This edition of 'Desmond's Quotes' is rather unique. How so? This one features Paul Desmond quoting from none other than himself! As always, there's a backstory that's worth exploring so let's get to it! It's 1964, and the Dave Brubeck Quartet is in London, England. They're in the TV studios of the BBC to film [...]
Speaking of "Summertime"... The Music The Tune: "Samba With Some Barbecue" Recorded: 20 November, 1968 at Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, NJ Personnel: (deep breath...) Paul Desmond- Alto Sax Paul Faulise, Bill Watrous, and Kai Winding- Trombone John Eckert, Joe Shepley, and Marvin Stamm- Trumpet/Flugelhorn Ray Alonge and Tony Miranda- French Horn Joe Beck- Guitar [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Starting and maintaining a blog can be a rewarding, enriching, frustrating, and fulfilling experience. Running this blog, I have experienced all of the above and then some. One of the absolute best results of starting this blog has been meeting and corresponding with readers from all over the world, some as close as the American [...]
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 [...]
Regular readers of my blog know that while I'm a jazz record collector as well as a jazz fan in general, I'm a huge Paul Desmond/Dave Brubeck fan. HUGE. This passion for their music has resulted in me scouring the internet for rare music, photos, information, anything pertaining to Paul Desmond and Dave Brubeck. I've [...]
It's A Raggy Waltz 