Tag: The Dave Brubeck Quartet

Title: The Dave Brubeck Quartet – Time Out (1959) [Analogue Productions Remaster 2012]
Genre: Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Dave Brubeck’s defining masterpiece, Time Out is one of the most rhythmically innovative albums in jazz history, the first to consciously explore time signatures outside of the standard 4/4 beat or 3/4 waltz time. It was a risky move — Brubeck’s record company wasn’t keen on releasing such an arty project, and many critics initially roasted him for tampering with jazz’s rhythmic foundation. But for once, public taste was more advanced than that of the critics. Buoyed by a hit single in altoist Paul Desmond’s ubiquitous “Take Five,” Time Out became an unexpectedly huge success, and still ranks as one of the most popular jazz albums ever. That’s a testament to Brubeck and Desmond’s abilities as composers, because Time Out is full of challenges both subtle and overt — it’s just that they’re not jarring. Brubeck’s classic “Blue Rondo à la Turk” blends jazz with classical form and Turkish folk rhythms, while “Take Five,” despite its overexposure, really is a masterpiece; listen to how well Desmond’s solo phrasing fits the 5/4 meter, and how much Joe Morello’s drum solo bends time without getting lost. The other selections are richly melodic as well, and even when the meters are even, the group sets up shifting polyrhythmic counterpoints that nod to African and Eastern musics. Some have come to disdain Time Out as its become increasingly synonymous with upscale coffeehouse ambience, but as someone once said of Shakespeare, it’s really very good in spite of the people who like it. It doesn’t just sound sophisticated — it really is sophisticated music, which lends itself to cerebral appreciation, yet never stops swinging. Countless other musicians built on its pioneering experiments, yet it’s amazingly accessible for all its advanced thinking, a rare feat in any art form. This belongs in even the most rudimentary jazz collection.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Title: The Dave Brubeck Quartet – Jazz At Oberlin (1953) [Reissue 2003]
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO

Jazz at Oberlin is a live album by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. It was recorded in the Finney Chapel at Oberlin College in March 1953, and released on Fantasy Records as F 3245. Critic Nat Hentoff wrote in Down Beat magazine that the album ranks with the College of the Pacific and Storyville sets “as the best of Brubeck on record”, and jazz critic Gary Giddins has written that it would “make many short lists of the decade’s outstanding albums”.

The concert is credited with making jazz a legitimate field of musical study at Oberlin, but it and the album did much more than that. The album is further credited with initiating making jazz a subject of serious intellectual attention in a listening-centric environment; Wendell Logan, the chair of Oberlin’s Jazz Studies Department, described it as “the watershed event that signaled the change of performance space for jazz from the nightclub to the concert hall”. In addition, it was one of the early works in the cool jazz stream of jazz; The Guardian’s John Fordham wrote that it “indicated new directions for jazz that didn’t slavishly mirror bebop, and even hinted at free-jazz piano techniques still years away from realisation”; he further observed that it “marked Brubeck’s eager adoption by America’s (predominantly white) youth – a welcome that soon extended around the world … for a rhythmically intricate instrumental jazz”. Although a touch underrated, Jazz at Oberlin is one of the early Dave Brubeck classic recordings. The interplay between the pianist-leader and altoist Paul Desmond on “Perdido” borders on the miraculous, and their renditions of “The Way You Look Tonight,” “How High the Moon” and “Stardust” are quite memorable. Brubeck’s piano playing on “These Foolish Things” is so percussive and atonal in one spot as to sound like Cecil Taylor, who would not emerge for another two years. With bassist Ron Crotty and drummer Lloyd Davis giving the Quartet quiet and steady support, Brubeck and Desmond were free to play at their most adventurous. Highly recommended. –Scott Yanow

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)