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November 2004:
With the opening of the
new, redesigned Jazz at Lincoln Center building in New York City,
trumpeter Wynton Marsalis is standing in the footprints of some really
astonishing fellow instrumentalists. The tradition he has to adhere to
places himself as a musical index along side every trumpet great from W.C. Handy, King Oliver, and Louis Armstrong to Dizzy Gillespie and Miles
Davis. Of these jazz players, the two that are most commonly
mentioned as outstanding by music historians are Louis Armstrong and
Miles Davis. The influence of Miles on the current state of jazz cannot
be overstated. Yet when someone mentions Miles Davis, they should also
mention two other trumpeters: Kenny Dorham and Clifford Brown.
Kenny Dorham, in my eyes,
is the quintessential alternative to Miles Davis. Sure, informed music
critics like Nat Hentoff and Gary Giddens mention K.D. in the same
breath as Miles…yet unfortunately the average undereducated jazz
listener doesn’t know about ‘Quiet Kenny’. One of my
instrumental proficiency teachers at
the New School Jazz Program in New York City's Greenwich Village - Mario Escalera - was a
long time student and associate of Kenny Dorham. I was given the
opportunity to play some of Dorham’s less-frequently played
compositions with him, and I can now honestly say that this classic jazz trumpet player is a
true original. From his Blue Note Records Afro-Cuban album in 1954 (which is a
very strong influence on former New School Jazz student Roy Hargrove’s Grammy-winning Cristol
project) to his compositions titled Mexico City and Monaco
on the Live at the Café Bohemia sessions, Dorham has influences
from all over the world. He grew up on a ranch as a child, and maybe it
was the pastoral landscape or fresh milk that sculpted his unique
musical soul, but there are no others like Kenny. To the untrained ear, Dorham’s well spaced solos may be confused with the economic strategy of
Miles Davis. Yet after first listen, one will become well acquainted with
the trumpeter’s completely individual melodic, harmonic, and
improvisational concept of modern music.
Clifford Brown’s staccatos still
astonish me after years of listening to his classic recordings. One
thing you might not realize is that if it weren’t for the trumpeter’s
untimely death (in a car accident) during 1956, a year after Bird died,
he would probably be considered the preeminent modern jazz horn player
of the second half of the 20th century. Yet this title is
given to Miles Davis, since he was able to stay alive over the years.
Before Clifford Brown’s death, Miles was struggling with drug addiction
and wasn’t as well known or respected as Brownie. Brown was doing his
own thing on the West Coast with drummer Max Roach (it must have been difficult
for Roach to lose Bird in 1955, and then Brown in 1956…yet with a little
good luck he was able to find ‘Newk’ in 1956 and 1957). His recording of
"When
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" and "Willow Weep For Me" on his
Strings album even permeated the smooth jazz world of the 1990s,
when David Sanborn recorded the same songs, in similar styles, on one of
his top selling albums of the decade. You know Clifford was something
special when listening to how he handles the chord changes to the jazz
tune "Cherokee". I have pinpointed many favorite segments in his thematic
solo on the self-penned composition "Jordu". Brown was also a talented composer, evident in
the uplifting piece "Daahoud". One can just wonder what would have
happen if the jazz world had not lost Clifford so suddenly.
Sure, go ahead and listen to Diz and
Miles, but don’t forget about K.D. and Clifford. I assure you Wynton
Marsalis
and Roy Hargrove haven’t.
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