Clifford Brown was born in Wilmington, Delaware on October 30, 1930. He started playing the trumpet when he was 13. He also studied some piano. He played in the high school band. In his late teens, Brown started doing gigs in Philadelphia where he caught the attention of fellow trumpet players Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Fats Navarro.

Brown received a music scholarship to the University of Delaware. Once he arrived on campus, he discovered that the university didn’t actually have a music program. He spent his freshman year at the college majoring in mathematics before transferring to Maryland State College. There they had a good music program and he played with the jazz band and worked on honing his composition skills.

One night in 1950, Brown was involved in a serious car accident on his way home from a gig. He spent almost a year in the hospital recovering. After that year, it took some encouragement from Dizzy Gillespie for him to start gigging again.

Brown’s recording debut was with Chris Powell and Tadd Dameron in 1952. He toured Europe with Lionel Hampton in 1953. When he came back from Europe, he started playing with Max Roach. In 1954, he was named New Star of the Year by Down Beat magazine.

In 1956, Clifford Brown, Richie Powell and Nancy Powell, Richie’s wife, were driving from Philadelphia to Chicago to meet Max Roach for a gig. It was rainy night and Nancy was driving. Nancy lost control of the car. The crash killed all three passengers. Clifford Brown was 25.

Benny Golson wrote “I Remember Clifford” as a tribute to Clifford Brown.

When speaking of Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins said, “Clifford was a profound influence on my personal life. He showed me that it was possible to live a good, clean life and still be a good jazz musician.”

I had to write a complete biography about him because I could only find one performance by Clifford Brown on the internet. This is from the Soupy Sales Show. It was recorded the year he died.