za 12 feb 2022, 17:00 uur – Krizz Krazz dwars door Fred’s platenkast. Jazz kent vele legendarische tandems en ensembles: Charlie Parker met Dizzy Gillespie (Bird & Dizz), de kwintetten van Miles Davis met John Coltrane, Het Dave Brubeck Quartet met Paul Desmond, en dichter bij huis, de gebroeders Jacobs met Rita Reys. Ook het Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet schreef geschiedenis in de slechts tweeënhalf jaar van zijn bestaan, midden jaren ’50.
Los Angeles, autumn 1953. Drummer Max Roach gets the opportunity to put together a quintet – the impresario can guarantee a long series of bookings. Roach brings the 23 year old trumpeter Clifford Brown (photo) from the East Coats, where Brown had proved himself in the Art Blakey Quintet (“A Night At Birdland”). This forms the core of one of the most important hardbop formations in the 50’s.
Unlike many trumpeters Brown can combine superfast melodic lines with clear, warm sound. Additionally he’s an endless source of musical ideas and a talented composer. After the usual changes of personnel the Brown/Roach quintet is definitively completed by tenor sax Harold Land, pianist Richie Powell – brother of pianist Bud Powell – and bass player George Morrow.
The selection for this programme starts with a piece by Brown, Sweet Clifford, a piece in breakneck tempo, based on the chords from the standard Sweet Georgia Brown. Drummer Max Roach gets a solo opportunity in the opening chorus and dominates almost the whole of the second half with a long percussion story. The remarkably relaxed closing bars work surprisingly well. Pianist Powell starts his solo with a quote from: ‘English Country Garden’.
In Parisian Thoroughfare, a piece by Bud Powell, the quotes in the themes are from George Gershwin’s ‘An American In Paris’, and if you listen closely you can hear the French national anthem ‘La Marseillaise’. They like quotes.
Brown’s wife’s nickname is Joy Spring. The correspondingly named composition becomes one of Brown’s signature works.
Before these Brown/Roach pieces we’re playing recordings from the same period (1954) by trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker.
(In June 1956 the 25 year old Clifford Brown died in a car accident. Pianist Richie Powell, a passenger in the same car, also died in the crash.)
Click hier for an overview in the Guide of all pieces and cd’s.
Krizz Krazz – a programme by Fred Dubiez
