Clifford Brown in Los Angeles

Abstract

��� Throughout its history, jazz has been chronicled as both a southern-midwestern-eastern U.S. phenomenon and an art form centered primarily in New Orleans, Chicago, and New York City. Los Angeles, on the other hand, is often portrayed as a city that has both exported and imported talented jazz artists. Except for West Coast jazz, which is identified with the region rather than the city, rarely is Los Angeles acknowledged as a setting that stimulated innovations or new developments. Within this context, West Coast jazz musicians have been marginalized, except those like Don Cherry, Eric Dolphy, Dexter Gordon, Hampton Hawes, Frank Morgan, and Charles Mingus who left Los Angeles to achieve greatness on the East Coast. Jazz artists native to Los Angeles (e.g., Buddy Collette) or those who migrated and permanently settled in the city (e.g., Horace Silver) have been recognized but seldom are featured or highlighted in jazz scholarship. This essay is unique in that it does not focus on someone who is native to the city nor does it deal with a longtime resident. Rather, it chronicles the impact that trumpeter Clifford Brown’s (1930–56) historic March to August 30, 1954, stay in Los Angeles had on his life and jazz career. Specifically, I focus on the events that led to the LaRue Anderson (1933–2005) and Clifford Brown marriage, 1 the founding of the Clifford Brown–Max Roach Quintet, and Brown’s recordings with several Los Angeles–based jazz musicians. Before delving into Brown’s time in Los Angeles, I present a concise overview of his musical life before he arrived.