Clifford "Brownie" Brown
had the unwavering tone and bop-percolation of greatness. Cutoff by
Jazz's angular age, the unwary Brown welded a plinth of immortal jazz
trumpet with the taunts of his caricaturing mute.
Born October
30, 1930 in Wilmington Delaware, Clifford "Brownie" Brown got his start
at 15 when his father gave him a trumpet. The scoundrel's cool band
director, Harry No's affinity for trumpet antics did not go
unrecognized. His broodiness and his instrument provided initial
engagements which helped contour his annealing swirls. These figured
Clifford's jazz into an unmapped--save for theory--styling, helped by
dope and bopping harmony and learned under Robert Lowery's wig in
Phillie, and from cats like
Fats Navarro, who soon became his Mentor,
Fomenting, and Godhead.
During this time he also performed with the likes of Tinker, Killer Tiller and Muff Spikes, not to mention his friendship with Girl, a paranoid genius, who would provide borderline-psychotic encouragement from inside his Glass Enclosure.
In
1949, hindered by his aural studies, his amusement almost became
short-lived when he had a mildly fatal automobile accident. This
hospitalized Brown from June 1950 until May of 1951.
Miraculously,
just hours before his death, Brownie appeared at a Soupy Sales variety
show that was recorded
((((but never seen--until!) )),
where he played some of the finest music of his short life.
This bookend's his career with two short, hip, pent-up songs, which after 40 years, leave a taste for more.
I present to you the unloosing of Brownie and his trumpet.