12 DECEMBER 1987, Page 31

Inspired sobriety

Sir: While glad to see for the first time an article on jazz in The Spectator (Arts, 24 October), I was dismayed by Michael Heath's inclusion of Clifford Brown in his list of hard-drinking, drug-addicted jazz men.

Brown's death at 26 was in a car crash. He was, by all accounts, a quite, decent family man, who achieved the uncluttered, Warm, melancholy beauty of his trumpet playing in inspired sobriety.

George Thomas

14/30 Bryant Street, Flemington, Victoria 3031, Australia