The Brown - Roach Quintet was a seminal hard bop jazz quintet led by trumpeter Clifford Brown and drummer Max Roach from 1954 to 1956. The quintet featured, also, pianist Richie Powell and bassist George Morrow. Harold Land was the original tenor saxophonist; he was replaced in 1957 by Sonny Rollins. The band ended tragically with the deaths of Brown, Powell, and Powell's wife in a car accident on the way to a gig in Chicago. While quite short-lived, this group was hugely influential, producing several classic recordings. Brown penned several tunes regarded as jazz standards today, such as Daahoud and Joy Spring.
Background edit
Max Roach was well established by the time of the formation of the Brown - Roach Quintet. He moved to New York in 1942 and found work right away, with so many men away in the war. We worked with all of the giants of bebop including Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and most notably, Charlie Parker with whom he recorded most of the latter's most famous recordings on Savoy Records.
On the other hand, Clifford Brown was a relative newcomer to the jazz scene, but had made a name for himself quickly, with his forceful, virtuosic, yet striking melodic improvisational style. He had recorded several records for Blue Note records, both as a sideman and a leader. The most notable were the trio of 10" records recorded with the Art Blakey Quintet: A Night at Birdland.