The Beginning and the End (Columbia Records, 1973) is a Clifford Brown compilation album. The album opens with two tracks that Clifford Brown recorded with Chris Powell's Blue Flames in 1952, and ends with recordings of a session held at Music City Club in Philadelphia in 1956.[1] According to the liner notes, they are "The first and last recorded performances of one of the greatest soloists in the history of Jazz."[3] According to Nick Catalano's biography of Clifford Brown, the Music City Club session could have taken place on May 31, 1955.[4]
Reception and legacy
The AllMusic reviewer concluded that "Clifford Brown's playing on this date is so memorable that the LP is essential for all jazz collections."[1] Fellow trumpeter Christian Scott said that as a child he heard the album and thought that Brown "had a lot of heart and was compassionate".[5] Returning to the album much later, he realised that Brown "was playing some pretty impossible things on the instrument [...] There's stuff that this guy did with the instrument that many fifty year old trumpet players would never attempt".[5]
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