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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDave Brubeck - "His Music Gave Jazz New Pop"
Nice short retrospective on the life of this fine musician.
I did have the pleasure of seeing him perform once. He must have been in his late 70's early 80's and he gave a wonderful performance.
Dave Brubeck, the pianist and composer who helped make jazz popular again in the 1950s and 60s with recordings like Time Out, the first jazz album to sell a million copies, and Take Five, the still instantly recognizable hit single that was that albums centerpiece, died on Wednesday in Norwalk, Conn. He would have turned 92 on Thursday.
His Music Gave Jazz New Pop
He died while on his way to a cardiology appointment, Russell Gloyd, his producer, conductor and manager for 36 years, said. Mr. Brubeck lived in Wilton, Conn.
In a long and successful career, Mr. Brubeck brought a distinctive mixture of experimentation and accessibility that won over listeners who had been trained to the sonic dimensions of the three-minute pop single.
Mr. Brubeck experimented with time signatures and polytonality and explored musical theater and the oratorio, baroque compositional devices and foreign modes. He did not always please the critics, who often described his music as schematic, bombastic and a word he particularly disliked stolid. But his very stubbornness and strangeness the blockiness of his playing, the oppositional push-and-pull between his piano and Paul Desmonds alto saxophone make the Brubeck quartets best work still sound original.
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)He is wonderful.
I have the classic Time Out and one or two others but really enjoy his music. The first few notes of Take Five are so recognizable.
htuttle
(23,738 posts)I didn't hear too much jazz where I grew up, but everyone had heard Take Five.
It took me a while before I could even figure out how to tap my foot to it. There were just one too many beats.
TM99
(8,352 posts)As a young classically trained pianist, I simply fell in love with Brubeck's accessible and challenging jazz piano. He influenced me in ways that I can never properly thank the man for doing.
What a sad day and a tragic loss for jazz keyboardists everywhere.
6spokewheels
(11 posts)"Take Five" is one of the greatest songs ever, in my humble opinion.
May you Rest In Peace, Dave Brubeck. Thank you for everything.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)niyad
(113,348 posts)kwassa
(23,340 posts)As a child in the '60s, I didn't like classical music, though I do now.
I played pieces from "Jazz Impressions of Eurasia". I had the album and the songbook.
I still love his music. Great guy, great musician. Great life.