Dave Brubeck and the Quartet

In my e-book, we will discuss one of the most influential (and best) jazz musicians of all time, Dave Brubeck.

We’ll talk about the beginning of his music career, his influential jazz quartet, and listen to some of his songs that became jazz standards.

Early Life and Career

Dave Brubeck was born in Concord, California, on December 6, 1920.

In his childhood, Dave didn’t express any real desire to become a musician. In fact, when he started college his first major was veterinary science. But later he switched his major to music at the urging of the head of zoology, who said:

“Brubeck, your mind’s not here. It’s across the lawn in the conservatory. Please go there. Stop wasting my time and yours.”

During college, Brubeck showed exceptional musical ability, even though he didnt know how to properly read sheet music! (It almost got him expelled).

After graduating college, he started his musical career as a jazz pianist. Although most of the time he played in groups ,one of his most influential works is a solo album called ‘Brubeck Plays Brubeck’, featuring jazz standards like ‘In Your Own Sweet Way’:

And ‘The Duke’ which is the a tribute to the great Duke Ellington:

The Dave Brubeck Quartet

In 1951, Dave and his musical partner Paul Desmond created The Dave Brubeck Quartet. While the band had lots of members in its lifetime, in its most iconic time it was consisted of: Dave on the piano, Paul on the sax, Joe Morello on the drums, and Eugene Wright on the bass.

The band performed and created numerous albums in its life time, but the first album that got them to the hall of fame was ‘Time Out’

Time Out was rereleased in 1959, and is the first jazz album to sell more than a million copies.

It featured heavy use of uncommon time signatures, and was influenced by music styles Brubeck discovered abroad while on a tour of Eurasia.

The most famous track in the album is ‘Take Five’, which is written in 5/4 time signature, quickly became a jazz standard.

In 1961, it became the biggest selling jazz single ever made.

And here is a live version that was played in Belgium, 1964:

Blue Rondo à la Turk is another jazz standard from the album. which was inspired by a traditional Turkish folk song that Brubeck observed in his tour.

Its starts in a tense piece written in 9/8, and later settles to a traditional 4/4 time.

After the success of Time Out, The Dave Brubeck Quartet released similarly named albums: Time Further Out (1961), Time In Outer Space (1962) and Time Changes (1964). The albums also made use of uncommon and odd time signatures.

Here is a favorite song of mine from the album Time Further Out, called It’s a Raggy Waltz:

Another great album that was inspired by the quartets trips and tours around the globe is ‘Jazz Impressions of Japan’. The songs in the album are personal impressions of the band from their tour in Japan in 1964.

Here is a favorite song of mine from the album:

The Legacy

Dave Brubeck’s music set a new millstone for jazz, bringing it to new heights in terms of popularity. He was regarded as “one of Jazz’s first pop stars”.

He won countless prizes for his works, which is considered by many to be jazz standards.

Brubeck died on 2012 at the age of 91, due to a heart attack.

Here we can see a tribute performance made for Brubeck on the Kennedy Center Honors: