JAM, VII: Clifford Brown on "After You've Gone"
Every weekday this month I'll be posting new content in observance of Jazz Appreciation Month (J.A.M.), so-designated by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History beginning in 2001. International Jazz Day, so-designated by UNESCO in partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, is on the last day of April, the 30th; it was first celebrated in 2012. Debating the relative merits of designating specific days or months for celebrating heritages, traditions, and the like aside, Jazz Appreciation Month is at the very least an excuse to dig into some material that I've been interested in for a while on the blog.
Yesterday's installment featured Bob Berg's face-melting cadenza on "I Loves You, Porgy" at the '95 Monterey Jazz Festival. Tomorrow's will feature Vijay Iyer playing over his composition "Actions Speak" from 2012's Accelerando; he performs in Cambridge, Mass. at the Regatta Bar tomorrow night and Saturday the 11th with his trio.
†If you enjoy the content on this blog, please consider supporting my band's homegrown effort to get our record through the final stages of mastering and production. It's all recorded—you can listen to it now!—but we just need a bit more help to get to the finish line. We appreciate it. </self-promotion over>
Some time ago I asked trumpeter John McNeil, a longtime NEC faculty member, if he had any favorite trumpet solos. He immediately recommended Clifford Brown on Live at the Beehive and More Live at the Beehive, in particular the solo on "After You've Gone."* The arrangement features a break on the last four bars of every chorus and, as John described it, every break builds successively toward yet another dramatic peak.
Harold Land—to be featured next week on this blog—also takes a lengthy solo on this right after Clifford, but, as great at Land plays, Clifford's choruses are all so flawless, so pristine, that it just feels like everything's already been said. Also notable is how much the band rushes over the course of this 24-minute version—especially during Max Roach's eight-minute drum solo—but then again, if I was playing with this group, it's hard to imagine not rushing with such strong wind in your sails.
.png "Clifford Brown Solo Transcription - \"After You've Gone\" 1")
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| Brownie Lives! (Wikimedia Commons) |
Harold Land—to be featured next week on this blog—also takes a lengthy solo on this right after Clifford, but, as great at Land plays, Clifford's choruses are all so flawless, so pristine, that it just feels like everything's already been said. Also notable is how much the band rushes over the course of this 24-minute version—especially during Max Roach's eight-minute drum solo—but then again, if I was playing with this group, it's hard to imagine not rushing with such strong wind in your sails.
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