Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown And Max Roach
Play Clifford Brown And Max Roach
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MOG Editorial Review
Some of Clifford Brown's last great recording sessions -- and perhaps the best album to include both Brown and Roach together -- Clifford Brown & Max Roach is one for the ages, a defining hard bop record from two top talents of mid-century jazz. "Delilah" eases the album forward with its classic lead lines, keeping a cool bop rhythm and then flourishing with a couple jaw-dropping solos. "Daahoud" and other tracks join the first in hinting at Middle Eastern influences -- part of the record's exotic draw -- and the players prove their bebop chops across everything from "Joy Of Spring" to "Parisian Thoroughfare". Clifford Brown didn't have much time left after this release, but it's comforting to know that he left us with one last brilliant gem from Hollywood in 1955.
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AMG Review of Clifford Brown & Max Roach
Sam Samuelson
All Music GuideAccording to the original 1955 liner notes to Clifford Brown and Max Roach, the announcement that Clifford Brown and Max Roach had begun recording and playing together sent shock waves throughout the jazz community and predictions ran rampant about how the two might shape bop to come. The last duo to really shape the music had begun over ten years earlier, with the relationship between Bird and Diz. This recording was early fruit from a tree that would only live as long as Clifford Brown was around to water it (1956, the year of his tragic auto accident). The result is by far some of the warmest and most sincere bebop performed and committed to tape. Brown's tone is undeniably and characteristically warm, and he keeps the heat on alongside Roach's lilting vamps and pummeling solos. What really keeps this record on the orange side of things (other than the decidedly orange cover) is the solo work of saxophonist Harold Land, who plays part Bird and part Benny Goodman. His tone is as delightful as it gets on the sultry "Deliah" and as bop-expressive as it gets on "The Blues Walk" and "Parisian Thoroughfare," where he and Brownie go head to head blowing expressive runs of sheer New York-style jazz. This collection of songs runs a nice gamut between boplicity and pleasant balladry. It represents bop at its best and is recommended for collectors and casual fans alike. [The 2000 Verve reissue includes alternate takes of "The Blues Walk," "Daahoud," and "Joy Spring."]
 "Clifford Brown And Max Roach")
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