Sam Smith at The Progressive Review has an excellent feature piece about jazz legend Dave Brubeck and his unofficial role as “cultural ambassador” during the Cold War years, touring many Eastern Bloc cities. The Brubeck Institute website also has more material as part of a 50th anniversary celebration.
I’ve been lucky enough to see Dave Brubeck perform in concert twice. The first time was several years ago with my friend Tony. Brubeck usually makes at least one appearance a year at the Berklee School of Music, but the night we went to see him he was ill with a cold and only played a couple of numbers at the beginning of the first set before excusing himself from the stage. He’s very old, but he’s obviously a lot stronger than he looked that night all huddled up inside a trench coat, because he keeps on touring. The second time was two years ago, also at the Berklee Performance Center. This time he was in fine fettle and played for the entire show and talked to the audience for a bit. He’ll be in town again in mid-June. If you haven’t seen him in person, do try to make the effort to go; at 87 years of age, his touring days are dwindling.
My favorite album is Time Out and I love the Time Further Out piece (the one that is so hard to play that when the drummer laughs at the end, they leave it in.)
Bluesy Waltz.
Great stuff.