Dave Brubeck Take five in 1961
Iconic jazz pianist Dave Brubeck has died at age 91. His exquisite phrasing and tireless sense of innovation can be heard on his best known recording, Take Five, so named because it abandons the usual 4/4 time of jazz for a much more adventurous 5/4. (one-two-three-one-two, one-two-three-one-two...) Take Five, like the hundreds of other ground breaking recordings and the man who played on them, inhabits a special place of timeless cool. Wrote the Chicago Tribune of Mr. Brubeck:
As a humanist, he was at the forefront of integration, playing black jazz clubs throughout the deep South in the ’50s, a point of pride for him. "For as long as I’ve been playing jazz, people have been trying to pigeonhole me,” he once told the Tribune. "Frankly, labels bore me."
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Damn! He will be missed
Take five, Dave.
Thanks for all the beautiful music, Dave.
A brilliant and good soul passed from us today. I will forever be indebted to Dave for giving me a love of jazz and fusion music! -Kevo
wouldn't it be (one-two-three-four-five...one-two-three-four-five)...??? If I understand music correctly, it's 5 beats in 1 measure. 4/4 has four. 3/4 has three. etc...
You would think, but some of us musicians have trouble counting past 4 so we break down 5/4 into groups of 3,2 or 2,3 - 7/4 into 3,2,2 etc.
My favorite jazz artist ever. Go to www.jazzandblues.org - KKJZ, the last all-jazz station in America. They're playing his stuff.
All true but I'm sure Dave would be the first to point out that Paul Desmond wrote Take 5.
Beat me to it. Thanks, Bobby.
Of course we lost Paul long ago (in 1977 at age 52.)
"The sound of a dry martini."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoKmh1S6qnc
So long, old friend.
He did write Blue Rondo a la Turk, which has crazy 9/8 time. Never heard of Brubeck until Keith Emerson played that in one of his early career encores. Been listening to Brubeck ever since.
God rest ye Merry Gentleman.
I met him once when I was around 14, backstage with my parents at a concert. We were big fans, but he didn't know us from anyone. Yet he spent 15 minutes chatting with us. I don't remember much of the conversation, but I'll always remember his genuine smile and the natural, personal warmth he extended to three strangers he'd just met. Bless you and thank you, Mr. Dave Brubeck. Your music started me on my life-long love of jazz.
It was pioneers like you - that made all that jazz possible in Music School. God Bless and accept you with open arms.
One of my favorite recordings. He lives on in his music!
Take Five is definitely one of the best songs of all time. Brubeck will be missed.
Also passed today: Jack Brooks, long-time Texas Dem. politician and old friend of my father and grandfather. It was my great fortune to grow up in his shadow.
Some things you perhaps didn't know about Dave Brubeck:
Brubeck joined the Army as an infantry man, but ended up leading the semi-official Wolf Pack band attached to Gen. George S. Patton's army. They played popular standards as well as some of his first original jazz tunes, including "We Crossed the Rhine," based on the rhythm of trucks hitting the metal pontoon bridges as they entered Germany.
His band, which was one of the first integrated units in the then-segregated Army, reopened the Opera House in Nuremberg, the site of mass rallies organized by the Nazis, who had banned jazz.
Years later, the addition of Wright to Brubeck's quartet made the group one of the nation's best-known integrated music acts. A longtime champion of civil rights, Brubeck cancelled lucrative gigs at Southern universities and on television's Bell Telephone Hour when the organizers insisted that he replace Wright. He refused to play in South Africa under apartheid.
Also died today was Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. The world won't be the same with Oscar and Dave.
RIP
"Take Five" was the first album I ever bought with my own money. I think I was 12.... Later, during college, I heard Brubeck and Gerry Mulligan live and met them after the concert. I was star-struck--still am. Best wishes on your continued journey, Dave....