RIP Dave Brubeck

Huge, huge loss to the jazz world. He was an innovator on two fronts, bringing jazz to the college campus (and thus, the younger crowd) and his quartet's innovative use of the time signature. Everything (mostly) was written in 3/4 or 4/4 until the mid 50s, when Brubeck began experimenting with 5/4, 9/8 and 11/4. It all came together with "Take Five."

Watch this clip from the pre-PBS show "Jazz Casual." Brubeck does a great job explaining to the host, the columnist Ralph Gleason, about using different time signatures.

My g/f surprised me tickets to see him two years ago, but he was coming off an illness and couldn't perform, so his son, Darius, sat in instead. It was a mirror image, both in playing and in looks.

Very sad today.

 

I guess heaven needed some music on the new frontier. RIP to one of life's few true innovators.

 

I am waiting for someone to start another thread on this because I'd love to see a DB about DB.

 

RIP to a giant of American jazz.

Takin' the 'A' train:

From the LA Times:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-dave-brubeck-appreciation-20121205,0,848294.story

 

"Take Five" comes as close to perfection as any piece of recorded music

 

I always favored Blue Rondo a la Turk and Three to Get Ready ... always hear something new every time I listen. He's the reason I got into jazz in the late 70s, when someone at my junior college library recommended I listen to the Take Five album. Mesmerized every time.

 

I owned that on cassette and CD. The rest of the album is great, but the recording of Take Five is really unique.

 

Just noticed that he died one day before his birthday (which he shares with my Dad). A long, successful life.