Born on this day 98 years ago in 1920, David Warren Brubeck has the rare honor of truly having revolutionized jazz while at the same time writing part of jazz's songbook. Although Brubeck died a day shy of his birthday in 2012, his legacy will live forever. The ways he revolutionized and altered jazz -and [...]
It's high-time for another installment of 'Desmond's Quotes', and this one's a bit unusual. This post features performances taken from radio broadcasts of the Dave Brubeck Quartet at the Blue Note in Chicago, Illinois. Recorded in March of 1953, these recordings find the group on fire, Paul Desmond especially so. Aside from showing his tasty [...]
After a momentary break, it's time to get back to some Brubeck, the reason why I began this website! This is one of those rarer bootleg albums, where the information surrounding the recording is actually pretty well-documented. It's the album pressing itself that is confusing and unclear. With that, on to the music we go! [...]
This is an album I've been looking forward to writing about from the moment I created this blog. The product of Playboy Magazine's first jazz poll, Hugh Hefner decided to create an album to honor the winners of the poll. By releasing such a project, Hefner and the folks at Playboy provided a snapshot of [...]
Following up on Mr. Lodge's excellent analysis of Paul Desmond's solo on a live performance of "Someday My Prince Will Come" dating from the 1970's, here's another post with another look at another live performance of "Someday My Prince Will Come". This performance stems from an early 1960's appearance by the Dave Brubeck Quartet at [...]
No, this is not deja vu. Well, it is but it isn't. This may technically be the same album as the one I just wrote about, but there's a two-inch difference that is rather significant. Does size matter? To the music! The Music The Tune: "The Way You Look Tonight" Recorded: 2 March, 1953 at [...]
Due to recent events, I decided to switch gears a bit and delve into another form of live jazz: Jazz with a learned twist. And if you want to talk about jazz at college, there's no better place to start than the granddaddy of all college jazz albums.The Music The Tune: "Perdido" Recorded: 2 March, [...]
After a series of posts about jazz records, it's high-time I get back to writing about the Dave Brubeck Quartet's music and its star saxophonist Paul Desmond. As a 'welcome back', an ordinary 'Desmond's Quotes' wouldn't do. So, without further ado, let's dive into a unique Desmondism that I'm still unsure about: The Desmond Turnaround. [...]
It's May 4th, which means it's Brubeck & Desmond Day! What does the 4th of May have to do with Dave Brubeck or Paul Desmond? 5/4, of course. Brubeck and Desmond popularized and mainstreamed this unusual time signature into jazz and popular music in 1959 with Desmond's mega hit "Take Five", opening the door for [...]
After spending time in the jazz capital of the world (New York City), it's time to explore some other jazz clubs. But before we leave the East Coast, there's another spot that is worth checking out. We're headed to Massachusetts. The city? Boston. The club? Storyville. It's another exploration in 'Nightclub Jazz', the sub-genre of [...]
