Clifford Brown & Max Roach
Encyclopedia
Clifford Brown & Max Roach is a 1955 album by influential jazz
musicians Clifford Brown
and Max Roach
as part of the Clifford Brown and Max Roach Quintet, described by The New York Times
as "perhaps the definitive bop group until Mr. Brown's fatal automobile accident in 1956". The album was critically well-received and includes several notable tracks, including two that have since become jazz standards. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. It is included in Jazz: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings at #34, where it is described by New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff as "one of the strongest studio albums up to that time".
Originally released on the EmArcy label, it has been multiply re-issued, including in a 2000 edition by Verve Records
that contains additional tracks.
to join him in creating a band. Brown and Roach together selected additional musicians to comprise the quintet from among the jazz musicians currently active in Hollywood. The band's early line-ups included Sonny Stitt
, Teddy Edwards
, Carl Perkins
and George Bledsoe, but by the time the first of these sessions was recorded in August 1954, they had been replaced by the more long-term line-up of Clifford Brown
, Harold Land
and Richie Powell
, the brother of jazz luminary Bud Powell
. The band was prominent in the jazz scene; Land, brought in when predecessor Edwards declined to tour with the group, experienced an enormous increase in his reputation in the jazz world, while Land's successor (Sonny Rollins
) would be springboarded by the visible position into superstardom.
The majority of the sessions that comprise this album were recorded at Capitol Studios
in Hollywood in August 1954. Two of the tracks were recorded in February 1955 at Capitol Studios in New York City
.
describes it as "by far some of the warmest and most sincere bebop performed and committed to tape", indicating that "[i]t represents bop at its best and is recommended for collectors and casual fans alike".
The song "Joy Spring" was composed by Brown in honor of his wife, whom he called his "joy spring". She had been introduced to him by Roach as a student working to prove in her thesis that jazz was inferior to her field of classical music
, a thesis Brown convinced her was mistaken. Ratliff describes these two songs, along with the tracks "Parisian Thoroughfare" and "Jordu" as "four of Brown's great performances".
Also notable is the album's version of the Victor Young
theme song for the Cecil B. DeMille
film Samson and Delilah
, which Village Voice columnist Gary Giddins
selected as the outstanding jazz track for 1954, though he describes it as "the most unlikely of vehicles". In a 2006 interview with The New York Times, jazz drummer Paul Motian
also singled out the song, "Delilah", for reference, praising its organization and arrangement, declaring it "Simple, but great". The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Jazz comments of the song that its "exotic mood" was "cleverly exploited", also noting that "[i]n Brown's sweeping solo, the commentary supplied by Roach is worthy of special study, as he seemingly anticipates every nuance of his co-leader's lines".
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musicians Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown , aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings...
and Max Roach
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...
as part of the Clifford Brown and Max Roach Quintet, described by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
as "perhaps the definitive bop group until Mr. Brown's fatal automobile accident in 1956". The album was critically well-received and includes several notable tracks, including two that have since become jazz standards. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. It is included in Jazz: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings at #34, where it is described by New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff as "one of the strongest studio albums up to that time".
Originally released on the EmArcy label, it has been multiply re-issued, including in a 2000 edition by Verve Records
Verve Records
Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
that contains additional tracks.
History
The album is one of several that resulted from the partnership between Roach and Brown after Roach invited Brown in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to join him in creating a band. Brown and Roach together selected additional musicians to comprise the quintet from among the jazz musicians currently active in Hollywood. The band's early line-ups included Sonny Stitt
Sonny Stitt
Edward "Sonny" Stitt was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. He was also one of the best-documented saxophonists of his generation, recording over 100 albums in his lifetime...
, Teddy Edwards
Teddy Edwards
Theodore Marcus "Teddy" Edwards was an American jazz tenor saxophonist based on the West Coast of the US. Some consider him to be one of the most influential jazz saxophonists.-Biography:...
, Carl Perkins
Carl Perkins (pianist)
Carl Perkins was an American jazz pianist.Perkins was born in Indianapolis but worked mainly in Los Angeles. He is best known for his performances with the Curtis Counce Quintet, which also featured Harold Land, Jack Sheldon and drummer Frank Butler...
and George Bledsoe, but by the time the first of these sessions was recorded in August 1954, they had been replaced by the more long-term line-up of Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown , aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings...
, Harold Land
Harold Land
Harold de Vance Land was an American hard bop and post-bop tenor saxophonist. Land developed his hard bop playing with the Max Roach/Clifford Brown band into a personal, modern style. His tone was strong and emotional, yet displayed a certain fragility that made him easy to...
and Richie Powell
Richie Powell
Richie Powell was an American bebop jazz pianist.Powell was born into a musical family in New York City, and was the younger brother of Bud Powell...
, the brother of jazz luminary Bud Powell
Bud Powell
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...
. The band was prominent in the jazz scene; Land, brought in when predecessor Edwards declined to tour with the group, experienced an enormous increase in his reputation in the jazz world, while Land's successor (Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
) would be springboarded by the visible position into superstardom.
The majority of the sessions that comprise this album were recorded at Capitol Studios
Capitol Studios
The Capitol Studios complex opened in the Capitol Records Building, a futuristic new building in the heart of Hollywood, in 1956. It has since hosted some of the most treasured recordings in music history, from Frank Sinatra to the Beastie Boys. It is owned by Capitol Records whose parent company...
in Hollywood in August 1954. Two of the tracks were recorded in February 1955 at Capitol Studios in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Critical reception
The album was critically well-received. The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Jazz ranks it as among the best of the short-lived quintet, which in its 2½ years of existence "left behind a body of music that encapsulates all the best virtues of hard bop". "The numerous felicities of this tightly-knit working band", author Barry Dean Kernfeld wrote, "were seldom better displayed than in these dynamic performances". In its review, All MusicAll Music
All Music was an Italian free-to-air television station which mainly broadcast music videos and music programs. Originally called Rete A, the name was changed to Rete A - All Music , and for a brief period was affiliated before with MTV Italy and after with VIVA.-History:In late 2004 the former...
describes it as "by far some of the warmest and most sincere bebop performed and committed to tape", indicating that "[i]t represents bop at its best and is recommended for collectors and casual fans alike".
Notable tracks
According to The Rough Guide to Jazz, two of the songs featured on this album, "Daahoud" and "Joy Spring", have become "part of the standard jazz repertoire".The song "Joy Spring" was composed by Brown in honor of his wife, whom he called his "joy spring". She had been introduced to him by Roach as a student working to prove in her thesis that jazz was inferior to her field of classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, a thesis Brown convinced her was mistaken. Ratliff describes these two songs, along with the tracks "Parisian Thoroughfare" and "Jordu" as "four of Brown's great performances".
Also notable is the album's version of the Victor Young
Victor Young
Victor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...
theme song for the Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
film Samson and Delilah
Samson and Delilah (1949 film)
Samson and Delilah is a 1949 film made by Paramount Pictures , produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr as the title characters...
, which Village Voice columnist Gary Giddins
Gary Giddins
Gary Giddins is an American jazz critic, author, and director, best known for his longtime work with The Village Voice. Born in Brooklyn, and raised on Long Island, Giddins graduated from Grinnell College, Iowa, in 1970...
selected as the outstanding jazz track for 1954, though he describes it as "the most unlikely of vehicles". In a 2006 interview with The New York Times, jazz drummer Paul Motian
Paul Motian
Stephen Paul Motian was an American jazz drummer, percussionist and composer of Armenian extraction.He first came to prominence in the late 1950s in the piano trio of Bill Evans, and later led several groups...
also singled out the song, "Delilah", for reference, praising its organization and arrangement, declaring it "Simple, but great". The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Jazz comments of the song that its "exotic mood" was "cleverly exploited", also noting that "[i]n Brown's sweeping solo, the commentary supplied by Roach is worthy of special study, as he seemingly anticipates every nuance of his co-leader's lines".
Track listing
Except where otherwise noted, songs composed by Clifford Brown.- "Delilah" (Victor YoungVictor YoungVictor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...
) – 8:06 - "Parisian Thoroughfare" (Bud PowellBud PowellEarl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...
) – 7:19 - "Jordu" (Duke JordanDuke JordanIrving Sidney "Duke" Jordan was an American jazz pianist.-Biography:An imaginative and gifted pianist, Jordan was a regular member of Charlie Parker's so-called "classic quintet" , featuring Miles Davis...
) – 7:50 - "Joy Spring" – 6:50
- "Daahoud" – 4:05
- "The Blues Walk" (Chris WoodsChris Woods (musician)Chris Woods was an American jazz alto saxophonist.Woods played locally in Memphis early in his career before moving to St. Louis to play with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra and trumpeter George Hudson. He then joined Tommy Dean's combo, recording with them for Town and Country, Miracle, and States...
) – 6:47 - "What Am I Here For?" (Duke EllingtonDuke EllingtonEdward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, Frankie LaineFrankie LaineFrankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005...
) – 3:11
Verve additional tracks
- "These Foolish ThingsThese Foolish Things (Remind Me Of You)"These Foolish Things " is a standard with words by Eric Maschwitz and music by Jack Strachey. Harry Link, an American, sometimes appears as a co-writer, but his input was probably limited to changes to suit the U.S. market. It is one of a group of 'Mayfair Songs', like "A Nightingale Sang in...
" (Harry LinkHarry LinkHarry Link, born Harry Linkey was an American songwriter. He wrote or co-wrote several well-known jazz standards....
, Holt MarvellEric MaschwitzAlbert Eric Maschwitz OBE , known as Eric Maschwitz and sometimes credited as Holt Marvell, was an English entertainer, writer, broadcaster and broadcasting executive.-Life and work:...
, Jack StracheyJack StracheyJack Strachey , was an English composer and songwriterBorn John Francis Strachey in London, England on 25 September 1894 he began writing songs in the 1920s for the theatre and the music hall, scoring his first success with songs he had written for Frith Shephard's long running musical revue Lady...
) – 3:48 - "The Blues Walk" (alternate take) – 6:54
- "Daahoud" (alternate take) – 4:09
- "Joy Spring" (alternate take) – 6:43
Personnel
- Clifford BrownClifford BrownClifford Brown , aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings...
– trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air... - Harold LandHarold LandHarold de Vance Land was an American hard bop and post-bop tenor saxophonist. Land developed his hard bop playing with the Max Roach/Clifford Brown band into a personal, modern style. His tone was strong and emotional, yet displayed a certain fragility that made him easy to...
– tenor saxophoneTenor saxophoneThe tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble... - George MorrowGeorge Morrow (bassist)George Morrow was a jazz bassist.Although most closely associated with Max Roach and Clifford Brown, Morrow also appears on recordings by Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt....
– bassDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2... - Richie PowellRichie PowellRichie Powell was an American bebop jazz pianist.Powell was born into a musical family in New York City, and was the younger brother of Bud Powell...
– pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal... - Max RoachMax RoachMaxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
External links
- Listing, with samples at Verve RecordsVerve RecordsVerve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...