Clifford Brown & Max Roach co-led the definitive hard bop quintet of the mid-1950s, recording for EmArcy from 1954 until Brown's death in a 1956 car accident at just 25. Study in Brown (1955) and At Basin Street (1956) are cornerstones of any jazz shelf — Brown's lyrical trumpet shaped generations of players. Shop Clifford Brown & Max Roach vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
The Clifford Brown / Max Roach Quintet formed in 1954 around trumpeter Clifford Brown (born October 30, 1930, in Wilmington, Delaware) and drummer Max Roach (born January 10, 1924, in Newland, North Carolina). The quintet's lineup featured Brown, Roach, tenor saxophonist Harold Land (later Sonny Rollins), pianist Richie Powell (Bud Powell's younger brother), and various bassists. The group recorded extensively for EmArcy (a Mercury subsidiary) between 1954 and June 1956. The partnership ended when Brown and Powell were killed in a car accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on June 26, 1956. Brown was 25.
The Brown/Roach Quintet recordings are widely regarded as foundational hard bop documents. Brown's trumpet style - fast, lyrical, harmonically sophisticated - established a defining template for post-bop trumpet that influenced Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Wynton Marsalis, and many others. Roach's drumming combined virtuosic technical command with deep musical sensitivity.
Original EmArcy and Mercury pressings of the Brown/Roach quintet catalog are foundational items in jazz collecting. Multiple audiophile reissue programs have issued these recordings through Verve, Mosaic, Speakers Corner, and others.
Listeners new to Clifford Brown & Max Roach typically start with Study in Brown (1955) or Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street (1956).
