{"id":538,"date":"2006-06-26T14:02:44","date_gmt":"2006-06-26T21:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/?p=538"},"modified":"2006-06-26T14:02:44","modified_gmt":"2006-06-26T21:02:44","slug":"clifford_brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2006\/06\/clifford_brown\/","title":{"rendered":"Clifford Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fifty years ago today at <em>The Seattle Times<\/em>, as I ripped copy from the wire machines my eye went to a story in the latest Associated Press national split. A young trumpeter named <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cliffordbrown.net\/\"target=\"_blank\">Clifford Brown<\/a> had been killed early that morning in a car crash. My heart stopped for a beat or two. My stomach churned. I felt ill. I was attempting to master the trumpet and, like virtually all aspiring trumpet players, idolized Brown. The life of a majestically inventive musician had ended violently on a rainy highway in Pennsylvania. He was four months short of his twenty-sixth birthday. When I think about his loss, I still feel ill. <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"brownie.gif\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/archives\/brownie.gif\" width=\"161\" height=\"214\" \/> There has never been a jazz musician who worked harder, lived cleaner, and accomplished or promised more in so short a lifetime.  His practice routine encompassed taping himself as he worked out on trumpet and piano. I have listened to some of those tapes. It is moving to hear Brown pursue&#8211;and achieve&#8211;perfection as he brings complex ideas to fruition through the persistent application of his technical mastery, to hear him sing a phrase and then play it repeatedly until he has polished it nearly to his satisfaction. Like most first-rank artists, he was never truly satisfied with his performance. To listeners, however, Brown&#8217;s solos are among the glories of twentieth century music. To trumpet players, his work remains an inspiration. His passion, power, lyricism and flaweless execution constitute a model whose pursuit is bound to bring improvement.<br \/>\nIn Today&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2006\/06\/25\/AR2006062500962.html?referrer=emailarticle\"target=\"_blank\"><em>Washington Post<\/em><\/a>, Matt Schudel summarizes Brown&#8217;s life and contributions. For a fuller account, read Nick Catalano&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?link_code=ur2&#038;tag=rifftidougram-20&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2F0195144007%2Fqid%3D1151353951%2Fsr%3D1-1%2Fref%3Dsr_1_1%3Fs%3Dbooks%26v%3Dglance%26n%3D283155\"target=\"_blank\">biography of Brown<\/a>. Fortunately,  Brown recorded copiously during his few years of playing. Most of his work remains in print. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?link_code=ur2&#038;tag=rifftidougram-20&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2FB0000046NG%2Fqid%3D1151353407%2Fsr%3D1-1%2Fref%3Dsr_1_1%3Fs%3Dmusic%26v%3Dglance%26n%3D5174\"target=\"_blank\">This album<\/a> captures him at his peak with the group he and drummer Max Roach co-led. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?link_code=ur2&#038;tag=rifftidougram-20&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2Ftracks%2FB0007ULN90%2Fref%3Ddp_tracks_all_1%3Fie%3DUTF8%23disc_1\"target=\"_blank\">This box set<\/a> covers highlights from his recordings for several labels. If you don&#8217;t know Clifford Brown&#8217;s work, I suggest that you move immediately toward the nearest CD shop or website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fifty years ago today at The Seattle Times, as I ripped copy from the wire machines my eye went to a story in the latest Associated Press national split. A young trumpeter named Clifford Brown had been killed early that morning in a car crash. My heart stopped for a beat or two. My stomach [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}