Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Happy Birthday, Dave Brubeck!

Dave Brubeck, 86 today. I saw his quartet in concert long, long ago, when he had a song called "Take Five" on the charts. That was the first jazz recording to sell a million copies, I think, and the melody's still haunting today.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

And "Take Five" was essentially a Paul Desmond composition...he had that haunting melody, couldn't think of what to do with it, and, according to Brubeck's account, Brubeck suggested letting it serve as the bookends for a drum solo showcase for Joe Morello. The edited single was the first "gold" record in jazz, and TIME OUT was the first in a sequence of fine albums for Columbia for that quartet. For a lot of years, TIME FARTHER OUT: MIRÓ REFLECTIONS was my favorite album of any kind.

Unknown said...

One of my college roommates had the "Time Out" LP and played it constantly for a semester or two.