Clifford Brown and Max Roach

History

The album is one of several that resulted from the partnership between Roach and Brown after Roach invited Brown in New York City to join him in creating a band. Brown and Roach together selected additional musicians to comprise the quintet from among the jazz musicians currently active in Hollywood. The band's early line-ups included Sonny Stitt, Teddy Edwards, Carl Perkins and George Bledsoe, but by the time the first of these sessions was recorded in August 1954, they had been replaced by the more long-term line-up of Clifford Brown, Harold Land and Richie Powell, the brother of jazz luminary Bud Powell. The band was prominent in the jazz scene; Land, brought in when predecessor Edwards declined to tour with the group, experienced an enormous increase in his reputation in the jazz world, while Land's successor (Sonny Rollins) would be springboarded by the visible position into superstardom.

Critical reception

The album was critically well received. The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Jazz ranks it as among the best of the short-lived quintet, which in its 2½ years of existence "left behind a body of music that encapsulates all the best virtues of hard bop". "The numerous felicities of this tightly-knit working band", author Barry Dean Kernfeld wrote, "were seldom better displayed than in these dynamic performances". In its review, AllMusic describes it as "by far some of the warmest and most sincere bebop performed and committed to tape", indicating that "[i]t represents bop at its best and is recommended for collectors and casual fans alike".

Notable tracks

According to The Rough Guide to Jazz, two of the songs featured on this album, "Daahoud" and "Joy Spring", have become "part of the standard jazz repertoire". The song "Joy Spring" was composed by Brown in honor of his wife, whom he called his "joy spring". She had been introduced to him by Roach as a student working to prove in her thesis that jazz was inferior to her field of classical music, a thesis Brown convinced her was mistaken. Ratliff describes these two songs, along with the tracks "Parisian Thoroughfare" and "Jordu" as "four of Brown's great performances".

Also notable is the album's version of the Victor Young theme song for the Cecil B. DeMille film Samson and Delilah, which Village Voice columnist Gary Giddins selected as the outstanding jazz track for 1954, though he describes it as "the most unlikely of vehicles". In a 2006 interview with The New York Times, jazz drummer Paul Motian also singled out the song, "Delilah", for reference, praising its organization and arrangement, declaring it "Simple, but great". The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Jazz comments of the song that its "exotic mood" was "cleverly exploited", also noting that "[i]n Brown's sweeping solo, the commentary supplied by Roach is worthy of special study, as he seemingly anticipates every nuance of his co-leader's lines".

Track listing

Except where otherwise noted, songs composed by Clifford Brown.

1. "Delilah" (Victor Young) – 8:07
2. "Parisian Thoroughfare" (Bud Powell) – 7:19
3. "The Blues Walk" – 6:53
4. "Daahoud" – 4:02
5. "Joy Spring" – 6:52
6. "Jordu" (Duke Jordan) – 7:45
7. "What Am I Here For?" (Duke Ellington) – 3:10

Verve CD additional tracks

1. "These Foolish Things" (Harry Link, Holt Marvell, Jack Strachey) – 3:48
2. "The Blues Walk" (alternate take) – 6:54
3. "Daahoud" (alternate take) – 4:07
4. "Joy Spring" (alternate take) – 6:43

Personnel