Thursday, December 6, 2012
Music 5 Great Dave Brubeck Songs That Aren't "Take Five"
Posted by Henry Stewart on Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 11:20 AM
Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck died yesterday in Connecticut, a day short of his 92nd birthday, leaving behind a legacy of unusual rhythm. On their seminal record Time Out, the Dave Brubeck Quartet experimented with odd time signatures, and this would become their signature: the band recorded five concept albums for Columbia about meter: Time Further Out, Countdown: Time in Outer Space, Time Changes and Time In. The idea was that music could swing outside of the standard 4/4; his best-known work, "Take Five," grooves in 5/4. But there's more interesting Brubeck work to enjoy outside of this classic song. Here are some of our favorites.
Blue Rondo A La Turk
I mean, listen to these guys cooking in 9/8. It's insane; I can't even count it. They sustain it for a full two minutes before trading measures back and forth, 9/8 to 4/4, 9/8 to 4/4, then settling into a cool groove, and back to that crazy Turkish rondo.
Unsquare Dance
Brubeck's first experiment in 7/4, a sparse, short record less notable for its brief piano passages than for its hot hand-percussion solos.
Cassandra
As the liner notes to Time In explain, "Dave plays a looser, lighter piano than one usually associates with him; Joe's brushwork establishes a great groove, and Paul and Gene fall in splendidly. The switch to 3/4 and 4/4 in a couple of the releases and the intro and coda, described by Dave as '2 or 4 against 3—almost—and looser than we usually play this,' are typical Brucbeck."
Someday My Prince Will Come
The song from Snow White became a popular jazz standard after Brubeck recorded a version in 1957. (Miles Davis's classic version was recorded in 1961.)
Elementals
Brubeck's most ambitious piece from this period features a symphony orchestra and took up the entire B side of Time Changes.
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