It used to be ever once in awhile someone would show up at my place who said "I don't like jazz", and I would say - "oh yeah"? "Well, that's ok man". Then without saying anything more about it I would reach up for one of those acid test recordings. There are lots of them, but I would usually play Kind of Blue or Take Five. Almost always they would then say something like "that's beautiful, I didn't mean THAT kind of jazz."
Honest, if you don't like Kind of Blue or Take Five you really, really don't like jazz, and a lot of other kinds of music too!
There are guys who leave us all behind and the world is just a different place after that, but Mr. Brubeck, Paul Desmond, and their contemporaries left us with some potent blues and a lot of great recordings to study and enjoy.
Take Five was one of the first jazz albums I bought when I was introducing myself to jazz and easily one of the main albums responsible for me listening to so much jazz today. RIP.
I was at a small bar with my cousin for his birthday this past Friday. There was nothing but rap and country playing. I put like five bucks in the jukebox and put all of the longest jazz songs I know of. The first song I played was Brubeck's Take Five, then Sing Sing Sing by Benny Goodman, and some long jazz songs.
When Take Five came on Everyone started looking around. It was the funniest thing I've seen in a while. All these country-lovers having to sit through a good 20 minutes of good Jazz. Lmao.
Last Edited by on Dec 05, 2012 5:16 PM
I saw the Dave Brubeck Quartet back in the late 50's. I was a teenager with a love of Jazz which back then was mostly trad or Dixieland style. Brubeck was great & whilst he will be missed his music will live on. ---------- HARPOLDIE’S YOUTUBE
Whenever I hear Take Five I have a flashback when I was a kid watching Playboy after Dark hopping I would see some breast.lolThey must have played that song on that show.That's what I love about music a song can take you back to a place or a feeling.
Back in a dim time in American music--there wasn't much worth listening to if you weren't into the crap on American Bandstand--then Dave Brubeck came out with Take Five" and the flip side "Blue Rondo al a Turk" and led me off into few years of being a jazz freak--until I learned about old time blues, Bob Dylan, Paul Butterfield, Canned Heat--etc. . .
Thank you, Dave--you made my formative years a lot better--without you I'd probably still be swinging with "Teen Angel" and "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini." RIP. . . ---------- Oldwailer's Web Site
"Too Pretty for the Blues."
Last Edited by on Dec 07, 2012 12:43 PM
Todd Parrott's playing reminds me a little of Paul Desmond in the sense of the precision, restraint and expressiveness and the...uh...lyrical quality of their phrasing. It's difficult for me to explain. Perhaps another V&V (Vicodin and Vodka) will clear my mind.
I used to listen to his classic Time Out LP to death when I was a little kid. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
