Possibly the very first music I ever remember consciously hearing. My old man played him at home and would take me to the bar with him and give me coins to play music on the juke box and play pinball. I always played Take Five an Blue Rondo ala Turk. It gave me a thrill to shake the hand of Dave and his bassist Jack Six in 1990.
My dad use to play at the Red Onion in Aspen BITD and had the opportunity to play with Brubeck a few times, as well as Oscar Peterson and several other greats.
Some of my earliest memories are of his music, so you can imagine my joy when my eldest daughter back about the time she was 13 came home from school and said, "Hey dad listen to what I just learned." and proceeded to play on her Sax an fine rendition of Take Five.
Watching them is too weird. They look like four partners in an accounting firm. Listening with eyes closed, then opening them and looking is bizarre.
But those guys were beyond good. It was cool to put them down back then, because they weren't black enough to be playing that music, but they played it as well as anybody.
And in terms of understanding rhythm and complex time signatures, maybe better than anybody.
That is 32 minutes that will be added to my life ! ! !
Thanks so much John for bringing that to the surface.
I've put up with tinnitus for years while loving music and have to say that the primitive modulation of this recording is superior to anything modern. I enjoyed fully the piano music without battling a ringing in my ears.
Nice music but I generally can't listen to it. Just a personal taste thing but brings to mind some dude walking in manhattan waiting for the light to turn green before crossing the road. Why?
;)
edit. I know, because he's a west coaster...ba dump bump.
zb,
I was in his platoon, Patton's 3rd Army (26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division) in WWII. He was in a fox hole with me until they yanked him to play a Red Cross Show.
From 1942-1944, Brubeck served in the Army during World War II. While in service, he led the Wolf Pack Band
“I am primarily a jazz composer. Most of us don’t even like the word jazz—Ellington didn’t like it, Stan Kenton didn’t like it. It’s really an extension of what Bach and Mozart did every day: improvise. Bach improvised every Sunday. Classical music shouldn’t abandon it. The composers most likely to live on from the 20th century are Ives, Copland, Bernstein, Ellington, Gershwin and all the people wise enough to use jazz, like they were.” – Dave Brubeck
zb,
We both were awarded the Purple Heart for trench foot. I received two, one for "trench mouth".
After graduating in 1942, Brubeck was drafted into the army and served overseas in George Patton's Third Army. He was spared from service in the Battle of the Bulge when he volunteered to play piano at a Red Cross show; he was such a hit he was ordered to form a band.
All I know is Brubeck is cool. UOP. Only hot people in Stockton now, though. Lost their cool.
Thanks from the bass of my heart, John.
This is a perfect lay-me-down night-night. Cool.
Edit:
this may seem really dumb, but I was confused mentally for a moment when I tried to come up in my mental imagination the theme to Peter Gunn. Now I find I'm mentally thinking of the theme from the 1960s Batman series with word and theme by Neal Hefti. One word, one bass line.
Hate to call you a party pooper, zBrown, but now I can't get it out of my noggin. Do something before I go mental. Is there a Batman inhibitor in the house?
zb, I am saddened by the loss of my brother in arms; am posting of some edited peter wolf lyrics (written for thoughts along another line) but work here:
I feel the passing in the teardrops
I see shadows everywhere
But I still do carry on
Though there's a lot of good ones gone
"Edit:
this may seem really dumb, but I was confused mentally for a moment when I tried to come up in my mental imagination the theme to Peter Gunn. Now I find I'm mentally thinking of the theme from the 1960s Batman series with word and theme by Neal Hefti. One word, one bass line.
Hate to call you a party pooper, zBrown, but now I can't get it out of my noggin. Do something before I go mental. Is there a Batman inhibitor in the house?"
Here is "The Gunn Guitar": Bob Bain used it the original recording as well in the Pink Panther movies, Batman and The Munsters TV Series.
Last night at the jazz gig in Toronto, this black guy walks up to the mic and says he wants to sing Take Five in memory of Dave. One of the two guitar players looked a bit flummoxed at the 6 flat key signature, but I was sitting in front of the piano and said, "I can play that!"
After the verse, when we opened for solos, I shouted "bridge!" at the appropriate moment - perhaps not a bad idea when there 16 identical bars in a row!
I, um, left my trombone sitting on its stand for that little number. Need to practise a wee bit more, at least at the tempo buddy was singing it.
Most people don't realize Dave was an excellent classical musician,
and many tried to encourage him to go that route. But he loved jazz.
Many of my good friends who are classical musicians can also play
jazz very well. I started out as a jazz saxophone player with
classicl beginnings and played in
various bands until I finally took up piano and songwriting. Really
the various genres are more connected than most realize.
I'm with ms55401: Emasculated...Brubeck did for Jazz what Elvis did for rock and roll. Made it accessible to white audiences which was a good thing. But the music was hardly nonpareil at any point in time. Coltrane's take on 5/4 (My Favorite Things) makes Desmonds Take Five (which I like) look like the watered down cool jazz that it is. Some good music though. Ben Ratliff's "John Coltrane: The Story Of Sound" is a great read and has a sound argument of what many have pointed out; That jazz died the day Coltrane did. I think Largo also posted a Coltrane thread? I'd like to know why Largo thinks Brubeck is nonpareil......
My Favourite Things is a jazz waltz, in 3/4 not 5/4 time. I was just playing it on the piano an hour ago, trying to figure out the open voicings for solos on the E dorion.
However, I emphatically agree that Trane's version is the gold standard.
Pass the Piton...So effin right. Wrong tune brain fart indeed. Replace My Favorite (still makes anything by Brubeck look pedestrian) with "Nature Boy" off the seminal "The John Coltrane Quartet Plays". I hate getting old...
Let us know!