz trumpeters American male jazz musicians American male trumpeters Bebop trumpeters Blue Note Records artists Delaware State University alumni EmArcy Records artists Hard bop trumpeters Howard High School of Technology alumni Methodists from Pennsylvania Musicians from Wilmington, Delaware Road incident deaths in Pennsylvania University of Maryland Eastern Shore alumni DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame members