Here’s a great Hard Bop album recorded in 1956 with the Clifford Brown and Max Roach quintet. A memorable album by the dual because unknown to them at the time, it would be the last time the quintet recorded together. Clifford Brown, along with the pianist, Richie Powell (His wife also), were tragically killed in a car accident a couple of months later (June 26, 1956). This young quintet was already considered to be a heavyweight Jazz band at the time. They were shooting for the stars and were well on their way there until it abruptly ended. I wonder how they would have sounded together in the 60’s, very scary! The name of this album is “Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street” will be featured here for a week or so. It is also considered by Jazz experts, as one of the most essential Hard Bop albums ever recorded! Check the schedule link for play times, ENJOY!
About the album:
At Basin Street album by Clifford Brown / Max Roach Quintet / Max Roach was released Oct 25, 1990 on the Emarcy label. Recorded in New York, New York on January 4 and February 16, 1956. Recorded mere months before Clifford Brown died in a car crash, 1956’s AT BASIN STREET finds the revered trumpeter in top form, co-leading an ensemble with drummer Max Roach that included saxophonist Sonny Rollins and pianist Richie Powell (who was also killed in the accident). Morbid associations aside, this record is a vibrant hard-bop outing with Brown’s amazingly agile horn lines always commanding attention even when compared to Rollins’s robust sax work…..Read More
Biography of Richie Powell:
Richie Powell (September 5, 1931 – June 26, 1956) was an American bebop jazz pianist. He was born into a musical family in New York City, and was the younger brother of Bud Powell, also a pianist. Although sometimes considered less gifted than his bebop-icon brother, he was a respected musician and was beginning to achieve recognition at the time of his death.
Richie Powell studied at City College of New York. He played in the bands of Paul Williams (1951–52) and Johnny Hodges (1952-54), and from 1954 to 1956 was a member of the group co-led by Clifford Brown and Max Roach.
In 1956, after an informal gig at a Philadelphia store called Music City, Powell and Brown were being driven overnight by Powell’s wife Nancy to an engagement in Chicago. During the dark rainy night Nancy lost control of the vehicle on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, heading for Cleveland, and in the early hours of 26 June all three occupants were killed…..Read More
