Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter

Nick Catalano's biography of Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter is the only one we have for the legendary jazz trumpeter. Unfortunately, it is not a great one. The first half of the book is a "straight" biography focusing on Brown's family background in Delaware, the tightly-knit world of segregated black Wilmington, and his early musical influences. Then, for the remainder of his short life, the rest of the biography becomes a list of recording dates and performances, replete with the author's preferences and commentary. The first half is quite interesting and contextualizes the background of Brown in Wilmington's black east side. The second half is mainly useful for commentary on Brown's discography and data gleamed from friends and family of Brown to fill in some of the gaps between recording sessions or performance dates across the Northeast and Midwest.

The main utility of the text, however, is some of the details if provides on the career of the relatively straight-laced Brown, particularly the illustrious Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet. Catalano adequately covers the influence of Fats Navarro, Brown's distinct technique, and the state of bop in the northeast, particularly Philadelphia's importance as a major city near enough to New York with supportive audiences for innovative jazz musicians. The significance of California in the emergence of the quintet of Brown and Roach was also news to me, again suggesting the importance of the West Coast jazz scene in pushing the music in new directions. Indeed, Eric Dolphy's friend, Harold Land, was key for the sound for the quintet, which then headed to the East Coast to great acclaim. 

However, the hectic touring schedule and limitation of jazz to small clubs in the 1950s clearly emerges as a factor in the political economy of the music. Threatened by the rise of R&B and rock, limited to smaller venues and, as musicians often seen as lesser than their classical counterparts, jazz musicians were "Jim Crowed" in the club scene. This is relevant to Brown since constant touring for small combos required zigzagging across the Northeast and Midwest, increasing the chances for a car accident that eventually ended his life. Thus, in spite of all the critical praise for Brown as a unique force in jazz, he too could not escape the confines imposed on jazz artists.