MU243 Studies in Jazz History: Jazz Artists' Websites

Dave Brubeck, the legendary jazz pianist and composer, died on December 5 at age 91. Best known for his quartet with alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, Brubeck’s most famous recording is his brilliant 1959 album Time Out, which included the iconic songs “Take Five” and “Blue Rondo a la Turk.”  Brubeck was incredibly active in the 1950s-60s, recording dozens of albums, selling millions of records, and appearing on the cover of Time Magazine in 1954.
This month’s column will explore Dave Brubeck’s legacy on the web, surveying some sites that examine his music and his life. As described in The New York Times’ obituary, Brubeck was a born in a rural part of California, and he initially considered ranching as a career.  Things began to change when he landed his first professional music gig at age 14, then changed for good when he attended the College of the Pacific and switched majors from veterinary school to music.
Brubeck remained close to his alma mater, which established the Brubeck Institute in 2000. The Institute provides scholarships for Brubeck Fellows to study and perform jazz.  Brubeck was proud of the Institute and the role it could play in assisting young jazz musicians. The University of the Pacific’s library houses the Brubeck Collection as well as an online selection of materials from that collection.
Brubeck’s career is well documented by National Public Radio. An essay entitled “Dave Brubeck: Beyond Take Five”  discusses his role as a jazz composer, musical collaborator, and classical composer, complete with film clips.  Brubeck was a guest on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz in 1997, and the two traded songs and talked about his career .  This just touches the surface of NPR’s deep Dave Brubeck vault , which also includes live concerts from 2007-2009 at the Newport and Monterey Jazz Festivals, an interview on Fresh Air, and a 50th-anniversary article about the 1959 release of Take Five.
Other memorials include a brief musical tribute from Taylor Ho Bynum at The New Yorker, who discusses Brubeck’s unusual time signatures :

Brubeck is most often remembered for his classic quartet of the nineteen-fifties and sixties, hunched over the piano with his oversized horn-rimmed glasses and dark suit, exemplifying geek chic for college hipsters decades before the current trend. His music was brainy and catchy at the same time. The hummable melodies hid the crunchy harmonies, odd time signatures, and sophisticated counterpoint. (How many listeners have tied their fingers into knots trying to snap along with the platinum-selling “Time Out” and its 9/8 and 5/4 time signatures?)

The Atlantic features two blog postings about Brubeck.  The first sports the catchy title “The Anthropological Reason It Feels Weird to Dance to Brubeck’s ‘Take Five:’ Reading the scholarly literature on Dave Brubeck’s funky time signatures.” Brubeck, like Benny Goodman before him, was a white jazz bandleader who had a black musician in his band (bassist Gene Wright). The Atlantic discusses this in the blog “How Dave Brubeck Used His Talents to Fight for Integration.”
On a personal note, one of my cherished memories from the decades I spent as a freelance music journalist was a telephone interview I conducted with Dave Brubeck. He was kind and generous with his time, an easy, affable man bustling with energy and charm. It was a delight to spend some time with him, even if only for a half hour via the telephone. I think about that interview every time I play Brubeck on the stereo, which I always do this time of year.  Brubeck recorded a lovely Christmas album of solo piano music in 1996, A Dave Brubeck Christmas, which is in steady rotation at my house during the holidays. Christmas meant a lot to Brubeck, as he related in this anecdote to NPR about serving in the US Army in World War Two during the Battle of the Bulge.
So long, Dave Brubeck, and thanks for all the great music.

– Gene Hyde