As I was listening to NPR this morning, they interrupted their broadcast with the news that Jazz Icon Dave Brubeck has died of heart failure this morning just a day shy of his 92nd birthday. He was en route to his cardiologist.
Brubeck’s music tends to go round and round in your head once you’ve heard it. On a gloomy day, his Take Five piece never fails to poke and prod until I’m tap-tapping my feet and I feel a lightening in my mood. Even my outlook. I’ve been playing that song for so many years that I have vivid memories whenever I chance upon it on the radio. The rhythm is certainly unique (as are his other pieces). It’s played in 5/4 time.
I play his music in my car, when I’m in the kitchen cooking, when we’re eating out on the back porch, while I’m reading or working on some documents, feeding my daughter when she was little, or taking a break from reviewing for the boards. It’s been a part of my day-to-day as far as I can remember.
The music starts with the piano and percussion setting the stage for the saxophone to carry the lofty melody that’s unmistakable once you hear it streaming through and you can’t help but tap, sway, snap, nod your head in agreement. Yeah! Cool!
Watch Dave play Take Five on YouTube with Paul Desmond.
Thank you, Dave, for your wonderful pieces. May you rest in peace! Your music will live on!
More about Dave Brubeck:
- Dave Brubeck’s Fresh Air Interview in 2010 on his 90th Birthday
- Dave Brubeck at the Newport Jazz Festival
- The Story of Dave Brubeck’s Take Five
- Brubeck on Piano Jazz
Related articles
- Dave Brubeck Dead at 91 (rollingstone.com)
- THE BEST OF THE VIEW: Remembering Dave Brubeck (viewfrommiddleclass.wordpress.com)
- Weekly Writing Challenge: Moved By Music (dailypost.wordpress.com)
- The Dave Brubeck Quartet – Time Out (bocavasionski.wordpress.com)
- Dave Brubeck Has Left the Stage (seattlemysteryblog.typepad.com)
- Out of Nowhere- An Introduction (raggywaltz.wordpress.com)
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Dave made an everlasting landmark of jazz music with his 5/4!
Once a friend of mine, Andrey Shilov from Ukraine,
played this composition on my Gibson guitar:
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Your friend rocks!
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Nice tribute.
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I actually have a copy of that Time Magazine cover.
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Hey! What year?
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it was 1954…it’s on an old Brubeck album someone was throwing out and the magazine cover was taped to it.
Happy New Year!
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Take Five is my favorite piece too. Strangely enough Peter just put this piece of music on. While I was listening to it I came across this post. What a coincidence!
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RIP Dave… I was surprised to hear he had died.
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Such a great artist!
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Sorry to hear about his passing. His music and legacy lives on always.
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