AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Dave Brubeck

Artist:Dave Brubeck

Song:Blue Rondo a la Turk

Album:Ken Burns Jazz

This is another in my jazz for beginners series complete with a performance video and a comp CD appropriate for beginners. Pianist Dave Brubeck was a great musician. But more importantly, he was very important in widening the audience for jazz. The 1959 album Time Out and the singles Take Five and Blue Rondo a la Turk opened the door for other jazz artists. And we are still seeing that in the success of Smooth Jazz. So Brubeck's music is important in the history of jazz. He was born Dec. 6, 1920 in Concord, CA but grew up in Ione, CA. His father was a cattle rancher. His mother studied piano and wanted to be a concert pianist. She taught piano to earn extra money and she taught her sons too. Brubeck attended Colege of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. to study veterinary science. One of his teachers urged him to switch his major to music. There was concern that Brubeck couldn't read music. But he was allowed to graduate as long as he promised never to teach. After his 1942 graduation, Brubeck was drafted into the US Army and served in Europe in the Third Army. After playing piano on a Red Cross show, Brubeck was taken off combat duty. He started the band The Wolfpack and met Paul Desmond in 1944. After WWII, Brubeck studied with composer Darius Milhaud at Mills College in Oakland. Brubeck first recorded in 1949 with Coronet Records. But they were having money problems and they were taken over by Fantasy Records. That's when Brubeck formed his first quartet with Desmond. They took up residency at San Francisco's Black Hawk nightclub and successfully toured college campuses. Brubeck thought that he had an ownership stake in Fantasy. And he brought other jazz artists like Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker to Fantasy. But he was lied to and Brubeck left Fantasy for Columbia. The 1954 album Jazz Goes to College was his first album for Columbia. The musicians were Desmond, Bob Bates on bass and Joe Dodge on drums. After the album was a success, Brubeck appeared on the cover of Time Magazine. Brubeck was embarrassed by this as he thought Duke Ellington should have been on the cover. Brubeck and Desmond continued ton play with various musicians until drummer Joe Morello was hired in 1956. He was playing with pianist Marian McPartland. Them bassist Eugene Wright joined the band for Brubeck's 1958 Department of State tour of Europe and Asia. At the time, a racially integrated band was unusual. But he cancelled shows when promoters objected to Wright. He cancelled a TV appearance when the show producers wanted to keep Wright off camera. Then Brubeck recorded the 1959 album Time Out. The album was West Coast jazz but with unconventional time signatures. All the songs were written by Brubeck except for Take Five written by Desmond. Columbia president Goddard Lieberson agreed to this as long as Brubeck also recorded a standards album in case Time Out was a failure. Teo Macero produced the album. The big surprise was when Take Five got radio play and was a top 40 hit. Time Out was the first jazz album to sell a million copies. Rondo a la Turk was based on Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11 mixed with rhythms Brubeck heard in Turkey. It was Brubeck's most successful album. But most importantly, it helped other jazz artists by introducing jazz to a new audience. So that's Brubeck's legacy. This budget comp is a great intro to Brubeck's music. He recorded for Columbia until 1968 and also recorded for Decca and Atlantic and other labels. He continued to tour and record until he died on Dec. 5, 2012, a day before Brubeck's 92nd birthday. He was going to a doctor's appointment. Here's Dave Brubeck with Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright and Joe Morello performing Rondo a la Turk on a 1959 episode of Playboy After Dark.