I Remember Clifford is a jazz ballad composed by Benny Golson in 1956 as an instrumental memorial to his friend Clifford Brown, a leading trumpeter who died in a car accident at 25. Golson and Brown had played together in Lionel Hampton’s 1953 band. The piece was first recorded in February 1957 by Donald Byrd and Gigi Gryce and released on Donald Byrd’s Jazz Lab album in 1957. It has since become a widely performed jazz standard with notable recordings by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Dizzy Gillespie at Newport, Ray Charles, The Jazztet, and Dinah Washington, among others. The music is known for its lyrical, elegiac mood and its role as a tribute to Brownie.
