Clifford Brown influenced so many jazz musicians in his lifetime that it's hard to fathom he only recorded for a short period of time before his life was cut short. Clifford Brown joined forces with drum phenom, Max Roach, in the mid-50s to produce some of the hardest swinging jazz music ever recorded.
Brown had a very personal approach to playing the trumpet. This approach has influenced everybody from Freddie Hubbard to Lee Morgan to Woody Shaw. He had a very pure tone. He was the opposite of Miles Davis. Brown would play a lot of notes in an uptempo tune and really just improvise all of these beautiful series of notes. He simply could phrase almost better than any trumpeter before or after him.
Brown's own groups with Max Roach have produced several fine musicians most notably Harold Land and Sonny Rollins. Here are several recordings worth owning:
Clifford Brown/Max Roach - 1955 Emarcy Records
Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet - Brown and Roach, Inc. - 1954 Emarcy Records
Clifford Brown/Max Roach - Study In Brown - 1956 Emarcy Records
Clifford Brown - With Strings - 1955 Emarcy Records
At Basin Street - 1956 Emarcy Records
