THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET

Dave Brubeck is one of those fortunate individuals who has been able to become prosperous and famous while playing the music he loves throughout his career without any compromise. From northern California, he was never based in Los Angeles, but his music fit very easily into West Coast jazz. Born in 1920 in Concord, California, Brubeck received classical piano training from his mother but had such a good ear that he merely duplicated what she played. He studied music at the College of the Pacific from 1938 to 1942 and had nearly received a music degree before it was discovered that he still did not know how to read music! Brubeck soon reluctantly learned. After serving in the army, in 1946 he started studying at Mills College with classical composer Darius Milhaud, who encouraged his students to use their classical training in playing jazz.

Brubeck was always interested in polyrhythms—playing two or three rhythms at once—and polytonality—performing in two keys at once—having a strikingly original style from an early age. He led the Dave Brubeck Octet from 1946 to 1949, a group mostly comprising fellow classmates, including altoist Paul Desmond and drummer Cal Tjader. The band’s music was very radical, still sounding advanced today, often employing unusual time signatures and polytonality. Although the octet recorded one album, it rarely ever worked in public, so in 1949 Brubeck formed a trio with Tjader, doubling on vibes, and bassist Ron Crotty. That group was popular and on the brink of great success when Brubeck hurt his back during a serious swimming accident that put him out of action for several months in 1951.

When Brubeck returned, Paul Desmond talked him into forming a quartet. Desmond, with a very light tone on the alto, was a witty and melodic improviser whose sound was a major contrast to the much heavier chord-based playing of Brubeck. Desmond once explained that he wanted to sound like a dry martini. At first critics hailed the group as a fresh new voice, but as the quartet became very popular, they criticized Brubeck for his heavy approach and for not sounding like Bud Powell. The pianist nevertheless went his own way and outlasted his critics. Among the first jazz groups to be booked regularly on college campuses, the Dave Brubeck Quartet built up a large and enthusiastic audience, and by 1954 they were signed to Columbia, one of the era’s most prestigious record labels. That year Brubeck appeared on the cover of Time magazine.

The Brubeck Quartet mixed together leader’s originals, including “In Your Own Sweet Way” and “The Duke,” with their own swinging versions of standards. Brubeck and Desmond brought out the best in each other. Originally the group featured quiet rhythm sections that for a period included drummer Joe Dodge. In 1956 the virtuosic drummer Joe Morello succeeded Dodge, and in 1958 Eugene Wright became the band’s bassist.

Since Morello was adept at playing in different time signatures, he had no difficulty on Desmond’s new tune in 1959, “Take Five,” that became a million seller. For a few albums, the Dave Brubeck Quartet featured unusual time signatures, including the 5/4 “Take Five” and “Blue Rondo à la Turk,” which starts in 9/4 time before becoming a 4/4 blues. The band’s popularity continued growing in the 1960s, and they were a fixture at jazz festivals and major clubs. By 1967 Brubeck had tired of the constant traveling, and he broke up the quartet, partly to find time to write some classical-oriented religious works.

Brubeck was not off the jazz scene for long. Within a year he had a new quartet featuring Gerry Mulligan. He had several reunions with Desmond before the latter’s death in 1977. Four of Brubeck’s sons became musicians, and three were involved in his group Two Generations of Brubeck in the 1970s: keyboardist Darius Brubeck, Chris Brubeck on electric bass and bass trombone, and drummer Danny Brubeck. The youngest son, Matthew Brubeck, later became a cellist.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet featured tenor-saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi in the early 1980s, for many years had clarinetist Bill Smith as its horn, and during the past decade has usually featured altoist-flutist Bobby Militello. Brubeck has continued circling the globe, constantly performing and writing new compositions, up to the present time. Now in his eighties, Dave Brubeck is still enthusiastic about music and refuses to play it safe.