Clifford Brown

Who was Clifford Brown?

Clifford Brown, aka "Brownie," was an American jazz trumpeter. He died at the age of 25 in a car accident, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings. Nonetheless, he had a considerable influence on later jazz trumpet players, including Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Booker Little, and Freddie Hubbard, among others. He was also a composer of note: two of his compositions, "Joy Spring" and "Daahoud", have become jazz standards.

He won the Down Beat critics' poll for the "New Star of the Year" in 1954; he was inducted into the Down Beat "Jazz Hall of Fame" in 1972 in the critics' poll.