Clifford Brown, aka "Brownie", was an American jazz trumpeter. He died at the age of 25 in a car accident, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings. Nonetheless, he had a considerable influence on later jazz trumpet players, including Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Booker Little, and Freddie Hubbard. He was also a composer of note: two of his compositions, "Joy Spring" and "Daahoud", have become jazz standards. Brown won the Down Beat critics' poll for the "New Star of the Year" in 1954; he was inducted into the Down Beat "Jazz Hall of Fame" in 1972 in the critics' poll. [More at Wikipedia]

October 30th, 1930 in Wilmington  /  Died:   Jun 26th, 1956