[8] He worked with Art Blakey, Tadd Dameron, Lionel Hampton and J. J. Johnson, before forming a band with Max Roach.

One of the most notable developments during Brown's period in New York was the formation of Art Blakey's Quintet, which would become the Jazz Messengers.

Blakey formed the band with Brown, Lou Donaldson, Horace Silver, and Curley Russell, and recorded the quintet's first album live at the Birdland jazz club.

[1] Roach's stature had grown as he recorded with a host of other emerging artists (including Bud Powell, Sonny Stitt, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk) and co-founded Debut, one of the first artist-owned labels, with Charles Mingus.

Having participated in the legendary Jazz at Massey Hall concert of 1953, the drummer had relocated to the Los Angeles area and had replaced Shelly Manne in the popular Lighthouse All Stars.

[11][2] Brown was in the L.A. area from March to August 1954, on the invitation of Roach, who arrived on the West Coast with other well-regarded jazz musicians including Miles Davis and Charles Mingus.

With Brown able to play piano and drums in addition to trumpet, the co-leaders could experiment extensively with these instruments in the studio.

[14] As the band was still deciding on its personnel, Brown and Roach met alto player and multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy, who had his own apartment where he hosted jam sessions.

[1] The session "embrace[d] West Coast cool" with "immaculately performed charts," according to reviewer Gordon Jack of Jazz Journal.

Both were recorded from a jam session setting and featured other jazz trumpeters including Maynard Ferguson and Clark Terry.

[1] The experiments in bop continued in the 1955 session Study in Brown, such as use of instrument sounds to mimic an inner city environment in "Parisian Thoroughfare" and "international flavor" in "George's Dilemma".

[1] Jazz critic Scott Yanow referred to the album as "premiere early hard bop" and noted the quintet's "unlimited potential.

Following this session, with Blakey temporarily replacing Roach following a car accident, the group toured, visiting Chicago and then Rhode Island for the Newport Jazz Festival.

Anderson's parish priest followed them to Boston where, on August 1, 1954, they performed their marriage ceremony at Saint Richards Church in the Roxbury neighborhood.

While driving at night in the rain on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, she presumably lost control of the car which went off the road west of Bedford, killing all three in the resulting crash.

Benny Golson composed "I Remember Clifford" in 1957 as a tribute to Brown, and Jon Hendricks added lyrics.