[Dixielandjazz] Brubeck is Back

[Stephen G Barbone]

For those of us who remember the impact Dave Brubeck had on jazz when  
we were kids in high school or college. Do you remember how we  
gathered in each others houses or dorm rooms to listen to the quartet?  
Or seeing them perform? I will never forget seeing them at Basin  
Street East in NYC over 50 years ago. Or seeing him a decade later in  
Oakland California at his house which was just a few steps from the  
one my wife and I were renting. The man is a national treasure.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

Brubeck’s Back, Conserving Resources

By NATE CHINEN - NY TIMES - NOV 29, 2010


Dave Brubeck made his way to the Blue Note stage with apparent effort  
on Friday, the first night of a sold-out weekend run. “My doctors told  
me I’m rushing things,” he said, a little breathlessly, once he had  
reached the piano bench. He didn’t go on to explain that he had  
undergone heart surgery in October, when he received a pacemaker, or  
that a handful of other concert dates had been postponed. He was back  
and eager to proceed, and that was what mattered, judging by the  
ensuing clatter of grateful applause.

This was already shaping up to be a commemorative season for Mr.  
Brubeck. He’s the subject of a documentary, “In His Own Sweet Way,”  
scheduled to run on Turner Classic Movies next Monday — his 90th  
birthday — after its premiere on Saturday at Lincoln Center. (The  
film’s executive producer is Clint Eastwood, honorary board chairman  
of the Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific.) His  
stylish Columbia Records output has been repackaged for two new boxed  
sets and a two-CD compilation. And “The Definitive Dave Brubeck on  
Fantasy, Concord Jazz, and Telarc” features both older and more recent  
material, concluding with a track recorded by his current working band.

Mr. Brubeck’s steady work with that band, featuring the alto  
saxophonist Bobby Militello, the bassist Michael Moore and the drummer  
Randy Jones, has long proposed a commemorative agenda of its own.  
Friday’s performance was characteristic, opening with a Duke Ellington  
medley and moving on to a blend of originals and standards that  
effectively spanned Mr. Brubeck’s career.“Take Five” was the  
obligatory finale, spiced up with Christmas-music quotations and a  
climactic drum solo.

The band was brisk, if a bit businesslike, throughout the set. Mr.  
Moore bowed a handful of graceful solos and otherwise laid a stalwart  
but supple foundation, syncing easily with Mr. Jones. On the front  
line Mr. Militello barreled through his solos with boppish aplomb,  
phrasing just slightly ahead of the beat. At times, as on “Someday My  
Prince Will Come,” the three sidemen ventured out with no piano,  
pushing into modal territory.

Their best efforts, though, were framed by Mr. Brubeck’s  
accompaniment. Long before his recent medical leave, he had softened  
his pianism, replacing the old hammer-and-anvil attack with something  
almost airy. Here he often held his fingers splayed flat against the  
keys, barely touching his sustain pedal. His playing was the picture  
of judicious clarity, its well-placed chordal accents suggesting a  
riffing horn section.

And in one of the set’s finer stretches he stirred up a gentle rustle,  
as if to renounce percussivism altogether. It was the second movement  
of “Dialogues for Jazz Combo and Orchestra”, composed by his brother  
Howard Brubeck and originally recorded with Leonard Bernstein.

Mr. Brubeck stated the melody unaccompanied, fluid and florid, before  
the ensemble shifted into medium swing for a solo by Mr. Militello.  
What followed was a contrapuntal piano-bass interlude, then Mr.  
Brubeck alone again. He smiled to himself as he brought the theme  
home, a captain firmly steering into port.


Dave Brubeck performs on Friday at the Tarrytown Music Hall in  
Tarrytown, N.Y.; tarrytownmusichall.org.