Have been listening to these albums with a new enthusiasm after watching this documentary.
There is so much to hear and appreciate in the music - like rediscovering some old friends!
Brubeck's "Time Out" still seems to be the one that I enjoy very easily. This is such a giant of an album. I remember the first time I heard it - not knowing what to make of the staccato beginning of "Blue Rondo a la Turk". But it slowly settles into the more mellow "Strange Meadow Lark" before setting up the gem of the album "Take 5". Joe Morello's drum work still stands out and it is interesting to see the story behind it. Brubeck's piano just seems to sit back and guide the tune with Paul Desmond's haunting melody hanging in the air. The lines flow so well as you go into the song that it just melts into you.
"Three to Get Ready" is an underrated song on the album. Following "Take 5" it keeps a lilting piano tune that slowly gets ragged for a brief moment before settling back into the opening melodic line. "Kathy's Waltz" is a mellow number with a little ragtime thrown in for added flavor. The cool restraint in "Everybody's Jumpin" is remarkable given the implied built up energy in the number. The album concludes with a steady number in "Pick Up Sticks" that has Desmond's trumpet and Brubeck's piano work play on Eugene Wright's underlying bass line.
Simply remarkable that after all these years the album has an appeal that stands the test of time.
Look forward to hearing others impressions on these albums ...
Regards
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A Brubeck album that 'changed jazz' in more ways than one, is
'Jazz at Oberlin' recorded live at the classically oriented Oberlin College 6 years earlier in 1953, rated by many as one of the defining moments in jazz history.
This was the first time live jazz was brought to a white college audience. There were doubts about the audience accepting this kind of music. Brubeck was not even allowed to play on their regular piano for fear that he may spoil it by playing jazz. But what followed resulted in one of the quartet's best performances, each piece receiving a thunderous applause and the audience crying for more at the end.
“Jazz at Oberlin was one of the early works in the cool jazz stream of jazz that indicated new directions for jazz that didn't slavishly mirror bebop, and even hinted at free-jazz piano techniques still years away from realisation"
- The Guardian
Both Brubeck and Desmond are at the top of their game here. Apparently, an argument had developed between Paul and dave just before the concert, which continued during the concert by each trying to outplay the other (this is so evident when one listens), while the drummer Lloyd Davis played with a 103 degree fever!
"Desmond's swinging inventiveness provides the launching pad from which Brubeck gets into myriad changes that may leave you breathless."
"To say Desmond had “Petrushka” on the brain during his “Way You Look Tonight” solo would be an understatement, but I didn’t recognise the recurring Stravinsky quote until later. What I did notice was how Desmond was taking that idea and turning it every which way as an integral part of his solo"
Don't miss this album if you are a Brubeck fan. It will leave you speechless, breathless and wanting more.
Cheers!
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