Dave Brubeck

A few weeks ago Dave Brubeck was feted as one of the Kennedy Center honorees. I've long had an interest, if not knowledge or passion, about jazz, so I picked up a CD from the Ken Burns Jazz set featuring Brubeck and his quartet, and have been listening to it in the car all week.

In doing some reading, I've learned that Brubeck typified "West Coast" jazz, which was marked by a softer, more rounded sound compared to New York be-bop. Many regarded the West Coast sound as inferior jazz, though this may have had a racial bias--most West Coast practitioners, like Brubeck, were white. I like the sound, which seems to me a forefather of the lounge, or "bachelor pad" sound, with its seductive rhythms and heavy use of brushes in the drumming. It definitely was cool, as they called it.

Brubeck is best known for two recordings, which both appeared on the huge bestseller Time Out. One is "Blue Rondo A La Turk," inspired by the rhythms of Turkish music, in 9/8 time (basically, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3). The hybrid of east and west works great, and the musicianship of Brubeck on piano, Paul Desmond on sax, Eugene Wright on bass and Joe Morello on drums is perfect. The other is the quarter's most famous songs, "Take Five," composed by Desmond, which is recognizable probably almost everyone. It is in 5/4 time, with Brubeck supplying an insistent theme on piano while Desmond slips in with an almost conspiratorial sax line. Then Morello takes hold of the middle section, in a complicated series of drum riffs that seem to defy the senses. I could put this recording on repeat and let it go for about an hour.

The album I picked up also has the perky and pleasurable "Perdido," "Allegro Blues," in which the New York Philharmonic contributes, and two standards: "I Get a Kick Out of You," and a sweetly melancholy "Stardust." The most curious cut is called "The Real Ambassador," which I learned comes from a jazz musical that Brubeck wrote in collaboration with Louis Armstrong. Satchmo and Annie Ross are on vocals. Hearing it is like being transported to the fifties in a time machine.