The Dave Brubeck Quartet | OohYeah

The Dave Brubeck Quartet was a band jazz, founded by pianist Dave Brubeck in 1951. They got a huge public success with their 1959 album Time Out, which was pulled by the song Take Five. The group was born in June 1951 and initially featured: Dave Brubeck ( piano ), Paul Desmond ( alto saxophone ), Bob Bates ( double bass ) and Joe Dodge ( drums ). Initially fixed at the Black Hawk in San Francisco, the quartet began to get noticed thanks to the interest of some local radio stations, solicited by the wife of Brubeck Iola, who worked in that sector. The four then began to perform also away (Desmond, on his behalf, he played for a period around the United States with the Jack Fina Orchestra ), but above all remember the evenings of the Quartet at the famous Birdland in New York, on horseback between 1951 and 1952, from which come some of the oldest live recordings of the group. Sporadically, there were substitutions of some elements (for example, on the drums Herb Barman or Lloyd Davis and on the bass Wyatt "Bull" Ruther, Ron Crotty or Fred Dutton ). In 1952, " Jazz At The Blackhawk " was recorded. The group's repertoire included most of the time standards and a few incisions came out with small variations in the quartet's name, such as "New Dave Brubeck Combo" or simply "Brubeck-Desmond". The reception of the critics was not initially unanimous, since there were some who signaled a certain forced spectacle of some interpretations, while others showed immediate appreciation. Brubeck's style was sometimes described with classical references (to Bach, to Chopin, also to Bela Bartok ) by lighting the legend of a "classical" pianist lent to jazz, although Brubeck had never really loved classical music. Nell 'audiences that were warmer to him, Brubeck decided to systematically prefer performances at university campuses, in the face of young listeners potentially more open to his innovations; the Quartet then moved frantically, aboard the "family" of the leader (with the double bass on the roof), from university to university, spreading the Brubeckian version of cool jazz . The same English word " cool " (cool) assumed a positive connotation in the student jargon, becoming for this reason later also in the common speaking attribute of genius.