Dave Brubeck: A Living Legend
Eighty-four year old Dave Brubeck has become a legend and jazz icon. In October of 2003, the Library of Congress declared Dave Brubeck a "Living Legend" to honor his creative contributions to American life. In 1999, in recognition of his ongoing contribution to jazz, he was designated a "Jazz Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts. He has also received the National Medal of the Arts. His musical contributions as both pianist and composer have been honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. These are but a few of the honors bestowed upon this elder statesman of jazz, whose career spans six decades.
Youngest of three musical brothers, Dave Brubeck was born in Concord, California, on December 6, 1920. His father was a cattle rancher and his mother a pianist and music teacher. He entered the College of the Pacific, Stockton, California, as a pre-med student with the idea of becoming a veterinarian and returning to the ranch. Working his way through school as a jazz pianist in local clubs, he decided to forsake the cattle business and changed his college major to music. In 1942 he enlisted in the Army where he served under Patton in the European Theater.
Upon his discharge in 1946, Dave studied composition with Darius Milhaud, Milhaud encouraged Brubeck to pursue a career both in jazz and in composition.
The Dave Brubeck Trio with Cal Tjader and Ron Crotty cut their first records in San Francisco in 1949 and won Best Small Combo awards in both the Critics and the Reader?s Polls in Down Beat Magazine. When the Dave Brubeck Quartet with Paul Desmond on alto saxophone was formed in 1951, the distinctive harmonic approach employed by Brubeck and Desmond caused a stir in the jazz world. They won the first jazz poll conducted by The Pittsburgh Courier and repeatedly won top honors in the Down Beat Reader's polls. By 1954 Brubeck?s popularity was such that his picture appeared on the cover of Time Magazine and his recordings were being played throughout the world. His album Time Out and the hits Take Five and Blue Rondo a la Turk "went gold", a rare feat for an instrumental jazz recording.
His first large scale sacred composition for soloist, chorus and orchestra, Light In The Wilderness was premiered and recorded by the Cincinnati Symphony in 1968. This was followed by The Gates Of Justice (1969), Truth Is Fallen (1971), La Fiesta De La Posada (1975), Beloved Son (1978), To Hope! A Celebration (1979), Pange Lingua Variations (1983), Voice Of The Holy Spirit (1985) Earth Is Our Mother (1991) and Joy In The Morning (1992).
Brubeck continues to appear as composer-performer in concerts of his choral and symphonic compositions. He celebrated is 80th birthday with the London Symphony Orchestra performing an all-Brubeck program which was recorded as a part of the LSO Live series. This coming December, on his 85th birthday, he will be back with the London Symphony for the UK premier of La Fiesta de la Posada.
In November 2002, the Austrian government awarded Dave the highest award given in the arts, the Honor Cross for Science and Art. Former recipients include Seiji Ozawa, Riccardo Muti and Leonard Bernstein. In November of 2004 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Sacred Theology by the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. The University of the Pacific has honored him by the establishment of The Brubeck Institute dedicated to the promulgation of contemporary music of all styles, with an emphasis on jazz and improvisation.
Telarc International released to great critical acclaim "Classical Brubeck", which was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Voices and the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Naxos Records has released a new recording of Dave Brubeck's "The Gates Of Justice". His most recent solo piano CD is called Private Brubeck Remembers, honoring the 60th anniversary of the end of World War 2. The latest quartet CD is London Flat, London Sharp.
