Post by ۞Quaalude™۞ on Dec 6, 2012 12:30:24 GMT -5
Dave Brubeck , a giant of American music who was largely responsible for turning modern jazz into pop music, died Wednesday a day short of his 92nd birthday.
He was an ever-adventurous composer, educator, pianist, bandleader and world-traveling ambassador for jazz who continued performing until only a few months ago.
The famed, bespectacled pianist died of heart failure while on his way to a regular doctor's appointment near his longtime home of Wilton, Conn., according to Russell Gloyd, his longtime manager.
Mr. Brubeck was born in Concord and raised on a ranch in the Sierra foothills. He became a San Francisco bandleader and pianist credited with one of the major innovations in popular music: Working with San Francisco saxophonist Paul Desmond, Mr. Brubeck was the first pianist to break 4/4 time in jazz, by adding a fifth beat to the measure, according to jazz historian Ted Gioia.
"Take Five," written by Desmond and released in 1959 on the album "Time Out" by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, popularized this 5/4 time signature and became a pop hit, a rarity for a jazz instrumental. In 1961, "Time Out" reached No. 2 among popular albums on the Billboard chart, and "Take Five" topped out at No. 5 on the adult contemporary chart.
"That meter later showed up in everything from the theme to 'Mission Impossible' to the Jethro Tull song 'Living in the Past,' " said Gioia. "Dave was an innovator who started out as a leading light of San Francisco jazz but soon brought his artistry to the whole world."
Mr. Brubeck recorded more than 100 albums for large orchestras, choruses and even wrote two ballets, but his main forum was the Dave Brubeck Quartet, which he formed in 1951 in San Francisco. Introduced at the Geary Cellar, underneath the Geary Theater, the Quartet was the house band for six years at the now-defunct Blackhawk jazz club in the Tenderloin. During that time, modern jazz became dominant over the traditional, Dixieland sound.
"He was not totally accepted by the jazz community early on. People thought his piano playing didn't swing," said Dick Conte, a pianist and Bay Area jazz disc jockey who interviewed Mr. Brubeck many times over the years. "Gradually, he was able to win people over because he was of great substance. Over the years, people gravitated toward him - even the ones who had put him down."
Cover of Time
On Nov. 8, 1954, while still playing at the Blackhawk, Mr. Brubeck became the first contemporary jazz musician to make the cover of Time magazine. In 1958, the quartet embarked on a world tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department, bringing jazz to Poland, Turkey, India, East and West Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.
"Eisenhower wanted to take the best of America and do a peripheral tour of the Soviet Union," said Gloyd, the manager. Mr. Brubeck's plan was to take jazz out of the smoky clubs and "make jazz accessible to the general market, for people who just loved music."
"By then, Brubeck transcended jazz," Gloyd said. "There is no way Dave could have been as popular as he was in just the jazz market."
Son of a cowboy
David Warren Brubeck was born Dec. 6, 1920. His father, Pete, was a cowboy and rancher who ended up running a 45,000-acre spread in Ione in California's Sierra foothills, where Mr. Brubeck grew up the youngest of three brothers. His mother, Elizabeth Ivey, was a classically trained pianist who had studied in London.
"When Dave was 4 or 5, he would position himself under the piano while she was playing Chopin," Gloyd said. Because of poor eyesight, Mr. Brubeck had trouble reading (music), and "his mother gave up on trying to teach him."
Mr. Brubeck learned by listening, and by the time he was a teenager, he was playing with adults in a local dance band. He'd also run cattle with his father .
In 1938, Mr. Brubeck entered the College of the Pacific (now the University of the Pacific) in Stockton to study veterinary medicine at the insistence of his father. At the end of the first year, he was banished to the music conservatory, where he managed to sneak through three years without letting on that he was not very good at reading sheet music.
His graduation hinged on a handshake agreement. "There were two conditions," Gloyd said. "One, he promised to never teach music, and two, he promised never to return to College of the Pacific.
"He's been back a couple of times. Once was to pick up his honorary doctorate. The other was when the university established the Brubeck Institute."
While at Pacific, Mr. Brubeck met Iola Whitlock, and they married soon after his graduation. Mr. Brubeck had already enlisted in the Army and was sent to Europe as an infantry soldier in World War II. Mr. Brubeck was one day from being sent to the front when a Red Cross troupe came through camp and asked if anyone played piano.
"Dave was sitting on his helmet and raised his hand," said Gloyd. "They decided to give him a try, and the base commander heard him play, and that was the end of him going to the front."
Mr. Brubeck was reassigned to form a band, which he did, calling it the Wolfpack Band. Allowed to recruit his own sidemen, Mr. Brubeck formed a band of 18 pieces - with black and white musicians playing together.
"That is how Dave Brubeck integrated the United States Army, because he brought in black players," Gloyd said.
Guiding influence
At the end of the war, the Wolfpack disbanded and Mr. Brubeck came home to pursue his master's degree in music at Mills College, under the GI Bill. He didn't last, but was there long enough to come under the influence of French-born composer and faculty member Darius Milhaud.
"Milhaud encouraged Brubeck to go on the path that he had started, which was to express the musical language of jazz," said David Bernstein, professor of music at Mills. It was in Milhaud's composition class that Mr. Brubeck met the musicians who would later form the Dave Brubeck Octet, his first band. Two of the players were recruited from San Francisco State: Desmond on sax and Cal Tjader on drums.
Unable to support that many members, the Octet downsized to a trio, minus Desmond, who had gone to New York. There had been bad blood between them, and when he returned, he came to the Brubeck home in San Francisco, hat in hand.
As Mr. Brubeck later told it: "I was out in the back, hanging up diapers on a clothesline and I turned around and there was Paul Desmond. My first inclination was to throttle him, and then the good things about Paul came back and he said how much he wanted to be with the quartet and he'd babysit, he'd wash the car, he'd run errands, he'd do anything I asked him to do if he could only be in the group
QC
He was an ever-adventurous composer, educator, pianist, bandleader and world-traveling ambassador for jazz who continued performing until only a few months ago.
The famed, bespectacled pianist died of heart failure while on his way to a regular doctor's appointment near his longtime home of Wilton, Conn., according to Russell Gloyd, his longtime manager.
Mr. Brubeck was born in Concord and raised on a ranch in the Sierra foothills. He became a San Francisco bandleader and pianist credited with one of the major innovations in popular music: Working with San Francisco saxophonist Paul Desmond, Mr. Brubeck was the first pianist to break 4/4 time in jazz, by adding a fifth beat to the measure, according to jazz historian Ted Gioia.
"Take Five," written by Desmond and released in 1959 on the album "Time Out" by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, popularized this 5/4 time signature and became a pop hit, a rarity for a jazz instrumental. In 1961, "Time Out" reached No. 2 among popular albums on the Billboard chart, and "Take Five" topped out at No. 5 on the adult contemporary chart.
"That meter later showed up in everything from the theme to 'Mission Impossible' to the Jethro Tull song 'Living in the Past,' " said Gioia. "Dave was an innovator who started out as a leading light of San Francisco jazz but soon brought his artistry to the whole world."
Mr. Brubeck recorded more than 100 albums for large orchestras, choruses and even wrote two ballets, but his main forum was the Dave Brubeck Quartet, which he formed in 1951 in San Francisco. Introduced at the Geary Cellar, underneath the Geary Theater, the Quartet was the house band for six years at the now-defunct Blackhawk jazz club in the Tenderloin. During that time, modern jazz became dominant over the traditional, Dixieland sound.
"He was not totally accepted by the jazz community early on. People thought his piano playing didn't swing," said Dick Conte, a pianist and Bay Area jazz disc jockey who interviewed Mr. Brubeck many times over the years. "Gradually, he was able to win people over because he was of great substance. Over the years, people gravitated toward him - even the ones who had put him down."
Cover of Time
On Nov. 8, 1954, while still playing at the Blackhawk, Mr. Brubeck became the first contemporary jazz musician to make the cover of Time magazine. In 1958, the quartet embarked on a world tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department, bringing jazz to Poland, Turkey, India, East and West Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.
"Eisenhower wanted to take the best of America and do a peripheral tour of the Soviet Union," said Gloyd, the manager. Mr. Brubeck's plan was to take jazz out of the smoky clubs and "make jazz accessible to the general market, for people who just loved music."
"By then, Brubeck transcended jazz," Gloyd said. "There is no way Dave could have been as popular as he was in just the jazz market."
Son of a cowboy
David Warren Brubeck was born Dec. 6, 1920. His father, Pete, was a cowboy and rancher who ended up running a 45,000-acre spread in Ione in California's Sierra foothills, where Mr. Brubeck grew up the youngest of three brothers. His mother, Elizabeth Ivey, was a classically trained pianist who had studied in London.
"When Dave was 4 or 5, he would position himself under the piano while she was playing Chopin," Gloyd said. Because of poor eyesight, Mr. Brubeck had trouble reading (music), and "his mother gave up on trying to teach him."
Mr. Brubeck learned by listening, and by the time he was a teenager, he was playing with adults in a local dance band. He'd also run cattle with his father .
In 1938, Mr. Brubeck entered the College of the Pacific (now the University of the Pacific) in Stockton to study veterinary medicine at the insistence of his father. At the end of the first year, he was banished to the music conservatory, where he managed to sneak through three years without letting on that he was not very good at reading sheet music.
His graduation hinged on a handshake agreement. "There were two conditions," Gloyd said. "One, he promised to never teach music, and two, he promised never to return to College of the Pacific.
"He's been back a couple of times. Once was to pick up his honorary doctorate. The other was when the university established the Brubeck Institute."
While at Pacific, Mr. Brubeck met Iola Whitlock, and they married soon after his graduation. Mr. Brubeck had already enlisted in the Army and was sent to Europe as an infantry soldier in World War II. Mr. Brubeck was one day from being sent to the front when a Red Cross troupe came through camp and asked if anyone played piano.
"Dave was sitting on his helmet and raised his hand," said Gloyd. "They decided to give him a try, and the base commander heard him play, and that was the end of him going to the front."
Mr. Brubeck was reassigned to form a band, which he did, calling it the Wolfpack Band. Allowed to recruit his own sidemen, Mr. Brubeck formed a band of 18 pieces - with black and white musicians playing together.
"That is how Dave Brubeck integrated the United States Army, because he brought in black players," Gloyd said.
Guiding influence
At the end of the war, the Wolfpack disbanded and Mr. Brubeck came home to pursue his master's degree in music at Mills College, under the GI Bill. He didn't last, but was there long enough to come under the influence of French-born composer and faculty member Darius Milhaud.
"Milhaud encouraged Brubeck to go on the path that he had started, which was to express the musical language of jazz," said David Bernstein, professor of music at Mills. It was in Milhaud's composition class that Mr. Brubeck met the musicians who would later form the Dave Brubeck Octet, his first band. Two of the players were recruited from San Francisco State: Desmond on sax and Cal Tjader on drums.
Unable to support that many members, the Octet downsized to a trio, minus Desmond, who had gone to New York. There had been bad blood between them, and when he returned, he came to the Brubeck home in San Francisco, hat in hand.
As Mr. Brubeck later told it: "I was out in the back, hanging up diapers on a clothesline and I turned around and there was Paul Desmond. My first inclination was to throttle him, and then the good things about Paul came back and he said how much he wanted to be with the quartet and he'd babysit, he'd wash the car, he'd run errands, he'd do anything I asked him to do if he could only be in the group
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