Dave Brubeck

Dave Brubeck (b Concord, CA, 6 Dec 1920; d Norwalk, 5 dec 2012). American jazz composer, pianist and bandleader.

He received early training in classical music from his mother, a pianist, and by the age of 13 he was performing professionally with local jazz groups. He was a music major at the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California, studied compositon with Milhaud (1946) and, with fellow students, founded the experimental Jazz Workshop Ensemble, which recorded in 1949 as the Dave Brubeck Octet. Also in 1949, he organized the Dave Brubeck Trio. With the addition of the alto saxophonist Paul Desmond (1951), Brubeck thereafter led a quartet. In 1967 Brubeck disbanded, ostensibly to concentrate on composing, but he soon formed a new quartet that included Gerry Mulligan (until 1972).

The Brubeck quartet was immensely popular on college campuses in the 1950s; the album Jazz at Oberlin, recorded in concert at that college in 1953, contains some of Brubeck's and especially Desmond's finest improvisations. During the 1950s and 60s Brubeck began experimenting with time signatures unusual to jazz, such as 5/4, 9/8 and 11/4. By 1959 he had recorded the first jazz instrumental piece to sell a million copies – Paul Desmond's Take Five (in 5/4 metre), which was relased with his own Blue Rondo à la Turk (in 9/8, grouped 2+2+2+3).

Brubeck, who considers himself in essence ‘a composer who plays the piano’, has written and, in some instances, recorded several large-scale compositions since the 1960s, including ballets, a musical, oratorios, cantatas and works for jazz combo and orchestra. In the 1970s he organized several new quartets which at various times included one or more of his sons Darius (keyboards), Chris (bass guitar and bass trombone) and Danny (drums) and (in the 1980s and 90s) the clarinettist Bill Smith, from the 1940s octet. His many honours include the National Music Council's American Eagle Award (1988) and a Lifetime Achievement award (1996) from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.