Chords for Clifford Brown, interview.

He does very well too, but why I guess the main thing is it's a matter of phrasing and taste
_ Dizzy's quite a technician, you know, and I don't think I play quite as technically
Inspired as he does.
Well, how would you compare Miles Davis with you? _
Well miles plays a
_ Style that's very relaxed.
It's it's almost
Well, it's on the in in the direction of being easy to imitate I would say because
[G] He doesn't play a whole lot of notes and but what he does play is in very good taste and it swings
What about fats Navarro?
Are you?
Are you familiar with a lot of fats his work on records?
Yes, I'm pretty pretty familiar with fast because I admired him very much and I I always will _
Remember him as one of the greatest trumpet players the world has known.
Would you name any other trumpeters as being?
_ outstanding men in your opinion
_ Well, of course, there's always pops the father so to speak Louis Armstrong and
_ _ I thought very much of
Roy Eldridge only I I didn't hear him
Too much.
In fact, I've never never heard him in person
But I did hear I think one of the first records I heard of any any trumpet player, you know to really listen to
As the trumpet player myself was let me off uptown by Roy Eldridge and I was very inspired by that
_ _ _ that
comparative lack of vibrato in
modern instrument playing in the trumpet in your case in
Comparison to the playing of the earlier jazz man where the vibrato was quite predominant
Why would you say that the vibrato has dropped out in modern jazz?
_ _ well, I
Guess the only way I can explain this is that the vibrato at the end of the notes
Almost to the extent that it's like a little shake _
Was was very prominent before and it gave a feeling of warmth
_ Or so warm that it was almost to what we would call hot now and and modern jazz isn't too hot
_ _ It's uh, it's not cool, but it's not too hot as supposed to be the happy medium
You wouldn't say though that there was a lack of emotion in modern jazz.
Definitely not
it's just it's the way that the
_ emotion is
_ _ Is is put forth I guess I would say
You it's not in one or two notes
You don't put it all in one or two notes and in the phrasing of one or two notes it's uh
it's more of a thing that goes along generally and
By the notes that you play and the ideas and the technical things that you play all put together you get that
_ Similar feeling of warmth that that's in uh, you know, the older jazz I would say.
Yeah, let me ask you Brownie about the
The technical difficulties involved in hitting so many notes creatively and in tune
_ well _ _
That's that's quite a question
_ Well there there's always
the fact that you on a trumpet especially that to to cover the full range of the instrument is
extremely difficult and you you have to practice sometimes a lot of
Lip-slurs and staccatos and things of that sort from the bottom of the instrument so to speak all the way up to the top and and
The trumpet now of today has such a wide range
That in order to play oh from the you know
The bottom all the way up to the top is quite a feat and it's something that that we're all dizzy in myself
and we're all working on in the hopes of
_ _ Mastering it completely
_ How many hours of practice did you put in when you first took up the horn before you
Before you knew that you were going to follow it as a career
_ Well, I used to practice.
Oh
Say about two hours just about every day the most important thing in my practicing
I think was that I didn't miss any days
I would practice every day even if I had to cut the time short.
I would practice every day
Of course today you get a chance to play on the stand every day three or four hours
And that is a sort of practice in itself, but you do
Additional practicing before you go on the job today
well, it's very important for trumpet players to warm up thoroughly before they start to play the night and and
I find that although you can be working every night
Consistently that for a trumpet player alone
That's that's really not just enough to suffice and of course when you're not working
It's very essential that you practice, you know in order to keep up with the things that you develop when you are working and practicing
well that covers a part of the technical and brownie from the
Creative end.
Do you have the melody or the harmony?
Predominantly in mind when you're improvising _
Well, I think I would say mainly that in in this jazz that we're attempting to play today
It's very important that you know all of your chord progressions
and so you play a specific tune and it has a specific chord progressions and
You should be thoroughly familiar.
You should know them just backward and
Forward so to speak
You should know the changes thoroughly and in knowing the changes then it gives you a lot of freedom and you're you're not only permitted to play
_ From the basic changes, but you will sort of hear things by ear by knowing what the change is
You'll hear things in other words brownie.
Thank you very much for being with us
thank you for producing so many wonderful records for us to play and I
_ Don't know don't have to say I hope I know that you're already brilliant career will go much much further
Yeah, I hope so.
Well, it's been my sincere pleasure.
Believe me Clifford Brown _
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