When in 1954, Clifford Brown moved from Blue Note to Mercury his new label realised that they had acquired a very special talent and treated him accordingly. To their credit, they had such confidence in his abilities that they allowed him (and musical partner Max Roach) to pursue his own vision.

I must point out that there's absolutely nothing amiss with this material, except that since slipping into the Public Domain, there are now far too many releases (including legitimate reissues) of this material in circulation to the point of confusion. Lifted intact from the multi-disc ‘Brownie’ box this 4-CD will suffice.

It's often been suggested that any band is only as good as its drummer and, until a fatal auto accident terminated the career of 25-year old Brownie, this truly remarkable trumpet player enjoyed the distinction of working with two of the finest drummers of the time, first Art Blakey, and finally Max Roach.

For years, the instrumentation of trumpet, tenor sax and three rhythm players had been regarded as the norm, but it was how they performed their roles individually and collectively that made this particular quintet so outstanding.

A synthesis of Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro, Brownie quickly developed his own recognisable voice, which was as intelligent as it was fluent and articulate. More than half-a-century after the event, Brownie's approach shows absolutely no signs of remotely becoming passé. Quite the contrary, his work becomes even more relevant to each new generation of young horn players. This was consolidated first in collusion with the frequently underrated Harold Land, who was replaced by Sonny Rollins in 1955. Furthermore, Brownie was ably supported by Bud Powell's piano playing younger brother Richie who did much of the arranging, leaving Max Roach to fire up the unit with unmatched imagination. The repertoire was equally enticing with ‘Sandu’, ‘Joy Spring’, ‘Daahoud’ and ‘The Blues Walk’ soon becoming standard fare. Likewise, the group stamped their distinctive signature on ‘Parisian Thoroughfare’ and ‘Jordu’, while their unique approach to such popular movie themes as ‘Delilah’ and ‘Love Is A Many Splendored Thing’, along with a fresh approach to ‘What Is This Thing Called Love’, impacted on many of their contemporaries. And all this (and much more) was achieved in just 18 short months on the label.