Purchasing this song through our affiliate links with certain retailers provides jazzleadsheets.com with additional support to help keep us bringing you the best lead sheets available. Thank you!
Our audio excerpt starts at the beginning of the track with Max Roach's four-measure drum roll. Max loved to play fast, so Clifford borrowed the chord progression of Sweet Georgia Brown and came up with Sweet Clifford, also giving Max some solo space in the melody chorus. The piano part is indicated on the C treble clef lead sheet.
With their new (and remarkable) quintet personnel assembled, Clifford Brown and Max Roach headed into Capitol Studios in Los Angeles to start three days of recording on August 2, 1954. On the August 3rd session they recorded Sweet Clifford, Clifford's first original recorded by the new group.
Clifford Brown was a legendary and influential trumpet player who had everything going for him: an incredible sound, dazzling technique and ideas, and a great compositional gift. Brown was in the limelight for just five years (he died in a car accident at age 25) yet his mark on jazz is indelible. Early performances at jam sessions with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Fats Navarro (his major influences) led to work with R&B bandleader Chris Powell, which included his first commercial recording (March 21, 1952). His second commercial recording was with Lou Donaldson for Blue Note Records (June 9, 1953), a session that also included Philly Joe Jones and Elmo Hope(Carvin' The Rock, De-Dah and Bellarosa). On this session, Clifford also got to record one of his own compositions (Brownie Speaks), which became his first recorded composition. Read more...
