I Remember Clifford (album)

I Remember Clifford is a 1992 album by Arturo Sandoval, the second album he made after leaving his native Cuba.

I Remember Clifford
Studio album by
Arturo Sandoval
ReleasedMarch 1992
StudioSound on Sound, New York City
GenreBe-bop jazz
Length61:51
LabelGRP
Arturo Sandoval chronology
Flight to Freedom
(1991)		 I Remember Clifford
(1992)		 Dream Come True
(1993)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
DownBeat[2]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz[3]
Vox[4]

The entire album is a tribute to Clifford Brown, who was a great influence on Sandoval and who died in an auto accident in 1956, when he was 25 years old.

Title

The album is named for Clifford Brown,[3] who was killed on June 26, 1956 in a car accident which also killed pianist Richie Powell, and Powell's wife.[5]

Sandoval's written tribute to Brown in the liner notes for the album ends:

Everybody that I've spoken to, who knew Brownie, coincided in describing his heart and his simplicity as an artist. Modesty, feelings, dignity and virtuosity; not a bad legacy. ... It is with all my heart and soul that I offer this sincere effort to one of the greatest trumpet players of all time; a man who left his mark as a person and as an artist.

The album is named after the composition "I Remember Clifford", a threnody by Benny Golson, which was also written in memory of Brown.

In addition to a rendition of the Golson piece (using only a trumpet and piano - a tribute to the two musicians who died together), the album contains a long list of Brown's best-known standards (some composed by Brown himself). One final inclusion is a new composition, "I Left This Space for You", written by Sandoval in tribute, in which Sandoval plays only a restrained melody.

One very unusual feature, heard on five of the tracks, is the use of overdubbing to create a trumpet 'choir' of four harmonized trumpets, all played by Sandoval (a concept credited to Orlando 'Papito' Hernández, who had experience with multiple trumpets from his time playing with Herb Alpert). The 'choir' is used to play arrangements of some of Brown's own solos; the different trumpet lines are closely synchronized. Sandoval's own playing features in his own solos, especially on "Cherokee", which he takes at a faster pace than Brown's own rapid original.

The album received two nominations in the 1992 Grammy Awards ('Best Jazz Instrumental Performance - Individual or Group', and 'Best Arrangement on an Instrumental', for "Cherokee"). It was picked by critic Leonard Feather as one of the ten best jazz albums of 1992.

Track listing
  1. "Daahoud" (Brown, 4:57)
  2. "Joy Spring" (Brown, 5:42)
  3. "Parisian Thoroughfare" (Bud Powell, 5:57)
  4. "Cherokee" (Ray Noble, 5:07)
  5. "I Remember Clifford" (Benny Golson, 4:11)
  6. "The Blues Walk" (Brown, 6:45)
  7. "Sandu" (Brown, 5:17)
  8. "I Get a Kick Out of You" (Cole Porter, 5:11)
  9. "Jordu" (Duke Jordan, 8:25)
  10. "Caravan" (Ellington, Mills, Tizol, 4:26)
  11. "I Left This Space for You" (Sandoval, 5:53)

Personnel

Performers

Technical
  • Rudy Perez – producer, recording and mixing engineer
  • Peter Beckerman – assistant engineer
  • Michael Bloom – liner notes coordination
  • Joseph Doughney – post-production
  • Ted Jensen – mastering
  • Michael Landy – post-production
  • Bo Post – album coordinator
  • Andy Roshberg – assistant engineer
  • Neil Tesser – liner notes
  • Adam Zelinka – post-production

Producers
  • Cal Griffin
  • Dave Grusin (executive)
  • Papito Hernández
  • Larry Rosen (executive)
  • Rudy Pérez

References
  1. link
  2. DownBeat (June 1992) p. 35.
  3. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (1992). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP & Cassette (1st ed.). Penguin. pp. 955–956. ISBN 978-0-14-015364-4.
  4. Vox (December 1992) p. 97.)
  5. Catalano, Nick (2000). Clifford Brown – The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-514400-0.
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