Dave Brubeck: "a wigging cat with a way out wail"

Dave Brubeck died yesterday at age 92. When he was featured in a Time magazine cover story in 1954, he was referred to as a "wigging cat with a way out wail". I don't know about that but ...

in his heyday, his Quartet did as much to popularize Jazz as anyone. His experiments with unusual time signatures and renditions of Take Five, composed by his long time alto man Paul Desmond, and Blue Rondo a la Turk, in particular, have attained a permanent place as jazz standards.

Beyond the music, his ability to play while floating on a magic carpet above Los Angeles was pretty groovy. Thanks, Dave.

Take Five with Paul Desmond -1966

Blue Rondo a la Turk - 1962

December 6, 2012