AMG Review of Slide Trombone Featuring Lawrence Brown

Scott Yanow
All Music Guide

Lawrence Brown played trombone off and on with Duke Ellington's orchestra for nearly 40 years. Surprisingly, he only led two albums of his own in his entire career, a set for Impulse in 1965, and this album for Clef (now Verve). Heard either as part of a quintet with tenor saxophonist Sam "The Man" Taylor or with a nonet that includes tenor saxophonist Al Cohn and pianist Hank Jones, Brown is in excellent form on the reissue. The music (not too shockingly) often sounds as if it were an Ellington small group, including such numbers as Brown's longtime feature "Rose of the Rio Grande," "Caravan," "You Took Advantage of Me," and "Blues for Duke." The original LP program is joined by two previously unreleased performances ("Time After Time" and "For All We Know"). Excellent mainstream swing of the 1950s.