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Take Five for Dave Brubeck

December 6, 2012 at 7:40 PM

My favorite tune from Dave Brubeck's seminal album, Take Five. Dave Brubeck died Wednesday at age nearly-92. Take a few minutes and listen to a little jazz this morning:

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Thanks so much for posting Rondo a la Turk, one of my favs. We were lucky enough to see Brubeck a couple of years ago. He was still excellent.
I will always remember the couple of times the quartet played with our SF Bay Area youth orchestras between '58 and '60. Asymmetrical Rhythms came so naturally in that context; so much fun that I lost all fear of Bartok and Stravinsky. RIP Dave
Wow my sister just showed me this piece this morning! It's really cool and jazzy! She also played Take Five for a concert in her jazz band (she plays the guitar) just the day before Dave Brubrek died. One of the things she told me was, "Was my jazz ensemble the last to preform Take Five before Dave Brubrek died?" That would be really sad if it were true but I bet if Dave Brubrek saw the jazz band preform his song he would be proud :)
Brubeck was a cool guy and a fine player and he left a great legacy of recorded work and he wrote some interesting tunes.

In terms of actually playing jazz piano Brubeck was greatly overshadowed by the likes of Bud Powell, Wynton Kelly, McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, and most of all Oscar Peterson.

"Time Out" sold tons of albums, but ultimately its musical impact boils down to the novelty of the odd time signatures of "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo Ala Turk." In my opinion "Strange Meadowlark" is a more interesting and creative song.

Brubeck will be remembered as a tireless cheerleader for jazz and a great supporter of younger players trying to find their way.