
Dave Brubeck, Who Helped Put Jazz Back in Vogue, Dies at 91 - tokenadult
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/arts/music/dave-brubeck-jazz-musician-dies-at-91.html
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leothekim
Dave Brubeck took a stand against racism and would refuse to play in
segregated venues. He turned down offers to perform in South Africa because of
ordinances that prohibited racially mixed groups. He apparently started one
the first racially integrated bands in the U.S. army during WW II.

We lost a musical genius _and_ a good human being.

~~~
kylebgorman
Brubeck's career benefitted MASSIVELY from being white (ish: he was of mixed
ancestry), a fact he was himself quite ashamed of.

~~~
DigitalSea
Sadly you're right. The world was a bad place back then, extraordinarily
decent people living in an indecent society. I like to think Brubeck amongst
others contributed to the demise of segregation and the basis of our modern
integrated society. He was an exceptional jazz musician and an all round great
guy who was very grateful for what he had. There's no such thing these days as
a real musician, Dave was part of a dying breed of people who got into music
because they love what they do, not because they want to be famous or rich
like modern day musicians.

~~~
twstws
> There's no such thing these days as a real musician, Dave was part of a
> dying breed of people who got into music because they love what they do, not
> because they want to be famous or rich like modern day musicians.

I think that says more about you than the state of modern musicians. There
will always be 'real musicians', motivated by their love of the art. Whether
or not we can find them depends on how willing we are to dig past the shallow
acts that top the charts.

~~~
DigitalSea
Please see my other response. My comment was meant to be interpreted as most
musicians who have "made it" these days aren't real musicians, it's all
appearance and showmanship not musicianmanship. While there are some great
musicians who are considered as having made it, there aren't many and in a
world where people still think Slash is the worlds greatest guitarist it's
obvious famous musicians who appreciate their art, the fans and what they have
are a dying breed.

There will always be real musicians around, but I purely meant those who have
made it not those who do the 9-5 hustle and bustle in the Subway's playing for
change or smaller venues for $50 and a bar tab.

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blankenship
I’m 33. I "discovered" Brubeck four or five years ago, primarily wearing out
Jazz Impressions of New York while looking to detox a bit from a year of
Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis.

In April 2011 my wife and I took a train from South Carolina to Washington
D.C. to catch one of Dave's four sold out shows at Blues Alley. I paid more
money than I had ever paid to see a concert, knowing this would likely be my
only chance to ever see him live. He played an amazing set, with minimal
onstage banter, giving his players plenty of room to shine during their solos.

He ended the set with a few of his more well-known standards, and then—just
before leaving the stage—simply said, “They’ve got me on oxygen. But I made it
through the whole set without needing the damn thing.”

Class act.

~~~
GaryGapinski
Glad to hear it. Discovery is always a lot of fun, regardless of latency.

Don't stop there. There were/are many good musicians performing excellent work
from the 1950s and 60s on. Please keep looking.

I'll mention just a few I consider deserving of attention (and this is by no
means comprehensive): Yusef Lateef, John Coltrane, Eddie Palmieri, Sun Ra,
Oliver Nelson, John Hicks, Joe Henderson, Duke Pearson, Cal Tjader, Cannonball
Adderley, …, MJQ, …).

If you would like to hear an(other) excellent tune in 5/4 besides /Take Five/
circa nine years later, check out Yusef Lateef's rendition of /Get Over, Get
Off and Get On/ on the album "The Blue Yusef Lateef".

There are wonderful contemporary musicians, long-standing and novel, worth
seeing at the most intimate of venues, the nightclub, as you have found.

My first nightclub experience, long ago, was Cannonball Adderley at the London
House in Chicago, circa 1968, and I've enjoyed such a venue ever since.
Nothing is better.

~~~
MartinCron
I just saw Dick Dale, legendary surf guitarist for similar reasons. He's no
Bruebeck, but a national treasure nonetheless.

------
ChuckMcM
I learned of Dave's music when I tracked down the theme song used in "The
Secret Life of Machines" (which was "Take Five"). I bought his album "Time
out" that had that song on it and really enjoyed it. Then bought the Christmas
Album. Sad to hear he has died, but glad he chose to share his music with us.

~~~
scrumper
Time Out is a pretty unique jazz album that's often overlooked. Most jazz,
like rock, is in 4/4 time (with the odd waltz-time tune to liven it up.) Not
good enough for Dave Brubeck: Time Out has all kinds of weird compound time
stuff going on. Take Five is in 5/4, which gives it its unusual vibe; Three to
Get Ready gives you two bars of 3/4 and two of 4/4, alternating (which to me
it feels a bit like a car on the verge of starting; I don't actually like that
tune.) There's other stuff going on there too but it's been a while since I
listened to it. Will dig it out again tonight in his honour.

Non jazz-heads wanting a similar experience could do worse than listen to
Money, by Pink Floyd: 7/4 for the verses, then 4/4 for the solo.

~~~
surement
Or The Mars Volta, or Cinematic Orchestra, or the Mission Impossible theme.
Anyway, Time Out is great, but it is anything but overlooked.

~~~
Perceval
The Mission Impossible theme was done by Argentinian jazz/bossa nova composer
Lalo Schifrin.

------
quasistar
That the Brubeck obit is a Top 10 HN story puts a smile on my face ;)

If you're in a jazzy mood tonite, I can strongly recommend the recent
Shinichiro Watanbe anime "Kids on the Slope" (坂道のアポロン Sakamichi no Apollon).

<http://www.crunchyroll.com/kids-on-the-slope>

~~~
AlexMuir
Completely OT but I just don't get anime at all. What am I missing? I got 10
minutes through Episode 1 at that link expecting something to happen - nothing
did. I don't even really follow the storyline - a wimpy kid who can only stop
himself throwing up by running onto the school roof.

It's like cryptic crosswords, god and football matches - I must be missing a
part of the brain.

~~~
georgeorwell
That's just representative of the "slice of life" genre, not anime as a whole.
I'd say try Cowboy Bebop, it's the same director, same composer, but this time
it's a bounty hunter space opera with a jazz score. It often gets compared to
Firefly. It doesn't seem to be on Crunchyroll but it's widely available.

~~~
georgeorwell
Also, Kids on the Slope is pretty good, if the idea of a jazz tribute coming
of age innocent high school soap opera is appealing. Thanks quasistar.

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kleiba
Oh my... I had no idea he was still alive until now! Shame on me :-(

A while ago, I randomly bought a Dave Brubeck CD. I'd heard of him and knew he
was a jazz pianist, but was not familiar with his work at all, so I thought
I'd give it a try.

It happened to be this one: [http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Impressions-York-Dave-
Brubeck/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Impressions-York-Dave-
Brubeck/dp/B0012GMVZ8/ref=sr_1_6?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1354741125&sr=1-6&keywords=dave+brubeck)

For the next couple of weeks, it didn't leave my CD player - I had it on
constant repeat. It's just really good.

Funnily, I was into text adventures / IF at that time as well, so now in my
brain the "Jazz Impressions of New York" are forever entangled with "A Mind
Forever Voyaging".

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mjb
I have such great memories of enjoying Brubeck's music with my late
grandparents, delivered off dusty LPs. Take Five is, for all it's over-
saturation, still one of my favorite pieces of all time (and Time Out is one
of my favorite albums). While his passing is sad, dying at 91 and leaving such
an amazing legacy is all we can really hope for.

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jazzychad
Brubeck and Paul Desmond inspired me musically at an early age to pick up the
sax and fueled my love of jazz. "Time Out" was the first CD I ever bought with
my own money (my grandfather had an original vinyl copy I would listen to at
his house). My nick can even be traced back to Dave's early influence in my
life. I don't have many personal heroes or idols in my life, but Dave Brubeck
is one of them. This is sad news.

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shocks
I love Unsquare Dance. Short, but quirky. Awesome. I can remember listening to
Take Five and Blue Rondo A La Turk on the radio with my Dad!

Wish I'd been able to see him live. What a great man.

~~~
jlturner
I used to listen to Time Out with my dad too, late at night with whiskey. So
many good Brubeck memories...

~~~
shocks
Great, now I need some whiskey. Thanks. >.> :P

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wglb
We saw him a few years ago at a concert at Ravinia
(<https://www.ravinia.org/>) along with Ramsay Lewis. Dave was clearly not a
full physical strength, and it seemed that he was playing fewer notes, but his
enthusiasm was tops.

I recommend the boxed set [http://www.amazon.com/For-All-Time-Dave-
Brubeck/dp/B0001FGB9...](http://www.amazon.com/For-All-Time-Dave-
Brubeck/dp/B0001FGB9I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1354742221&sr=8-3&keywords=dave+brubeck+box+set)

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j2labs
I am proud to have paid him homage by naming my web framework after him. He
deserves so much more.

~~~
clicks
Interesting, that's actually the first thing I thought of, and not the pianist
(I did not know about him).

It may sound crass, but I may as well ask: how's Brubeck (the framework)
coming along?

------
wazoox
Yesterday night I was at this tribute concert to Dave Brubeck... We thought he
was still alive then. It was an electrifying concert.

(trailer <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heAAOVJTLwQ> )

~~~
dredmorbius
Given that he died this morning, he was alive last night.

~~~
DrJokepu
Different time zones.

------
zimmru
I saw Dave Brubeck in concert about 10 years ago. When he walked on stage, he
very much looked like a man in his 80s, but when he started playing he was
still pure genius.

------
dreadsword
Dave Brubeck was awesome. Glad to hear that he lived to a ripe old age. I
don't know much about him, but I hope his years were as fun, energetic, and
awesome as his music.

~~~
officemonkey
I saw him in 2000 when he was 80 and he was in command of all his chops. I am
grateful I saw so many giants before the passed.

------
bambax
What I'm about to say doesn't have anything to do with anything, but I find it
remarkable that he died the eve of his birthday.

I have a theory that people die not long _after_ their birthday, and never
before -- meaning that the time from their last birthday < the time before
their next birthday (the theory being that they fight to live until their
birthday, and then they let go).

Anecdotal evidence gathered among people I knew confirms this, but I would
like to test it on a scale that would be statistically significant -- but I
don't know where to find the data...

\- - -

This specific event would appear to be a counter example, except one can
consider that dying "almost" the day of one's birthday doesn't really falsify
the theory. He tried to live up to the day of his birthday and almost
succeeded.

~~~
jschulenklopper
Recent time series research from University of Zürich:
[http://www.annalsofepidemiology.org/article/S1047-2797(12)00...](http://www.annalsofepidemiology.org/article/S1047-2797\(12\)00110-X/abstract).

Result: chance to die on your birthday is about 14% higher than any other day
of the year; based on investigating time and causes of death of 2 milion
people over a period of 40 years. On your birthday, sadly apparent there is a
higher chance for a stroke, accidents and suicide. People suffering from a
long-time illness like cancer also have a higher chance to die on their
birthday.

------
jackfoxy
KCSM.org is playing a lot of Brubeck today...pieces I never heard before.
Tomorrow's morning (Pacific time) show will be devoted to Brubeck.

UPDATE: the show starting at 5PM pacific time today will also be devoted to
Dave

~~~
a5seo
God I miss turning on the radio to hear KCSM now that I live in Austin. I
programmed years of my life away listening to that station in a crappy rented
room in Sunnyvale after college, and loved every bit of it.

So grateful they're streaming online. I still donate.

If you live in the Bay Area and don't see a show at Yoshi's, you definitely
owe it to yourself...

------
andrewcooke
"put jazz back in vogue"? i've searched the article and still can't work out
what this is referring to. is he particularly prized in the usa? was he some
kind of tv personality?

(i listen to a fair bit of jazz; respect to the guy - he made one of the
famous jazz records - but if he was the first jazz musician on time's cover
that, in honesty, says a lot more about time, american culture, and his skin
colour (no criticism of brubeck implied - see the article for his impeccable
credentials there) than his status as a jazz musician).

~~~
tsm
There's two factors here. One is that bebop--the previous ruling jazz style--
faded considerably during WWII, and was also dominated by black culture.
Brubeck brought jazz back into style, and also--as you noted--made it less of
a racial issue. The previous white jazz was big band swing, which had its
heyday in the '20s and was long gone by Brubeck's day.

~~~
TylerE
You're a bit off in your chronology. Swing was big up through the late 40s -
Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington dominated the charts.

Bebop didn't really take over until the post war years.

~~~
officemonkey
Bebop was created in NYC clubs during WWII during club dates that occurred
during the recording strikes and shellac shortages.

Bebop didn't get commercial play until soldiers came home and heard the new
sounds put down by Bird, Diz, and Monk.

In many ways, bebop and jump blues filled the gap between the two "music for
dancing": swing and rock and roll.

------
antoni
"Take five" was actually a great jazz theme that I always compare to great
programming, saying: "You want to know how the great code looks like? Listen
to this."

Rest in peace, Mr Brubeck.

~~~
tonecluster
Paul Desmond wrote 'Take Five'. For an example of Brubeck's masterful "great
code", check out "Blue Rondo a la Turk". Genius.

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pcsanwald
a lot of people know his album "time out", with "Take Five", but the quartet
got a lot wilder than that. My favorite record is "Jazz At Oberlin", Dave
really plays some different stuff entirely, the interplay is fantastic.

------
tokenadult
A retrospective of Brubeck's career by Minnesota Public Radio, with video
clips of some of Brubeck's performances:

[http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns...](http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/news_cut/archive/2012/12/on_brubeck.shtml)

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psadri
I was lucky to see him perform live a few years ago in redwood city. He seemed
to be having a lot of fun at the age of 87! I wish I would be able to say the
same if I make it that far.

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hakaaak
Dave was awesome. If you don't have "Time Out" in your collection, that's
shameful. College wouldn't have been the same without it.

------
mmariani
He taught us how to love music with his enlightened soul.

We'll dearly miss you Dave, rest in peace.

------
gadders
I always feel I'm missing a gene in that I never really liked jazz all that
much. Seems I'm in the minority here..

(And not to take anything away from Mr Brubeck).

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hamey
Love that this is posted here. Spend many hours listening to Dave Brubeck. A
legend.

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nir
Anyone up for posting a list of recommended tracks for Brubeck newbs to listen
to?

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circa
Great write up on a very talented man.

