Cherokee: The Development of Brownie's Style ©Lewis Porter, 2008 Rutgers University/Newark Prelude: Brownie was already starting to attract attention in 1952, the year he first recorded with Chris Powell and his Blue Flames. Here is what Tadd Dameron had to say that year, spring of 1952—and Benny Golson was also present at this radio station broadcast. [Audio excerpt: interview with Tadd Dameron.] The Influence of Dizzy, Fats, and Miles Dizzy influenced everyone, but this is not obvious in Clifford’s playing. One of the keys to Brownie’s genius is the clarity and logic of his voice leading. Dizzy’s style is much more flashy, wild, and rhythmically unpredictable. Dizzy’s solos often turn the beat around, but he’s totally in control of it. In fact the interesting thing is that everybody in that era – Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, Brownie, Kenny Dorham – saw Dizzy as the king, but almost nobody actually stayed with Dizzy’s style by the time they matured. Dizzy's style is very personal and offbeat –to play like Dizzy is almost like a piano player who plays like Monk, like Stan Tracey in England. It’s too obvious that you’re copying Monk. Here is an early Dizzy solo on “Rose Room” with John Kirby on a radio broadcast in May 1944, where he had everything together. It’s just one chorus but it’s unbelievable—he displays exciting virtuosity, and yet the voice leading also is perfect. I’ll fade it in at the end of Buster Bailey’s clarinet solo. [Audio excerpt: “Rose Room”, John Kirby Septet – Dizzy, Ben Webster, Buster Bailey, George Johnson (alto), Kirby (bass), Ram Ramirez (piano), Bill Beason (drums).] Even here, Diz’s last phrase is rhythmically complex and appears to turn the beat around. That is not typical of Fats Navarro or Brownie, or even Miles. Fats Navarro was the one who was able to take the modern jazz style

and get away from Dizzy’s thing – though on live records especially, Dizzy’s influence is clear. But Navarro created a lyrical flowing line on the trumpet, with beautiful voice-leading that influenced all the trumpet players since then. Clifford himself mentioned Fats. On the Leonard Feather questionnaire done in 54, under "Who are your favorite musicians?" Brownie wrote only: “The late Fats Navarro”! Here is one of Fats’ amazing solos, “The Squirrel”, a blues by Tadd Dameron with Dameron’s band. [Audio excerpt: 9/47 master take with Fats, Rouse, Ernie Henry, Tadd, Boyd, Shadow Wilson.] One thing that Clifford learned from Fats is a bluesy expressive way of connecting choruses. You can hear it on the alternate take of “The Squirrel.” [Audio excerpt, “The Squirrel”, alternate take, first issued ca. 1960.] (Notice that this alternate solo is very similar to the issued take—it was not typical of Fats to plan his solos this way.) I want to single out one phrase that he uses to connect choruses and show you something like that in a Brownie solo. [Audio excerpt, “The Squirrel”, alternate take at :40.] Brownie uses a similar idea on “Joy Spring”--*not* a quote, but a similar idea. [Audio excerpt: “Joy Spring”, end of first chorus, into second chorus.] It’s not recognized as often, but remember that by the time Brownie began recording in 1952 Davis was well established as a soloist and was having an influence of his own. You can hear his influence for sure. I’m going to use an example here of Miles from 1954, so that’s a little late for it to be something to influence Brownie in his formative years. I’m just using it because it’s an example of the kind of thing that Miles would do to start a chorus, and Brownie learned from this. It’s the beginning of Miles’s solo on “Oleo” 1954. [Audio excerpt: “Oleo.”] Compare this to the beginning of Clifford Brown’s second chorus on “Pent Up House”—again, *not* a quote, just a similar approach. [Audio excerpt: “Pent Up House.”] But that’s followed by an amazing long line all in one breath, and covering a wide range, a line that Miles would never have played. Brownie was of course very much his own person! Brown’s First Recording

Brown’s first known recording is a practice recording of “Ornithology” with his teacher Boysie Lowery on alto sax—undated but maybe 1948; some guess 1946 (based on how good Brownie may have sounded by ’49, and the fact that the Parker recording came out in mid-’46). [Audio excerpt: “Ornithology.”] (Thanks to Don Glanden for the following details: The Clifford and Boysie recording of Ornithology was played at the end of a tribute concert in Wilmington on June 26, 1976. It was included on a vinyl release of that concert which was recorded by Taylor Recording Co. Hockessin, DE. I’m not sure when Phil Schaap discovered it and presented it on his radio show. The date is estimated at 1949-50 in Bob Weir’s discography which was Al Hood’s source for his Trumpet Guild transcription. That seems a little late to me given that we know Clifford "wowed" Dizzy's band that year after taking a year off from school before entering Delaware State College. The Ornithology recording sounds more "student-ish" than one would expect at that stage. Jimmy Heath also said that Clifford blew away Bill Massey at The Spot by early 1951. We place the Ornithology recording at circa 1947 in our documentary.) “Cherokee” as a “Test Piece” in Jazz History, and Its Significance for Bird Now, one of the cornerstone pieces for learning the new music of bebop was the tune “Cherokee.” The blues was the first medium for soloing in jazz. Almost all of the early recorded jazz solos of any length are on blues numbers—“Dippermouth Blues,” etc. And, of course, the blues remains to this day an essential part of the jazz repertory, and of the jazz language even when playing on forms other than blues. Soon, the last strain of “Tiger Rag” (first recorded in 1918) became a favorite vehicle for improvisation, in addition to the blues. Then, from 1930, “Rhythm Changes” was considered the test of an advanced soloist. In the bebop era “Rhythm Changes” became standard, while “Cherokee” became known as the test of an advanced soloist. Since the 1960s the test pieces for advanced soloists have been “Giant Steps,” some of Wayne Shorter’s changes, etc. Now let’s look at a leadsheet of Cherokee, with the words. [Visual:

leadsheet of “Cherokee.”] Cherokee was studied, not for the A sections, but for the bridge that uses a sequence of two-five-ones descending by whole steps. As Jimmy Heath points out in my Coltrane book, one of the main differences between the boppers and the previous generation is that where the previous generation would learn things in a few keys – C, G, B flat, E flat, maybe D flat, -- the boppers would try to learn things in every key. They could take the 2-5-1 sequence in the bridge of Cherokee and continue it through all keys. For an example of the previous generation, here is Lester Young, one of the main influences on Charlie Parker, Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, etc., He recorded “Cherokee” only once in his life, and that was with the Count Basie Big Band in 2/39. Listen—it was in two parts—two sides of a 78rpm record—and you can hear where the 78 is turned over. [Audio excerpt: “Cherokee.”] Yes, I’m sorry to tell you, he doesn’t solo on the bridge. In fact, they are just riffing on the A section and they don’t even play the bridge except in the beginning of the recording. Very few swing players were going to improvise over a sequence of 2-5-1’s starting in concert B major. Trombonist Benny Morton does do it earlier on the same recording, but he just plays long tones. (He is followed by Dicky Wells who solos on A sections only.) “Cherokee” was first recorded by Spud Murphy 4/38, then by its composer, British bandleader Ray Noble in NY 10/38. Then Basie 2/39, then Charlie Barnet 7/39, then studio recordings and many broadcasts/gigs of Jimmy Dorsey in 1939-40, and broadcasts of Krupa in 1940, plus Harry James on gigs/broadcasts, and a few European bands (Jean Omer in Belgium). I haven’t heard them all but so far I’ve heard none where anybody improvises on the bridge of “Cherokee” before the bebop era.. Charlie Parker was famously quoted as saying that he came alive by working on the higher intervals of the chords of “Cherokee.” Now, it’s turned out that that wasn’t a quote, but actually a paraphrase by journalists. Still, it has to be true, because first of all a journalist as a rule doesn’t know anything about changes and they certainly wouldn’t have known that Charlie Parker was interested in working on higher intervals of “Cherokee.” But second of all, and this is the ultimate proof, Bird played and recorded

“Cherokee” a lot, especially in his earliest years. Here are the first versions of “Cherokee” by Charlie Parker that exist: There are two from 1942—both are undated so nobody knows which came first. First let’s hear one with J. McShann’s band from Kansas City performing in NYC—“Cherokee” was one of Bird’s features with that band. Pay attention to the way he negotiates the bridge-- he has certain patterns that he almost always uses, and usually in this order. [Demonstrates the two bridge patterns at the piano: the first bridge, then the second.] Here is the second version from 1942. It is accompanied only by a guitar player named Efferge Ware: does he use the same patterns on the bridges? Listen, and tell me what you think. [Audio excerpt: “Cherokee”, 1942.] Of course his most famous version is the one that became called Koko from his very first session as a leader, Nov. 1945. [Audio excerpt: “Koko”, first take.] Yes that was the first take which is not so well known. The voice at the end was the producer of Savoy records, Teddy Reig, interrupting them saying “Wait---you can’t… [play that theme]”---because they were supposed to be recording originals. When they recorded originals he could copyright them to Savoy music and make what little money there was to be made on the original. If they recorded standards by other composers, not only didn’t he make any money, but he’d have to pay to pay a fee to their publisher. Then came the famous version of “Koko”, and I’m just going to play Bird’s solo, and again listen to what he plays on the bridges—if you wish, you can follow the transcription on the screen. By the way, notice the highly chromatic line leading into the bridge of the second chorus. [Audio excerpt: Bird’s solo on “Koko”.] Now, don’t overlook the informal version of “Cherokee” that was captured earlier at this same date. It was a kind of a sound check, and the engineer started recording in the middle of the performance. This is the most lyrical and free improvisation Bird ever recorded on “Cherokee”--maybe because it’s an informal jam, and not an official recording, and maybe because Bird had already played a few choruses and was warmed up, and

maybe because the tempo is slower and more relaxed. But whatever the reason, here he plays beautiful phrases on the bridge that are not dependent on the licks he’d been using up to now, and that he would use later that afternoon when he recorded Koko. So, here is “Warming Up A Riff” with Dizzy on piano, Curley Russell bass, Max Roach drums-- you can follow the transcription on the screen. [Audio excerpt: “Warming Up A Riff.”] You can hear Dizzy laughing a little bit at the end when Bird quotes “Cocktails for Two.” Now, there are lots of other great performances of “Cherokee”—Bud Powell’s trio version from 1949, also with Max, is one of the most amazing piano recordings of all time. Of course Sonny Rollins made a famous one called “B Quick” in 1956—again with Max! Brownie and “Cherokee” But we also have quite a few recordings of Brownie playing “Cherokee.” In fact other than playing the blues, with various titles, especially his own “Daahoud” (which survives in live recordings that he didn’t intend for issue), “Cherokee” may be the standard that we have him playing more often than any other—if you include live recordings and home recordings that he didn’t intend for release. There are 6 versions of “Cherokee”, plus 2 alternate takes, for a total of 8 versions. So, we’re not going to hear them all. But there’s a lot to learn from them. First and foremost, nobody ever talks about development in the styles of jazz artists like Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown. They always talk as though they played the same from the beginning to the end of their careers. Bird’s playing in 1952 live at the Rockland Palace is a world away from the way he played on “Koko” in 1945. In fact his playing between say 1950 and 1953 is amazing musically and technically – incredibly fluent and virtuosic. Similarly, although everybody likes to say that Brownie arrived as a full-blown mature artist etc., I think it’s more interesting and more enlightening to observe that, yes, he sounds great on his first recordings in 1952, but let’s give him credit that he was always working practicing, learning and developing. His first version of “Cherokee” was for Blue Note with John Lewis,

Percy Heath, Art Blakey. Charlie Rouse, and Gigi Gryce. [Audio excerpt: “Cherokee”, Blue Note 8/28/53, issued take, take 2.] Notes on take 2:

• Little quote in second A

• First bridge a little like Bird

• Squeaks on high note of run at start of last A

• Does his favorite upward repeated arpeggio in 2nd A second chorus.

• Really starts to take charge at end of 2nd chorus and start of trading with Blakey.

[Audio excerpt: “Cherokee”, Blue Note 8/28/53, alternate take, take 1.] Notes on take 1:

• Brownie swallows a few notes during first A.

• Bridge is nice, and original.

• Lewis plays theme under last A—is it too much?

• 2nd chorus—nice flowing lines.

• Ends 2nd chorus with a favorite descending line of his.

• He gets a bit sloppy during trading.

• On the last bridge after trading, he uses Bird licks. Many people missed his next version of “Cherokee”, exactly one month later, because it was a bit disguised. On tour with Hampton in Paris, 9/28/53: “Brown Skins” by Gigi Gryce—slow theme goes into “Cherokee” (at about 2:22). Nice and flowing—a bit undermiked. He misses the last note.

[Audio excerpt: “Brown Skins”, take 2, master take.] Notes on take 2 (Master Take):

• “Cherokee” begins at about 2:18.

• Nice first bridge!

• His rising arpeggios are in last A. Nice high notes and blue notes to end chorus 1.

• Second bridge is relaxed—no patterns.

• After 16 bars by the band he comes in on high notes on the bridge

(ca.5:30).

• Ending is more solid. There is also a live version with the Hampton band from this tour. Now, let’s turn to Roach-Brown AKA Brown-Roach (it appears that both name orders were used, perhaps one for recordings and one for live gigs). You can follow the transcription on the screen –Please note that this is in trumpet key from the book transcribed by Ken Slone. [Audio excerpt: “Cherokee”, 2/25/55.]

• Very LONG lines, full tone—a bit rough but overall much more flowing than in 1953.

• Rough at beginning of first bridge.

• Second chorus—tries lick at end of first A, gets it start of second A.

• Second bridge uses a little of Bird.

• After him, Harold Land is great and so fluent at this tempo—let’s hear

a little. The famous practice tape is undated but goes here somewhere. [Audio

excerpt: “Cherokee”, practice tape. Discussion of his practice tapes in general—how many, what one hears on them, etc.] Finally, there is the quintet with Rollins (who had just joined) live at the Beehive in Chicago, 11/7/55. (Thanks to Don Glanden for the info that this was released by Lion Hill in 2004.) You can follow the transcription on the screen – please note that this is in trumpet key from the big Brownie solos book transcribed by Mark Lewis and published by Charles Colin music. [Audio excerpt: “Cherokee”, 11/7/55.] Brownie is incredibly fluent at this crazy speed! Soon it becomes a duet of trumpet and drums! And it’s quite free! Who knows where Brownie would have gone next! ©Lewis Porter, 2008