Clifford Brown - New Star On The Horizon VINYL LP DAD136
If you have heard, bought and enjoyed the Jay Jay Johnson Sextet session or the Donaldson-Brown performances you are already familiar with the work of Clifford Brown, the 23 year-old trumpet ace from Wilmington, Del who started his professional career in 1948 around Philadelphia.
Brownie is what might best be described as a fledgling in the jazz world. The dictionary defines a fledgling as a young bird ready for flight. Brownie is as young as was Bird himself whe the tatter's first records earned nationwide scruy; and Brownie was ready for flight - his first solo flight - when Blue Note Records decided to give him this session recently.
he date took place just a week before Brownie took off for Europe, as a member of that vast edifice built by the master of multiple decibels, the Lionel Hampton orchestra. Like Gigi Gryce, the alto saxophonist and fellow-Hamptonian whom Brownie pressed into service for this session, the young hornman found the occasions for expressing his individual personality few and far between in so large and monolithic an organization. The opportunity to record with a small, compact group, aimed at the creation of originality and relaxation rather than intensity and consternation, was a welcome change of setting for the two eager youngsters.
A third Hampton star also helped to mold this date. He had also been installed for some time in Hamp’s trumpet section, but is perhaps known better as an arranger, and it is in the latter capacity that Quincy Jones, a new star from Boston, contributed two originals, Wail Bait and Brownie Eyes, for the Brown session. Completing the front line is Charlie Rouse, a tenor man whom most fans will remember from the famous Tadd Dameron conclave that produced The Squirrel, Our Delight, Dameronia, etc. on BLP 5004. Charlie has also been heard in the orchestras of Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and others.
tracklist
A1 Cherokee
A2 Easy Living
A3 Wail Bait
A4 Minor Mood
A5 Hymn Of The Orient
A6 Brownie Eyes
B1 Philly J
B2 Dial B For Beauty
B3 Theme Of No Repeat
B4 Choose Now
