Wed 1/6 @ 7:30PM
Tri-C JazzFest has joined with Jazz at Lincoln Center to present an online tribute to a musician whose influence was profound but whose ultimate place in the jazz pantheon is unknowable.
Trumpet player/composer Clifford Brown died in a car accident in 1956 at the age of just 25. Like the Marsalises of New Orleans, he came from a musical family whose father inspired four sons to take up music. He began performing regularly on the east coast when he was in college, and by the time of his death on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on a rainy night while en route to a gig, he had released more than two dozen albums as a band leader or co-leader, along with more than a dozen others as a sideman.
This tribute honors Brown in what would have been his 90th year (he was born in 1930); one can only imagine the massive amount of stellar music he would have made if he lived that long. The program, titled Clifford Brown at 90: Brownie Speaks, features Cleveland native trumpet player Dominick Farinacci who directs the Tri-C JazzFest Academy, accompanied by pianists Aaron Diehl and Dan Tepfer and some of the young musicians from the academy’s Spirit of the Groove ensemble.
Farinacci will perform some of Brown’s signature solos, as well as some new music inspired by them. They include a solo version of Clifford’s improvisation on “You Go to My Head,” a piece of music that had a strong influence on Farinacci.
“I’ve always thought of Clifford’s improvisations as through-composed masterpieces,” says Farinacci in the promotion for the event. “The melodies he created, his nuance, grace and virtuosity were so incredibly powerful and refined.”
The one hour program is part of a three-day tribute to Brown hosted u Jazz at Lincoln Center. The program is free to listen to but you are welcome to donate to support Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland at www.tri-c.edu/jazzfestdonate.
Listen to the stream here.
tri-c.edu/cliffordbrownat90browniespeaks