Saturday, December 23, 2006

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST song of the day


Artist:Clifford Brown

Song:Night In Tunisia

Album:The Best Of Clifford Brown:The Blue Note Years





Despite a very short career, Clifford Brown is still considered one of the all time greats of jazz trumpet and a major influence on those to follow. He was born Oct. 30, 1930 in Wilmington, DE. His big influence was Fats Navarro so it's appropriate that he worked with Tadd Dameron in 1953. This Best Of comp is a good introduction to Brown and this version of Dizzy Gillespie's Night In Tunisia is actually from Brown's 1954 breakthrough recording with a pre-Jazz Messengers Art Blakey. It's called A Night At Birdland Vol. 1 and other musicians include Lou Donaldson on alto sax, Horace Silver on piano and Curly Russell on bass. Brown formed a band with drummer Max Roach and was on his way to stardom when he died tragically in a car crash on June 26, 1956 in Pennsylvania. He was 25. Pianist Richie Powell was killed too. And unlike a lot of jazz musicians, Clifford Brown was a clean liver. But we still have his music and you should check Clifford Brown out. I can't believe there is any video footage available but here's Clifford Brown performing Lady Be Good on the Soupy Sales Show early 1956.

No comments:

Post a Comment