Wednesday, December 05, 2012
Dave Brubeck, 1920 - 2012
Dave Brubeck was most famous to me for what he was most famous for: "Take Five" & the "Time" albums, Time Out, Time Further Out, & Countdown - Time in Outer Space, with their eye-catching abstract art LP jackets. Later, I became familiar with his earlier recordings. His concert hall & religious works have never interested me all that much, although I know they were made with care & sincerity. When I got serious about jazz, the music had already moved into a much more experimental & politicized expression than Dave was doing. Still, he never stopped learning, growing & caring. He was a great soul. Died one day short of his 92nd birthday. His one & only wife, Iola, survives him. They were married in 1942. Dave promised her she would never be bored.
Springsteen was the "star" of the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors, but Dave received the classier musical tribute. It features an all-star quintet, the Jazz Ambassadors of the United States Army Field Band (Dave had played in a jazz band attached to Patton's Third Army during the Battle of the Bulge, the only integrated unit in the army at the time), & his four sons, fine musicians all who often performed with their dad.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Springsteen was the "star" of the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors, but Dave received the classier musical tribute. It features an all-star quintet, the Jazz Ambassadors of the United States Army Field Band (Dave had played in a jazz band attached to Patton's Third Army during the Battle of the Bulge, the only integrated unit in the army at the time), & his four sons, fine musicians all who often performed with their dad.
Labels: music, obituary, video
