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Dave brubeck quartet time out sony11/16/2023 ![]() When the quartet toured the world, Dave often picked up ethnic tunes from the environment-just as Ellington and others had done before him. ![]() I recall Dave inserting the Air Force song into what he was playing when planes frequently took off from the airport close to the Monterey Jazz Festival, and here on “Three to Get Ready” he inserts some of “The 12 Days of Christmas” since this was being taped at Christmas time. Though nearly everything had gone to stereo by this late date (stereodiscs had hit the market in 1958) this recording is just mono, and not quite as good sound as the three other commercial releases made from this final tour. The Brubeck Archives (at the pianist’s home) has had this live recording all along, and it reveals all four musicians at their top form in this last opportunity to play together. Columbia had done a studio session for the occasion the same month, but was never released due to not having much interesting in it. On December 26, 1967, the classic Brubeck Quartet gave its last concert as a group in Pittsburgh. (Dave Brubeck, piano Paul Desmond, alto sax Joe Morello, drums Eugene Wright, bass) But Brubeck didn’t make such lofty claims himself-he followed his imagination and arrived at a sound that was thoroughly his own.The Dave Brubeck Quartet – The Last Time Out (Unreleased live concert from 1967) – Sony Legacy (no #) 2 CDs – 47:52, 50:17 *****: It’s a narrative with more than a hint of white saviorism, and it looks especially silly in light of all the other jazz innovation occurring in 1959. Steve Race’s original Time Out liner notes slip at times into reductive overpraise of the Brubeck quartet as somehow singlehandedly keeping jazz rhythm interesting. “Everybody’s Jumpin’” is fetching as well, with its sleek modernist glide (Brubeck and his lyricist wife Iola soon reworked the song as “Everybody’s Comin’,” the lively opening number of The Real Ambassadors, their satirical musical revue on the topic of jazz and Cold War diplomacy). “Three to Get Ready,” “Kathy’s Waltz,” and “Pick Up Sticks” are built on well-crafted rhythmic conceits that prompt solid performances across the board. “Strange Meadow Lark” has a beautiful out-of-tempo piano intro and a goosebump-worthy Desmond entrance. There is also more to Time Out than “Take Five” and “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” the blockbuster tracks. That Desmond alto, underscored by Morello’s brushes on snare drum, remains one of the most identifiable sounds in jazz. So does Desmond, whose boundlessly lyrical, almost clarinet-like alto sax improvisations epitomized the softer timbre and relaxed vibe of West Coast jazz. His approach was eclipsed by the lithe modernism of McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock, but in terms of musical content and personality, Brubeck stands the test of time. ![]() Brubeck’s piano was steeped in blues and had a palpable connection to stomp, boogie-woogie, and earlier jazz styles. Yet the quartet exhibited a developed sense of swing thanks to bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello. The fast and asymmetrical pulse of “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” the opening track, bore traces of Balkan and Turkish influence. The impetus for the rhythms of Time Out came in part from Western classical music, in part from the band’s travels in India, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Yet as avant-garde cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum wrote in The New Yorker shortly after Brubeck’s death in 2012, “Those musicians, too hip for their own good, who dismiss Brubeck as square do so at their own loss.” Time Out and the rest of the quartet’s “time” concept albums (Time Further Out, Time Changes, Countdown: Time in Outer Space, Time In) merit close attention as some of the most engaging and unique small-group jazz of the era. 2 on the Billboard pop charts, but it also yielded jazz’s best-selling single of all time: “Take Five.” Written by alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, the tune had a novel 5/4 groove but ultimately came to be identified with a kind of inoffensive hotel lounge jazz. Time Out, his 1959 foray into odd time signatures, polyrhythm, and mixed meter, not only ended up going platinum and reaching No. It’s ironic that in Dave Brubeck’s attempt to make jazz more complex, he actually made it more accessible. ![]()
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