Jazz Immortal

Description

Recorded in Los Angeles on August 12, 1954, "Jazz Immortal" is the only collaboration between Clifford Brown and Zoot Sims. It features versions of two of the trumpeter's compositions that would become classics, "Joy Spring" and "Daahoud." Also featured on this album are pianist Russ Freeman, bassist Carson Smith, and drummer Shelly Manne, best known for their association with another great trumpeter, Chet Baker. Among the many figures in jazz history who left too soon, Clifford Brown's premature loss is perhaps the most tragic of all. Unlike other great musicians, he remained clean throughout his career. He was dedicated to music and worked hard to develop and explore his gift. The multiple studio recording sessions he undertook during his brief career attest to both his prolific ability and the high regard his fellow musicians and the recording industry had for his talents and reliability. Even Charlie Parker expressed his enthusiasm to him after hearing him play. And Quincy Jones wrote in Down Beat magazine in 1956, a week after Clifford's death in a car accident at the age of 25: "For me, the name Clifford Brown will always be synonymous with the very essence of musical and moral maturity. This name will be the symbol of the ideal that every young jazz musician should strive to achieve."