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The Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet: Clifford Brown and Max Roach.
Recorded 1954-1955. By the 1950s bebop had metamorphosed into hard bop, with an even greater emphasis on blues and incorporating ideas from other musical forms such as gospel. One of the principal musicians behind this movement was Art Blakey, but arguably the style's greatest group was the quintet formed by another drummer, Max Roach. Roach had been involved in bebop since the very beginning, drumming in Charlie Parker's quintet, but by the 50s he was ready, like Blakey and a handful of drummers before them, to take centre-stage (figuratively speaking) and form his own group. But in an admirable act of generosity, he asked a young and then relatively unknown trumpeter, Clifford Brown, to co-lead the group with him.
Brown, like Roach, was an absolute virtuoso on his instrument. He practiced relentlessly and had a rare command of the trumpet Although he was still a raw talent at the time this album was recorded - you can hear a few uncharacteristic missed notes in his solo on the opening track, "Delilah" - he was already a remarkable musician. His playing was largely influenced by the legendary bebop trumpeter Fats Navarro, but Brown brought a warmth and sense of joy to his music that was all his own. He recorded prolifically, both with this band and with others - just as well, because he died in 1956, aged only 25. His death was all the more tragic because he had been the great hope of jazz: in an era when too many stars of the music were dying through their own misadventure with drugs or with alcohol, Brown swore off both. He was killed in a car accident along with Richie Powell, pianist in this group (and brother of the famous Bud Powell), and Powell's wife. Max Roach, by contrast, lived to be one of jazz's great elder statesmen and teachers. He died only in August last year, at the age of 83.
But let's not get too maudlin here. This is wonderful music, the epitome of the spirit of joy and happiness and delight and shared experience that rests at the heart of jazz. Although the later version of this band, with Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone, was the more celebrated, this original line-up - with Harold Land on tenor - is the one I prefer. Rollins may have been a better saxophonist than Land, but I love the contrast between Land's dark, romantic tone and Brown's tone, so bright it's like a sun-burst. The line-up of the group is as follows:
- Clifford Brown: trumpet
- Harold Land: tenor saxophone
- Richie Powell: piano
- George Morrow: bass
- Max Roach: drums.
Tomorrow: Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and more!