Clifford Brown’s Improvisational Style: Sequence Throughout His Career

Dr. David Aaberg, Professor of Music, University of Central Missouri

Compared to those of his trumpet predecessors and contemporaries, Clifford Brown’s

improvisations, achieved new and different levels of harmonic and melodic interest. One
particular element sometimes present in his improvisations was the use of non-diatonic,
somewhat angular sequences during double-time passages. On the first recording of Clifford
Brown experienced by the presenter, A Night In Tunisia from the album The Beginning and the
End, Brown’s use of this type of sequence is striking. This initial exposure served as a catalyst
for the presenter’s interest in the improvisational style of Clifford Brown. As distinctive as these
sequence figures are, they do not appear in many recorded Clifford Brown solos.

The first component of the project is to search Clifford Brown recordings, identifying and
transcribing other similar uses of sequence, tracing the development of this particular device
throughout Clifford Brown’s recorded career. The second component of the project involves
examination and analysis of examples of these sequences. In order to understand the figures and
to be able to create similar figures, the intervals making up the sequences will be analyzed, as
will the relationships between the notes of the sequences to the chord changes over which they
are stated. The third and final component of the project is a cursory look at how this one element
of Clifford Brown’s style has served to influence a future generation of trumpet players.