This is not the first time this album is mentioned in this blog. Furthermore, Joy Spring is my dedication to this album (Joy Spring being the fourth track on the original recording).
This influential album was recorded in 1954 and remains as the best known, and to many the very best, in the short life (two and a half years) of the Clifford Brown and Max Roach Quintet. Described by The New York Times as “perhaps the definitive bop group until Mr. Brown’s fatal automobile accident in 1956”, the band managed in its short life span to leave a mark in modern jazz.
The album (first released on vinyl in December 1954) was very well received by critics and the listening public. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and it is also included in “Jazz: A Critic’s Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings” at #34.
Why I love it so much? It is just so good. But also it is warm, sincere, very advanced for its time, and it is also a gorgeous example of exquisitely rhythmic hard bop.
Whether you are a jazz fan, you are beginning to get the taste for it, or you are simply curious, I am sure you will love this album.
So, there is really nothing further to say other than, just enjoy. And have a great Sunday!
Until next time.
Ignacio
©2016 by Ignacio Alperin Bruvera