When a Saint goes Marching In …
Posted: December 5, 2012 Filed under: just because | Tags: David Brubeck, Obit 21 Comments
Whenever I really want to practice my jazz chops, I just pull out my music that’s note for note Dave Brubeck. Blue Ronda Al La Turk really gives the old digits a stretch. He was a jazz giant with massive hands that spun fantastic grooves. His Take 5 was one of the first things I played in my high school jazz band. That means I’ve been playing that piece for decades now and I still haven’t grown tired of it. I still get requests for it too when I gig around the quarter. You can tell the classically trained jazz pianists by how much Brubeck they can play note for note. He was a pianist and a composer with many dimensions and an infectious style. No jazz library is complete without him.
Brubeck has died at the age of 91.
Jazz composer and pianist Dave Brubeck, whose pioneering style in pieces such as Take Five caught listeners’ ears with exotic, challenging rhythms, has died. He was 91.
Brubeck died Wednesday morning of heart failure after being stricken while on his way to a cardiology appointment with his son Darius, said his manager Russell Gloyd. Brubeck would have turned 92 on Thursday.
Brubeck had a career that spanned almost all American jazz since World War II. He formed The Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1951 and was the first modern jazz musician to be pictured on the cover of Time magazine — on Nov. 8, 1954 — and he helped define the swinging, smoky rhythms of 1950s and ‘60s club jazz.
George Wein, a jazz pianist and founder of the Newport Jazz Festival, had known Brubeck since he first worked in Wein’s club in Boston in 1952.
“No one else played like Dave Brubeck,” he said. “No one had the approach to the music that he did. That approach communicated.”
Brubeck “represented the best that we can have in jazz,” he added. “The quality of his persona helped every other jazz musician.”
Dave Brubeck was a living legend.
The musician, whose recordings included Take Five and Blue Rondo a la Turk, was once designated a “living legend” by the US Library of Congress.
He died on Wednesday morning in hospital in Connecticut, his manager Russell Gloyd told the Chicago Tribune newspaper.
The musician, who toured with the likes of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald would have turned 92 on Thursday.
Mr Gloyd said Brubeck died of heart failure after being stricken while on his way to a cardiology appointment with his son Darius.
Neil Portnow from The Recording Academy called Brubeck “an iconic jazz and classical pianist” and “a great legend”.
He said the musician “showed that jazz could be artistically challenging yet accessible to large audiences”.
So, tonight, I will raise a glass to one of my greatest influences and will play the Steinway until it echos down Poland Avenue with all the Brubeck these aging fingers can muster.
peej
Carissa
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My mom used to jam with Brubeck.
Wow, how lucky!!!! He was a great musician.
What instrument did she play?
They went to school together at Mills. She was a musicologist, but she played piano/organ.
True weird story:
When she was in the hospital, “Take Five” came on the radio right before she died. It was also playing on the Muzak at the funeral home when I went in to collect her ashes. Somewhere, I think she got a laugh out of that.
Ah, the greater ethos delivers some auspicious karma there … wonderful story!!!
That is a wonderful story indeed. I love it, thank you for sharing it propertius.
The most appropriate tribute! RIP!
The best thing is that I can leave the door open and all kinds of folks will join in too … just when this town starts getting to me, I remember that there’s no place else to be an authentic musician.
Kat: Where do you play when you play? You mentioned Poland Ave. Used to work at the NSA facility there and, ahem, working with a bunch of sailors, I knew a goodly number of the watering holes around there 🙂
Actually, my house is four doors down from the entrance. Usually, I play at high end restaurants in the quarter so I live in the bywater.
Different kind’ve family hang out now if you get my drift.
Chit! 👿
Yuppies are overtaking the neighborhood. It’s not a fun thing.
Yuppies are overtaking the neighborhood. It’s not a fun thing.
(sigh) I’m not a fan of abject poverty, but if they start changing things, that’s not good either. The bywater and upper9 had their own character. Hate to see it if it’s destroyed.
I live very close to Vaughn’s and BJ’s … Vaughn’s is my usual Saints game hang out
LOL!! 😆 I recall Vaughns very well!!! When I get back (if?) I’d like to try to catch you playing but don’t think I could afford the high-end restaurants. Ever play or visit The Country Club? (sigh) That’s from my **really** older days! 😉 It looks like it’s trying to go more mainstream from what I’ve read.
Country Club has gone upscale, yuppie, tourist-friendly so kids go there. Different kind’ve family hang out now if you get my drift. Plus, it’s expensive.
My parents played Brubeck all the time when I was a kid so when I hear him, it sounds like home.
RIP.
Brubeck and Petersen were gods to my son. They inspired him to keep at those lessons, and I loved to listen to them both. It’s truly sad when the giants pass on, sigh.
Kat, great post. My husband has tons of his music on vinyl, and I saw him live when I was in college.
I didn’t know he was 91. He had a great life and was a true musical giant. Thank you, Mr. Brubeck, for all the joy you have given us!
Oh joy, someone else with vinyl. I have a lot of their music (Brubeck and Petersen) on vinyl as well as lots of other artists and I refuse to give them up. I just need a new turntable, but they are incredibly expensive these days. Unfortuntely my old turntable was crushed in an accident. Sigh.
Just turned on the radio in the car coming home from work and they were in the middle of a piece on Brubeck. I thought “Oh, no, he’s just died.” And he had. Now we are playing non-stop Dave Brubeck at home … lining up all the CDs and iTunes albums one after another.
The last time I saw him play was about 3 yrs ago, at Jazz Alley in Seattle. We were about 25 feet from him. He was, as always, fantastic. What struck me the most — aside from his musicianship — is the enormous fun he got from playing. Watching him, and seeing the joyful creative masterful inter-relations of all the guys playing with him was such a kick.
I raise a glass to Mr. Brubeck, and to you kat, and wish I could be there and hear you play ….. and may all musicians and listeners mourn his death, and celebrate his life and work. His music will last.