Brown later noted that Parker was impressed by his playing, saying privately to the young trumpeter "I don't believe it." Ī week at Club Harlem in May 1952 featured alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and Brown. The live recording session ultimately spanned two days with multiple takes needed on only a couple of the tunes. During one of the rehearsal sessions, fellow trumpeter Miles Davis listened and joked about Clifford Brown's technical ability to the play the trumpet. Blakey formed the band with Brown, Lou Donaldson, Horace Silver, and Curley Russell, and recorded the quintet's first album live at the Birdland jazz club. One of the most notable developments during Brown's period in New York was the formation of Art Blakey's Quintet, which would become the Jazz Messengers. Johnson, before forming a band with Max Roach. He worked with Art Blakey, Tadd Dameron, Lionel Hampton and J. His first recordings were with R&B bandleader Chris Powell. īrown was influenced and encouraged by Fats Navarro. For a time, injuries restricted him to playing the piano. While in the hospital, he was visited by Dizzy Gillespie, who encouraged him to pursue a career in music.
In June 1950, he was injured in a car accident after a performance. He played in the fourteen-piece, jazz-oriented Maryland State Band. His trips to Philadelphia grew in frequency after he graduated from high school and entered Delaware State University. īrown briefly attended Delaware State University as a math major before he switched to Maryland State College. In high school, Brown received lessons from Robert Boysie Lowery and played in "a jazz group that Lowery organized", making trips to Philadelphia.
At age thirteen, his father bought him a trumpet and provided him with private lessons. Around age ten, Brown started playing trumpet at school after becoming fascinated with the shiny trumpet his father owned. His father organized his four sons, including Clifford, into a vocal quartet.