Download Free Dave Brubeck Songs

Dave Brubeck music biography continued...

Studies at the College of the Pacific and with Darius Milhaud at Mills College led to the founding, with fellow students, of the experimental Jazz Workshop Ensemble which recorded in 1949 as the Dave Brubeck Octet, and included Cal Tjader and Paul Desmond. The octet was highly experimental, made few recordings, and got even fewer paying jobs. In 1951, Brubeck formed The Dave Brubeck Quartet, which consisted of Joe Dodge on drums, Bob Bates on bass, Paul Desmond on saxophone, and of course Brubeck on piano. In the mid-1950s Bates and Dodge were respectively replaced by Eugene Wright and Joe Morello. In 1959 the Dave Brubeck Quartet released Time Out, an album their label was enthusiastic about but nonetheless hesitant to release. The album contained all original compositions, almost none of which were in common time. Nonetheless, on the strength of these unusual time signatures (the album included 'Take Five', 'Blue Rondo A La Turk', and 'Pick Up Sticks'), it quickly went platinum. The quartet followed up its success with several more albums in the same vein, including Time Further Out (1961), Time in Outer Space, and Time Changes. These albums were also known for using contemporary paintings as cover art, featuring the work of Neil Fujita on Time Out, Joan Miró on Time Further Out, Franz Kline on Time in Outer Space, and Sam Francis on Time Changes. A high point for the group was their classic 1963 live album At Carnegie Hall, described by critic Richard Palmer as 'arguably Dave Brubeck's greatest concert'.



The Dave Brubeck Quartet broke up in 1967 except for a 25th anniversary reunion in 1976; Brubeck continued playing with Desmond and then began recording with Gerry Mulligan. Mulligan and Brubeck recorded together for six years and then Brubeck formed another group with Jerry Bergonzi on saxophone, and three of his sons, Dan, Darius, and Chris, on drums, bass, and keyboards. Brubeck performed at the White House in 1964 and 1981 and at the 1988 Moscow summit honoring the Gorbachevs. Today, he is jazz's elder statesman and a better ambassador the genre could never have.