December 6, 2010. Copyright 2010, Graphic News. All rights reserved

American jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck is 90
By Susan Shepherd

LONDON, December 6, Graphic News:  Eight weeks short of his 90th birthday, it looked as though Dave Brubeck's seven decades of performing, from entertaining fellow troops in General Patton's Third Army during World War Two to an impromptu rendition at the White House last December while collecting his Kennedy Centre Honour, might be at an end. Doctors advised him to cancel his concerts and rest. On October 11th, the California-born musical ambassador, declared a "Living Legend" by the U.S. Library of Congress, underwent heart surgery and was fitted with a pacemaker. No surprise, then, that he received a standing ovation before even playing a note when he opened the 16th Annual Massachusetts Jazz Festival on November 19. "Ticker repaired, pianist keeps beat" ran the strapline in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. And it's that unique beat, the one that broke the rules 50 years ago, introducing new rhythms and experimenting with counterpoint, for which Brubeck and his celebrated quartet will be remembered.
 
It was 1959 and the career of the one-time veterinary college student, who had planned to work alongside his father on a 45,000 acre cattle ranch before the lure of jazz roped him in, was approaching a defining moment. Already an established act, credited with bringing about a jazz renaissance -- especially among the young -- and having toured with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, the Dave Brubeck Quartet released their groundbreaking LP, Time Out. A total innovation, the tracks on what would quickly become the first jazz album to sell more than a million copies, dispensed with tradition, notably employing a quintuple beat -- or 5/4 time -- on the aptly named Take Five. The composer of this hit single was the band's alto saxophonist, Paul Desmond, whose memorable melody, accompanied by Brubeck on piano, Eugene Wright on bass and Joe Morello on drums, remains the signature tune for both this "classic" grouping and for all the musicians who have been part of the changing line-up down the years -- among them three of Brubeck's sons.

This instinct to veer from the norm was apparent from the start. Learning to play at his concert pianist-mother's knee, Brubeck managed to become accomplished without actually reading music -- a shortcoming which nearly had him thrown out of college. He claims his shocked professors, at what is now Pacific University in Stockton, California, only allowed him to graduate after he promised never to teach. With African-Americans like Duke Ellington and Count Basie as his heroes, the young jazzman also flouted convention to create a mixed-race ensemble during his war-service years. "I just wanted this music to be part of our culture and part of our freedom, wherever we went", he explains. Neither has Brubeck been defined solely by his jazz credentials. His classical compositions include choral works and orchestral pieces, many of a religious nature or, like the cantata The Gates of Justice, incorporating the theme of civil rights. A documentary of his life and career -- In His Own Sweet Way -- taking its title from another much-loved jazz number and executive-produced by Hollywood actor-director Clint Eastwood, is set to be screened by the BBC as part of its acclaimed Arena series, airing on the American cable channel TCM on the morning of Brubeck's birthday, December 6th.
/ENDS