what Frank is listening to #70 – DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET – Jazz: Red Hot and Cool – (Coronet) – 1955
In my review of Helen Merrill's album I put this in as a footnote:
A footnote on Frank and jazz : I was actually quite hostile to jazz in my youth. Trouble was I kept finding jazz records for $1 and found myself getting into it…especially when drawing the line to vocalists like Sinatra, Crosby etc. I then realised I wasn't actually hostile to jazz but to the jazz audience ( the people who think they know jazz). I still don't revere jazz as much as my other favourite genres but I certainly have a lot of time for it ( from ragtime, trad, down to bop, cool and modern)… and I still think the mainstream jazz audience are fuckwits.
Dave Brubeck was possibly the first jazz artist I got into … by that I mean I actually enjoyed listening to his records at a time when I was hostile to jazz. The more I read, the more accepting I became of the genre. This was acerbated by the fact that when you were selling a jazz record (as I was on eBay) you would have to describe it according to music and personnel. After a while you realised that jazz musicians, at a certain level, are all intertwined – that is they have all played with each other. They make rock session men look positively under utilized. Part of the enjoyment I get from jazz nowadays is the "who's who" aspect as well as the music.
A lot of hard jazz fans don't necessarily like Brubeck as he had a career, had some hits, made some money, didn't have any debilitating drug habits and is generally liked by people who think they like jazz. And these are all valid points however the whole west coast cool jazz movement is based around him or Chet Baker … and regardless of what one may think tof he movement (and a lot of hard jazz , bop types do not like cool jazz) Brubeck was certainly influential.
Brubeck (born 1920 in California and still playing) put out his first album in 1949 and this is his 19th from 1954! Mind you that was jazz: you were either cutting an album in the studio or they were taping you at a concert. The large repertoire of material, the tendency to improvisation and the fact that most bands didn't have stable line-ups (so each new member if dominant enough would bring their own sound which may alter the bands sound) meant that endless concerts could be taped and released on LP and they wouldn't sound the same.
Joining Brubeck (piano – for those who don't know), are Joe Dodge (drums), Bob Bates (bass) and the legendary Paul Desmond on sax, one of the most influential sax players of his generation.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0ifoxqt5ldke
So what's this album like? Its a good pleasant album. A reviewer had this to say, and I should say that the trouble with jazz still is the critics: Paul Desmond's alto tone had yet to take on the dry martini velvety texture that became his trademark, and Brubeck was not yet inserting the totality of his classical ideas about the extrapolation of dissonance from consonance and its resulting harmonic theory that was built on an elaborate contrapuntal system.These ideas, that were introduced to him by the French composer and instructor Darius Milhaud and the music of Shostakovich and Stravinsky would later result in the wildly inventive tonal identity expressed in his compositions on Jazz Impressions of Eurasia, Jazz Impressions of New York, and even Time Out. On this set, while Brubeck is playing with large augmented chords and without the use of arpeggios, his strident melodic sense keeps him rooted in the American vernacular musically.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:3zfoxqrgldte
Frankly I don't understand a lot of his review but then I'm not a jazz critic or music teacher, just a punter who likes music.
I would have have said that Brubeck doesn't swing on this set as wildly or as inventively as he does on other albums where he is doing his more signature tunes or songs in that style. Amongst the interpretations here are a few Hart-Rodgers tunes and a Gershwin … and there's nothing wrong with that though Brubeck treats them a bit to respectfully. His stamp is not firmly placed on the songs but that doesn't mean they are bad. The trouble here (and it's not big trouble as I hasten to add that this album is good) is that though the set is still "cool jazz" there is a tad to much respectful pop. I like my jazz to be inventive though not necessarily outside the box. (Brubecks "Time Out" LP from 1959 with the magnificent "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo a la Turk" is a good example).
The beauty of "cool jazz" is that you can listen to it and it can be evocative as it is a music of memories in a lot of ways which something like '"bop" isn't. Anyone playing soft jazz likes to consider themselves "cool jazz" though that's total crap … that's like calling "Blink 182" a punk band. Cool jazz is more formally regimented than some other jazz styles but there is a substantial amount of improvisation within its parameters.
So why the gentile respect ? Maybe the Californians were intimidated? This was recorded at the Basin Street Night Club (did that become Basin Street East?) in New York, apparently New York's top night spot (I gather it was an upmarket dinner and music venue in Manhattan). Then again, maybe a lot of Brubeck Quartet stuff from the early 50s barks up the same tree (I haven't heard it all so I cant say).
Of course it's played well … ( this is one of the last recordings of this long, and original line up) you can say whatever you want about jazz musicians but one thing for sure is they know how to play their instruments. Endless gigging, jamming and testing of ideas with fellow musicians probably brings you to that level. It's not surprising that so many rock session men are / were jazz musicians … whereas the reverse is not true.
Best Tracks:
- Little Girl Blue – be very inventive within the box.
- Fare Thee Well, Annabelle – Desmond's velvet sax is genius, great interplay between him and Brubeck.
- The Duke – Brubeck's ode to the Duke (Ellington) – and a beautiful song.
Sounds:
attached:
Fare Thee Well, Annabelle
The Duke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfLJN2ltEEI
Some Brubeck hits (live clips):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwNrmYRiX_o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2htbaJFEAXQ
Bio:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:aifoxqt5ldhe~T1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Brubeck
Website:
http://www.davebrubeck.com/live/
Other comments of thes LP:
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Red-Cool-Dave-Brubeck/dp/B00005B17R
Cool Jazz:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_jazz
and I still maintain what I have said in the past about jazz fans.
(originally posted: 02/08/2009)
