Essay On Clifford Brown

Clifford Brown: Life and Music A musician’s life and works go hand in hand, with each one influencing and giving insight to the other. One of the greatest trumpet players in jazz, Clifford Brown, lived a short but successful life. Clifford Brown gained the respect and admiration of his peers, and his works continue to be appreciated by listeners today. His longtime friend and bandmate Max Roach pioneered modern jazz drumming and is featured on almost all of Clifford Brown’s classic recordings. Clifford Brown’s composition “Sandu” off of his 1955 album Study in Brown has become one of the most recognizable blues heads, and demonstrates Clifford Brown’s proficiency as a trumpeter and improviser. Despite his short lived life, Clifford Brown continues
The album features Clifford Brown on trumpet, Max Roach on drums, Ritchie Powell on piano, Harold Land on tenor saxophone, and George Morrow on bass. “Sandu” is a twelve bar “jazz blues” and has become a highly recognizable jazz standard. Brown’s solo is immediately recognizable and easy to identify. Brown passes through double time lines with ease and develops classic blues ideas. Brown uses very little vibrato, and explains “the vibrato at the end of the notes, almost to the extent where it’s like a little shake, was very prominent [in early jazz], and gave a feeling of warmth. But it was so warm, to what we call “hot” now, and modern jazz isn’t too hot” (Brown 2:03). Brown explains that jazz of the time was not “cool” or emotionless, but looked to find a happy medium rather than either extreme. The solo is executed almost perfectly, with no cracks or bad notes. Brown demonstrates fluency in all registers of the trumpet. Richard Cooke remarks on Brown’s range “He could get all over the horn with incomparable fluency. His high range is as easily covered as his middle and low, but this was amplified by his voluptuous sound” (Hentoff