The album included their version of "Take the A Train," written by Billy Strayhorn for Duke Ellington.Īlso in nineteen fifty-four, Dave Brubeck was on the cover of Time magazine. It sold more than one hundred thousand copies and made the group nationally known. In nineteen fifty-four they recorded "Jazz Goes to College," their first album for Columbia Records. The quartet became known for playing what was called West Coast cool jazz at local colleges. He became a member of the Dave Brubeck Quartet when Brubeck formed the group in nineteen fifty-one. In nineteen forty-seven, in San Francisco, he joined a jazz band where he met Paul Desmond. The Army sent him to entertain the troops in Europe. He graduated in nineteen forty-two with a music degree. But his mind was clearly on music during college, he played in jazz clubs at night. At first he studied with the aim to become a veterinarian. "Blue Rondo a La Turk," written by Dave Brubeck, is in nine-eight time.ĭave Brubeck attended the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California. One of the quartet's greatest hits is in still another unusual time signature.
The problem is to improvise in eleven - which we let Paul do mostly on this thing."
Again, the writing is very difficult, but that's not the problem. Dave Brubeck himself explained it at a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York in nineteen sixty-three.ĭAVE BRUBECK: "We'd like to do this tune because of the title, 'Eleven Four.' You can guess that it's in eleven-four time. Now, an example of an unusual time signature can be found in a piece called "Eleven Four." It was written by Paul Desmond, who also wrote "Take Five." "Eleven Four" has eleven beats to a measure. Here is an example of this four-four time, the Dave Brubeck Quartet playing "The Duke": This means that the same four beats are played over and over again. Traditional jazz pieces are written for dancing, with four beats to a measure. Much of it is written in unusual time signatures. This is especially true of Dave Brubeck's music. Jazz musicians may also change the traditional grouping of rhythms in a piece. David Baker says the written music is the subject of the piece. This is why the same piece can sound different each time the same musicians play it. This improvisation adds to the written music they bring with them. Jazz performers like to create as they play. Here is an example from the Dave Brubeck Quartet, "In Your Own Sweet Way." Professor Baker says hot jazz speaks to the heart cool jazz speaks to the mind. Jazz expert David Baker at Indiana University says cool jazz emphasizes the melody and is very relaxed. The language of jazz includes hot jazz and cool jazz. She thanked him for representing America by bringing the language, the sounds and the spirit of jazz to people around the world. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presented him with the first Ben Franklin Award for Public Diplomacy. For example, seeing the Berlin Wall that divided Germany led Dave Brubeck to write "Brandenburg Gate."Įarlier this month, Dave Brubeck accepted a special award from the State Department for that trip and others he made later. They also played in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), as well as India, Iran, Iraq and Turkey. In nineteen fifty-eight, the government sent the four musicians on a trip as part of a jazz ambassadors program. This year is the fiftieth anniversary of another important event for the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Written by saxophone player Paul Desmond, this is "Take Five." "Time Out," released in nineteen fifty-nine, also gave the world one of the best-known jazz tunes of all time.
His group had the first jazz album to sell more than a million copies. This week on our program, we enter the world of jazz pianist Dave Brubeck. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. All That Jazz, From a Man Named Dave Brubeckĭownload MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.)
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