Tucson Jazz Institute

JANUARY ARTIST OF THE MONTH Clifford Brown by Scott Black
Clifford Brown is the second most influential trumpet player in jazz history after Louis Armstrong. "Brownie," as known by his friends, is famous for being a great person as well. He was humble, gracious and loved by all. Born in 1930, Clifford died tragically at the age of 26 in a winter storm car accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 1956. Clifford's first "big name" gig with the Lionel Hampton Big Band in 1952 gave him world wide exposure. Art Blakey selected him in 1953 to be on Blakey's first Blue Note recording Live at Birdland. Most of his other recordings were made with his primary musical partner, drummer Max Roach. This quintet The Clifford Brown Max Roach Quintet became the first "hard bop" ensemble in jazz. Soon after Art Blakey formed his own permanent hard bop band The Jazz Messengers. Clifford was hard bop's first and most influential trumpet player -- even though Dizzy Gillespie invented bebop with Bird. Clifford's brassy and warm sound, clear and clen articulation, virtuosic technique, and an easy-to-imitate, well-formed swing style made him the main influence and inspiration for jazz trumpet players such as Lee Morgan, Donald Byrd, Art Farmer, Blue Mitchell, Bill Hardman, Freddie Hubbard and countless others. Dizzy Gillespie, though a innovator of bebop, was more "dissonate" and difficult to imitate rhythmically, as well as having "too" personal of a sound. Clifford Brown is almost exclusively a bebop scale player like Charlie Parker. Imitating Clifford enabled many other trumpet players to learn Bird's language. Bird first heard Clifford in 1953 and is quoted as saying, "I hear it but I don't believe it!" read more about Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown ideas everyone should know! The idea below is a very simple yet very emphatic idea from Clifford's "Joy Spring" solo. This idea is used by many others including John Coltrane who uses it often in a very modern context. Note the first measure uses a leading tone to the 3rd of the key, beats 3 and 4 are upper and lower neighbor tones to the tonic and measure 2 is 1-5-3-1-5!

The idea below is also from Clifford's "Joy Spring" solo and is likely his single most quoted idea. Clifford plays this in the second 8 (in Gb) so I have put it in C major also. This idea goes up a major 7th chord starting on the 7th, beats 3 and 4 are upper and lower neigbor tone to the root of the VI7 chord which works whether it is played by the rhythm section or not. Measure 2 is a decending minor 7th chord to the #5 and 3 of the V7 chord.

Below is a 2 measure ii7 V7 from "I'll Remember April". Note how the second measure is an expansion of the "Joy Spring" idea shown above. Clifford is playing a B major triad on the G7 chord which is really playing a D# diminished chord on the G7 -- TRY IT!

Below is probably Charlie Parker's most quoted and important idea. This idea is used by Clifford Brown in MANY ways. Check out the second bridge on "I'll Remember April."

Clifford Brown solos for download as PDFs!
Joy Spring Concert Bass Clef Bb Instruments Eb Instruments	I'll Remember April Concert Bass Clef Bb Instruments Eb Instruments	Sandu Concert Bass Clef Bb Instruments Eb Instruments
CLIFFORD BROWN PHOTOS AND AUDIO CLIPS ON YouTube