| Certainly Lee died far to young at the age of 34. However, by that time he had already been recording and had been a household name among jazz musicians for 16 years. I think he would have continued to develop his own personal style (which is one of my all-time favorites), but I suspect that if he hadn't become an "innovator" in a 16 year career he wouldn't have blazed any really new trails in a longer career.
He is still in my pantheon of great jazz trumpeters. As for Clifford, we'll just never know. He didn't have a long enough career to show whether he was going to innovate or simply refine. |