New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Dave Brubeck, the jazz pianist, composer and bandleader behind the legendary Dave Brubeck Quartet, has died at age 91.
The death of Brubeck, whose quartet performed "Take Five," which became a jazz standard and the bestselling jazz single of all time, was confirmed Wednesday. Brubeck would have turned 92 Thursday.
Dave Brubeck died of heart failure after being stricken while on the way to a cardiologist's appointment in Connecticut.
Biography:
David Warren "Dave" Brubeck (December 6, 1920 - December 5, 2012) was an Americanjazz pianist. He wrote a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranged from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills. His music was known for employing unusual time signatures, and superimposing contrasting rhythms, meters, and tonalities.
His long-time musical partner, alto saxophonistPaul Desmond, wrote the saxophone melody for the Dave Brubeck Quartet's best remembered piece, "Take Five", which is in 5/4 time and has endured as a jazz classic on one of the top-selling jazz albums, Time Out. Brubeck experimented with time signatures throughout his career, recording "Pick Up Sticks" in 6/4, "Unsquare Dance" in 7/4, "World's Fair" in 13/4, and "Blue Rondo à la Turk" in 9/8. He is also a respected composer of orchestral and sacred music, and wrote soundtracks for television such as Mr. Broadway and the animated mini-seriesThis Is America, Charlie Brown.
Early life and career
Brubeck was born in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Concord, California, and grew up in Ione. He was of English (maternal), Swiss, and possibly Native AmericanModoc Tribe multi-ethnic (paternal) ancestry His father,
Howard "Pete" Brubeck, was a cattle rancher, and his mother,
Elizabeth (née Ivey), who had studied piano in England under Myra Hess and intended to become a concert pianist, taught piano for extra money. Brubeck originally did not intend to become a musician (his two older brothers, Henry and Howard, were already on that track), but took lessons from his mother. He could not read sheet music during these early lessons, attributing this difficulty to poor eyesight, but "faked" his way through, well enough that this deficiency went mostly unnoticed.
Intending to work with his father on their ranch, Brubeck entered the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California, (now the University of the Pacific) studying veterinary science, but transferred on the urging of the head of zoology, Dr. Arnold, who told him "Brubeck, your mind's not here. It's across the lawn in the conservatory. Please go there. Stop wasting my time and yours". Later, Brubeck was nearly expelled when one of his professors discovered that he could not read music. Several of his professors came forward, arguing that his ability with counterpoint and harmony more than compensated. The college was still afraid that it would cause a scandal, and agreed to let Brubeck graduate only after he promised never to teach piano.
After graduating in 1942, Brubeck was drafted into the army and served overseas in
George Patton's Third Army. He was spared from service in the
Battle of the Bulge when he volunteered to play piano at a Red Cross show; he was such a hit he was ordered to form a band. Thus he created one of the US armed forces' first racially integrated bands, "The Wolfpack". While serving in the military, Brubeck met Paul Desmond in early 1944. He returned to college after serving nearly four years in the army, this time attending Mills College and studying under
Darius Milhaud, who encouraged him to study fugue and orchestration, but not classical piano. While on active duty, he received two lessons from Arnold Schoenberg at UCLA in an attempt to connect with High Modernism theory and practice. However, the encounter did not end on good terms since Schoenberg believed that every note should be accounted for, an approach which Brubeck could not accept.
After completing his studies under Milhaud, Brubeck helped to establish Berkeley, California's Fantasy Records. He worked with an octet (the recording bears his name only because Brubeck was the best-known member at the time), and a trio including Cal Tjader and Ron Crotty. Highly experimental, the group made few recordings and got even fewer paying jobs. The trio was often joined by Paul Desmond on the bandstand, at Desmond's prodding.
In 1949, Jack Sheedy, the owner of a San Francisco-based record label called Coronet, was talked into making the first recording of Brubeck's octet and later his trio. (This Coronet Records should not be confused with either the late 1950s New York-based budget label, nor the Australia-based Coronet Records.) Sheedy's label had previously recorded area Dixieland bands, but Sheedy was unable to pay his bills and in 1949 turned his masters over to his record stamping company, the Circle Record Company, owned by Max and Sol Weiss. The Weiss brothers soon changed the name of their business to Fantasy Records and met an increasing demand for Brubeck recording by recording and issuing new records. Soon the company was shipping 40,000 to 50,000 copies of Brubeck recording a quarter, making enormous profits.
Quartet era
Dave Brubeck, featured on TIME magazine cover, "The Man on Cloud No. 7". November 8, 1954
Following a near-fatal swimming accident which incapacitated him for several months, Brubeck organized The Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1951, with Desmond on saxophone. They took up a long residency at San Francisco's
Black Hawk nightclub and gained great popularity touring college campuses, recording a series of albums with such titles as Jazz at Oberlin (1953), Jazz at the College of the Pacific (1953), and Brubeck's debut on Columbia Records, Jazz Goes to College (1954).
When Brubeck signed with Fantasy Records, he thought he had a half interest in the company and he worked as a sort of A & R man for it, encouraging the Weiss brothers to sign other contemporary jazz performers, including Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, and Red Norvo. When he discovered that all he owned was a half interest in his own recording, he was more than willing to sign with another label, Columbia Records.
In 1954, he was featured on the cover of Time (magazine), the second jazz musician to be so honored (the first was Louis Armstrong on February 21, 1949). Brubeck personally found this accolade embarrassing since he considered Duke Ellington more deserving of it and was convinced that himself being Caucasian as opposed to Ellington's being African American was a factor for why he was favored.
Early bassists for the group included Ron Crotty, Bob Bates, and Bob's brother Norman Bates;
Lloyd Davis and Joe Dodge held the drum chair. In 1956, Brubeck hired Joe Morello, who had been working with Marian McPartland; Morello's presence made possible the rhythmic experiments that were to come. In 1958 African-American Eugene Wright joined for the group's US
State Department tour of
Europe and Asia. Wright became a permanent member in 1959, making the "classic" Quartet's personnel complete. During the late 1950s and early 1960s Brubeck canceled several concerts because the club owners or hall managers continued to resist the idea of an integrated band on their stages. He also canceled a television appearance when he found out that the producers intended to keep Wright off-camera.
In 1959, the Dave Brubeck Quartet recorded Time Out, an album their label was enthusiastic about but nonetheless hesitant to release. Featuring the album art of S. Neil Fujita, the album contained all original compositions, almost none of which were in common time: 9/8, 5/4, 3/4, and 6/4 were used inspired by Eurasian folk music they experienced during that US
State Department sponsored tour. Nonetheless, on the strength of these unusual time signatures (the album included "Take Five", "Blue Rondo à la Turk", and "Three To Get Ready"), it quickly went platinum.
Time Out was followed by several albums with a similar approach, including Time Further Out: Miro Reflections (1961), using more 5/4, 6/4, and 9/8, plus the first attempt at 7/4; Countdown: Time in Outer Space (dedicated to John Glenn) (1962), featuring 11/4 and more 7/4; Time Changes (1963), with much 3/4, 10/4 (which was really 5+5), and 13/4; and Time In (1966).
These albums (except the last) were also known for using contemporary paintings as cover art, featuring the work of 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 1963 live album At Carnegie Hall, described by critic Richard Palmer as "arguably Dave Brubeck's greatest concert".
In the early 1960s, Brubeck and his wife Iola developed a jazz musical, The Real Ambassadors, based in part on experiences they and their colleagues had during foreign tours on behalf of the US
State Department. The soundtrack album, which featured Louis Armstrong, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, and Carmen McRae was recorded in 1961; the musical itself was performed at the 1962 Monterey Jazz Festival.
At their peak in the early '60s, the Brubeck Quartet was releasing as many as four albums a year. Apart from the 'College' and the 'Time' series, Brubeck recorded four LPs featuring his compositions based on the group's travels, and the local music they encountered. Jazz Impressions of the USA (1956, Morello's debut with the group), Jazz Impressions of Eurasia (1958), Jazz Impressions of Japan (1964), and Jazz Impressions of New York (1964) are less well-known albums, but all are brilliant examples of the quartet's studio work, and they produced Brubeck standards such as "Summer Song," "Brandenburg Gate," "Koto Song," and "Theme From Mr. Broadway." (Brubeck wrote, and the Quartet performed, the theme song for the
Craig Stevens CBS drama series; the music from the series became material for the "
New York" album.)
In 1961 Dave Brubeck appeared in a few scenes of the British Jazz/Beat film All Night Long, which starred Patrick McGoohan and Richard Attenborough. Brubeck merely plays himself, and his piano playing includes closeups of his fingerings. Brubeck performs "It's a Raggy Waltz" from the Time Further Out album and duets briefly with bassist Charles Mingus in "Non-Sectarian Blues".
In the early 1960s Dave Brubeck was the program director of WJZZ-FM radio (now WEZN). He achieved his vision of an all jazz format radio station along with his friend and neighbor John E. Metts, one of the first African Americans in senior radio management.
The final studio album for Columbia by the Desmond/Wright/Morello quartet was Anything Goes (1966) featuring Cole Porter songs. A few concert recordings followed, and The Last Time We Saw Paris (1967) was the "
Classic" Quartet's swan-song.
Later career
Brubeck in a 1972 performance in Hamburg
Brubeck's disbanding of the Quartet at the end of 1967 allowed him more time to compose the longer, extended orchestral and choral works that were occupying his attention (to say nothing of Brubeck's desire to spend more time with his family). February 1968 saw the premiere of The Light in the Wilderness for baritone solo, choir, organ, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Kunzel, and Brubeck improvising on certain themes within. The piece is an oratorio on Jesus's teachings. The next year, Brubeck produced The Gates of Justice, a cantata mixing Biblical scripture with the words of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Personal life
Four of Brubeck's six children are professional musicians. Darius, the eldest, is an accomplished pianist, producer, educator and performer. (He was named after Dave Brubeck's mentor
Darius Milhaud.) Dan is a renowned percussionist, Chris is a multi-instrumentalist and composer. Matthew, the youngest, is a versatile cellist with an impressive list of composing and performance credits. Brubeck's children often joined him in concerts and in the recording studio.
Brubeck in 2005
Brubeck believed what he saw during World War II contradicted the Ten Commandments, and the war evoked a spiritual awakening.[citation needed] He became a Catholic in 1980, shortly after completing the Mass To Hope which had been commissioned by Ed Murray, editor of the national Catholic weekly Our Sunday Visitor. Although he had spiritual interests before that time, he said, "I didn't convert to Catholicism, because I wasn't anything to convert from. I just joined the Catholic Church." In 1996, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006, Brubeck was awarded the University of Notre Dame's Laetare Medal, the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics, during the University's commencement. He performed "Travellin' Blues" for the graduating class of 2006.
Brubeck founded the Brubeck
Institute with his wife Iola at their alma mater, the University of the Pacific in 2000. What began as a special archive, consisting of the personal document collection of the Brubecks, has since expanded to provide fellowships and educational opportunities in jazz for students, also leading to having one of the main streets the school resides on named in his honor, Dave Brubeck Way.
Brubeck died of heart failure on December 5, 2012, in Norwalk, Connecticut, one day before his 92nd birthday. He was on his way to a cardiology appointment, accompanied by his son, Darius.
Recognition
Dave Brubeck (third from left), among Kennedy Center honorees 2009, flanked by President and Mrs. Obama at the Blue Room, White House, December 6, 2009.
On April 8, 2008, United States Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice presented Brubeck with a "Benjamin
Franklin Award for Public Diplomacy" for offering an American "vision of hope, opportunity and freedom" through his music. "As a little girl I grew up on the sounds of Dave Brubeck because my dad was your biggest fan," said Rice. The
State Department said in a statement that "as a pianist, composer, cultural emissary and educator, Dave Brubeck's life's work exemplifies the best of America's cultural diplomacy." At the ceremony Brubeck played a brief recital for the audience at the
State Department. "I want to thank all of you because this honor is something that I never expected. Now I am going to play a cold piano with cold hands," Brubeck stated.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady
Maria Shriver announced on May 28, 2008, that Brubeck would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. The induction ceremony occurred December 10, and he was inducted alongside eleven other legendary Californians.
Dave Brubeck at the White House for the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors
In
September 2009, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced Brubeck as a Kennedy Center Honoree for exhibiting excellence in performance arts. The Kennedy Center Honors Gala took place on Sunday, December 6 (Brubeck's 89th birthday), and was broadcast nationwide on CBS on December 29 at 9:00 pm EST.
On
September 20, 2009, at Monterey Jazz Festival, Brubeck was awarded an honorary Doctor of
Music degree (D.Mus. honoris causa) from Berklee College of Music.
On May 16, 2010, Brubeck was awarded an honorary Doctor of
Music degree (honoris causa) from The
George Washington University in Washington, DC. The ceremony took place on the
National Mall.
On July 5, 2010, Brubeck was awarded the Miles-Davis Award at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.[citation needed]In 2010, Bruce Ricker and
Clint Eastwood produced a documentary Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way about Brubeck for Turner Classic Movies (TCM) to commemorate his 90th birthday in December 2010.
Brubeck became a supporter of the Jazz Foundation of
America in its mission to save the homes and the lives of elderly jazz and blues musicians, including musicians who survived Hurricane Katrina. Brubeck supported the Jazz Foundation by performing in its annual benefit concert "A Great Night in Harlem" in 2006.
Awards
Connecticut Arts Award (1987);
National Medal of Arts,
National Endowment for the Arts (1994);
DownBeat Hall of Fame (1994);
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1996);
Doctorate honoris causa University of Fribourg, Switzerland (2004);
Laetare Medal (University of Notre Dame) (2006);
BBC Jazz Lifetime Achievement Award (2007);
Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Diplomacy (2008);
Inducted into California Hall of Fame (2008);
Kennedy Centre Honour (2009);
George Washington University Honorary Degree (2010);
Honorary Fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey (2011).
Discography
Brubeck Trio with Cal Tjader, Volume 1 (1949)
Brubeck Trio with Cal Tjader, Volume 2 (1949)
Brubeck/Desmond (1951)
Stardust (1951)
Dave Brubeck Quartet (1951)
Jazz at the Blackhawk (1952)
Dave Brubeck/Paul Desmond (1952)
Jazz at Storyville (live) (1952)
featuring Paul Desmond In Concert (live) (1953)
Two Knights at the
Black Hawk (1953)
Jazz at Oberlin (1953) Fantasy Records
Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond at
Wilshire Ebell (1953)
Jazz at the College of the Pacific (1953) Fantasy Records
Jazz Goes to College (1954) Columbia Records
Dave Brubeck at Storyville 1954 (live) (1954)
Brubeck Time (1955)
Jazz: Red Hot And Cool (1955)
Brubeck Plays Brubeck (1956)
Dave Brubeck and Jay & Kai at Newport (1956)
Jazz Impressions of the U.S.A. (1956)
Plays and Plays and... (1957) Fantasy Records
Reunion (1957) Fantasy Records
Jazz Goes to
Junior College (live) (1957)
Dave Digs Disney (1957)
In
Europe (1958)
Complete 1958 Berlin Concert (released 2008)
Newport 1958
Jazz Impressions of Eurasia (1958)
Gone with the Wind (1959) Columbia Records
Time Out (1959) Columbia Records/Legacy (RIAA: Platinum)
Southern Scene (1960)
The Riddle (1960)
Brubeck and Rushing (1960)
Brubeck a la Mode (1961) Fantasy Records
Tonight Only with the Dave Brubeck Quartet (1961, with Carmen McRae)
Take Five Live (1961, Live, Columbia Records, with Carmen McRae, released 1965)
Near-Myth (1961) Fantasy Records
Bernstein Plays Brubeck Plays Bernstein (1961)
Time Further Out (1961) Columbia Records/Legacy
Countdown—Time in Outer Space (1962) Columbia Records
The Real Ambassadors (1962)
Music From West Side Story (1962)
Bossa Nova U.S.A. (1962)
Brubeck in Amsterdam (1962, released 1969)
Brandenburg Gate: Revisited (1963) Columbia Records
At Carnegie Hall (1963)
Time Changes (1963)
Dave Brubeck in Berlin (1964)
Jazz Impressions of Japan (1964) Columbia Records/Legacy
Jazz Impressions of New York (1964) Columbia Records/Legacy
Angel Eyes (1965)
My Favorite Things (1965)
The 1965 Canadian Concert (released 2008)
Time In (1966) Columbia Records
Anything Goes (1966)
Bravo! Brubeck! (1967)
Buried Treasures (1967, released 1998)
Jackpot (1967) Columbia Records
The Last Time We Saw Paris (1968)
Adventures in Time (Compilation, 1972) Columbia Records
The Light in the Wilderness (1968)
Compadres (1968)
Blues
Roots (1968)
Brubeck/Mulligan/Cincinnati (1970)
Live at the Berlin Philharmonie (1970)
The Last Set at Newport (1971) Atlantic Records
Truth is Fallen (1972)
We're All Together Again For the First Time (1973)
Two Generations of Brubeck (1973)
Brother, the Great
Spirit Made Us All (1974)
All The Things We Are (1974)
Brubeck & Desmond 1975: The Duets
DBQ 25th Anniversary Reunion (1976) A&M Records
The New Brubeck Quartet Live at Montreux (1978)
A Cut Above (1978)
La Fiesta de la Posada (1979)
Back Home (1979) Concord Records
A Place in Time (1980)
Tritonis (1980) Concord Records
To Hope! A Celebration By Dave Brubeck (A Mass in the Revised Roman Ritual) - Original now out-of-print 1980 recording conducted by Erich Kunzel. Pastoral Arts Associates (PAA) of North America, Old Hickory, Nashville, Tennesses 37187 LP record number DRP-8318.
Music Copyright 1979 St. Francis Music. Recording Copyright 1980 Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.
Paper Moon (1982) Concord Records
Concord on a Summer Night (1982)
For Iola (1984)
Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz with guest Dave Brubeck (1984, released 1993)
Reflections (1985)
Blue Rondo (1986)
Moscow Night (1987)
New Wine (1987, released 1990)
The Great Concerts (Compilation, 1988)
Quiet As The Moon (Charlie Brown soundtrack) (1991)
Once When I Was Very Young (1991)
Time Signatures: A Career Retrospective (Compilation, 1992) Sony Colombia Legacy
Trio Brubeck (1993)
Late Night Brubeck (1994)
Just You, Just Me (solo) (1994)
Nightshift (1995)
Young Lions & Old Tigers (1995)
To Hope! A Celebration (1996)
A Dave Brubeck Christmas (1996)
In Their Own Sweet Way (1997)
So What's New? (1998)
The 40th Anniversary Tour of the U.K. (1999)
One Alone (2000)
Double Live From the USA & UK (2001)
The Crossing (2001)
Vocal Encounters (Compilation, 2001) Sony Records
Classical Brubeck (with the London Symphony Orchestra, 2003) Telarc
Park Avenue South (2003)
The Gates of
Justice (2004)
Private Brubeck Remembers (solo piano + Interview disc w. Walter Cronkite) (2004)
London Flat, London Sharp (2005) Telarc
Indian Summer (2007) Telarc
Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival 1958-2007 (2008)
Yo-Yo Ma &
Friends Brubeck tracks: Joy to the World, Concordia. (2008)Sony BMG
Everybody Wants To Be A Cat: Disney Jazz Volume 1 Brubeck tracks: Some Day My
Prince Will Come, Alice In
Wonderland (with Roberta Gambarini) (2011)
Their Last Time Out (DBQ recorded Live, 12/26/67) (2011)
