Desmond, Paul
Brubeck Dave, born David Warren Brubeck, *6 December 1920 Concord (California), †5 December 2012 Norwalk (Connecticut), American pianist and jazz composer. From childhood, he learned to play the piano and cello. He studied composition with D. Milhaud at Mills College in Oakland and with A. Schönberg at the University of Los Angeles, and piano with F. Saatman. In 1946, he founded an octet, in 1949 a trio, and in 1951 a quartet featuring saxophonist P. Desmond, one of the most popular jazz bands of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Brubeck Quartet’s tours took them almost all over the world. In 1968, G. Mulligan replaced Desmond in the quartet.
Both as a pianist and composer, Brubeck remains within the sphere of music that lies between jazz, classical music and popular music, detached from current trends in jazz. He uses traditional means, but has a very individual, easily recognisable musical language. He reveals a penchant for massive, neo-Romantic harmonies, quasi-Honeggerian polyphonic textures and interesting metrorhythmic combinations. He is one of the most prolific jazz musicians. He composed the music for the ballet The Set and several dozen short pieces, including In Your Own Sweet Way, The Duke, Two Part Contention, One Moment Worth Years, and Blue Rondo à la Turque. In 1958 and 1970, he gave concerts in Poland; he dedicated the composition Dziękuję (Thank You) to his first stay among the Polish people.
As a leader, he recorded albums including: D. Brubeck Octet 1949, Jazz at College of the Pacific 1953, Brubeck Plays Brubeck 1956, Time Out 1959, Dialogues for Jazz-Combo and Orchestra 1959, Jazz Impressions of Japan 1964, Elementals for Jazzcombo, Orchestra and Baritone-Solo 1970, Two Generations of Brubeck 1973, The D. Brubeck Quartet 25th Anniversary Reunion 1976, Concord on a Summer Night 1982. He also released the solo album Solo Piano 1957.
Literature: R. Waschko Jazz od frontu i od kuchni, foreword by D. Brubeck, Krakow 1962.; I. Brubeck and D. Brubeck Jazz Perspective, in: Jam Session, ed. R. Gleason, New York 1958; D. Morgenstern Two Generations of Brubecks. A Talk with Dave, Darius, and Chris, “Down Beat” XXXIX, 1972; I. Storb D. Brubeck. Improvisationen und Kompositionen, in: «Europäische Hochschulschriften» XXXVI, Frankfurt am Main 1991.