Great Jazz Albums (IMO) #9

Clifford Brown, Clifford Brown & Max Roach (1955).  It is hard to disagree with the assessment of Clifford Brown as "the most brilliant trumpet player of his generation, an original and memorable composer, a dynamic stage presence and one of the authentic legends of modern jazz."  According to another critic, he "had a fat warm tone, a bop-ish style . . . and a mature improvising approach; he was as inventive on melodic ballads as he was on rapid jams."  In about a 3-to-4 year period before his tragic death at the age of 25, Brown produced an incredible body of work, including the amazing two volume Art Blakey, A Night at Birdland (with Horace Silver and Blue Mitchell), Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown, and At Basin Street (with Max Roach and Sonny Rollins).  My favorite is Clifford Brown & Max Roach.  Ben Ratliff includes it in his top 100 jazz albums and says it is "one of the strongest studio-made albums up to that time in the nascent LP era," and includes "four of Brown's great performances in Parisian Thoroughfare, Jordu, Daahoud and Joy Spring."  [Related posts:  Really Great Jazz Albums,  #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8]