CLIFFORD BROWN – The Quintet Vol. 1 (2LP-1976)

Label: Mercury ‎– EMS-2-403

Series: The EmArcy Jazz Series –

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Remastered / Country: US / Released: 1976

Country of Origin: Netherlands  

Style: Hard Bop

Recorded at Capitol Studio Los Angeles, August 3,5 & 6, 1954 and Capitol, New York, February 23, 1955.

Art Direction [Art Director AGI] – Jim Schubert

Artwork – Bob Ziering

Compiled By, Liner Notes – Dan Morgenstern

Design – Joe Kotleba

Engineer [Cutting] – Gilbert Kong

Reissue Producer – Robin McBride

Remastered By [Tape] – Dick Campbell

A1 - Delilah . . . . . 8:06

A2 - Parisian Thoroughfare . . . . . 7:14

A3 - Jordu . . . . . 7:48

B1 - Sweet Clifford . . . . . 6:40

B2 - Ghost Of A Chance . . . . . 7:20

B3 - Stompin' At The Savoy . . . . . 6:26

C1 - I Get A Kick Out Of You . . . . . 7:36

C2 - Joy Spring . . . . . 6:51

C3 - Mildama . . . . . 4:25

D1 - Daahoud . . . . . 4:04

D2 - Gerkin For Perkin . . . . . 2:58

D3 - Take The A Train . . . . . 4:21

D4 - Lands End . . . . . 4:58

D5 - Swingin' . . . . . 2:52

Clifford Brown – trumpet

Max Roach – drums

Harold Land – tenor saxophone

George Morrow – bass

Richie Powell – piano

To me, the name of Clifford Brown will always remain synonymous with the very essence of musical and moral maturity. This name will stand as a symbol of the ideals every young jazz musician should strive to attain.

This name also represents a musician who had intelligent understanding and awareness of social, moral, and economic problems which constantly confuse the jazz musician, sometimes to the point of hopeless rebellion.

In the summer of 1953, while I was working with the Lionel Hampton band in Wildwood, N.J., I begged Hamp to hire three of the musicians from Tadd Dameron's band, which was nearing the end of its Atlantic City engagement: Gigi Gryce, Benny Golson, and Clifford Brown. They were all hired and then began an association that I'll always be grateful to Lionel for.

Brownie stayed on to go to Europe with this band and became closely associated with several other young musicians who were of growing importance in the jazz world, such as Art Farmer, Anthony Ortega, Jimmy Cleveland, Alan Dawson, and George Wallington. Although this band never played in the states together, I think it was one of the best Hamp ever had.

By means of an ex-tensive recording schedule abroad, Brownie came first to the eyes and ears of the French and Swedish jazzmen and a new thoroughbred was on the jazz scene. The uniting of Clifford Brown with the trumpet must have been declared from above. For seldom does a musical vehicle prove to be so completely gratifying as the trumpet was to Clifford.

Here was the perfect amalgamation of natural creative ability, and the proper amount of technical training, enabling him to contribute precious moments of musical and emotional expression. This inventiveness placed him in a class far beyond that of most of his poll-winning contemporaries. Clifford's self-assuredness in his playing reflected the mind and soul of a blossoming young artist who would have rightfully taken his place next to Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and other leaders in jazz.

In this generation where some well-respected and important pioneers condemn the young for going ahead, Brownie had a very hard job. He constantly struggled to associate jazz, it's shepherds, and it's sheep, with a cleaner element, and held no room in his heart for bitterness about the publicity-made popularity and success of some of his pseudo-jazz giant brothers, who were sometimes very misleading morally and musically. As a man and a musician, he stood for a perfect example and the rewards of self-discipline.

It is really a shame that in this day of such modern techniques of publicity, booking, promoting, and what have you, a properly-backed chimpanzee can be a success after the big treatment. Why can't just one-tenth of these efforts be placed on something that is well-respected, loved, and supported in every country in the world but it's own?

Except for a very chosen few, the American music business man and the majority of the public (the Elvis Depressley followers specifically) have made an orphan out of jazz, banishing its creators and true followers and adopting idiots that could be popular no place else in the universe. I'll go so far as to bet that the salaries of Liberace, Cheeta, and Lassie alone could pay the yearly cost of booking every jazzman in the country.

This is why it's such a shame that Clifford Brown, Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, and others have to leave the world so unappreciated except for a small jazz circle. I hope some of us live to see a drastic change.

In June, 1950, Clifford Brown's career was threatened by an auto accident while he was with the Chris Powell band, which kept him from his horn for a whole year. Exactly six years later, by the same means of an auto accident, death took its toll of Clifford Brown, along with his pianist Richard Powell (brother of Bud Powell), and Richard's wife.

Clifford, at 25, was at the beginning of showing capabilities parallel only to those of Charlie Parker. There was nothing he would stop at to make each performance sound as if it were his last. But there will never be an ending performance for him, because his constant desire was to make every musical moment one of sincere warmth and beauty; this lives on forever. This would be a better world today if we had more people who believed in what Clifford Brown stood for as a man and a musician. 

Jazz will always be grateful for his few precious moments; I know I will.

By Quincy Jones

Downbeat Magazine, August, 1956

If you find it, buy this album!