I love Unsquare Dance. Short, but quirky. Awesome. I can remember listening to Take Five and Blue Rondo A La Turk on the radio with my Dad!
Wish I'd been able to see him live. What a great man.
Dave Brubeck, Who Helped Put Jazz Back in Vogue, Dies at 91
31–40 of 84 posts
Re: Dave Brubeck, Who Helped Put Jazz Back in Vogue, Dies at 91
#32Dave Brubeck took a stand against racism and would refuse to play in segregated venues. He turned down offers to perform in South Africa because of ordinances that prohibited racially mixed groups. He apparently started one the first racially integrated bands in the U.S. army during WW II. We lost a musical genius and a good human being.
Brubeck's career benefitted MASSIVELY from being white (ish: he was of mixed ancestry), a fact he was himself quite ashamed of.
As of this writing, kylebgorman's post is grayed out.
That shows a substantial number of votes have expressed disapproval of the post.
Does his insinuation really deserve the treatment?
Couldn't the disapproving parties have elaborated on their castigation?
If the disagreement is about the facts, then why not state so and corroborate with those facts?
Cavalier down-voting is the cheapest form of expression and belongs on lesser forums. Not on HN. Use it sparingly.
Present your case, instead.
Re: Dave Brubeck, Who Helped Put Jazz Back in Vogue, Dies at 91
#33I learned of Dave's music when I tracked down the theme song used in "The Secret Life of Machines" (which was "Take Five"). I bought his album "Time out" that had that song on it and really enjoyed it. Then bought the Christmas Album. Sad to hear he has died, but glad he chose to share his music with us.
Time Out is a pretty unique jazz album that's often overlooked. Most jazz, like rock, is in 4/4 time (with the odd waltz-time tune to liven it up.) Not good enough for Dave Brubeck: Time Out has all kinds of weird compound time stuff going on. Take Five is in 5/4, which gives it its unusual vibe; Three to Get Ready gives you two bars of 3/4 and two of 4/4, alternating (which to me it feels a bit like a car on the ver…
Blue Rondo a la Turk is in 9/8 time. But unlike most 9/8 compositions which divide the nine beats into 3/3/3, it uses 2/2/2/3. And smoothly transitions into and out of a 4/4 drum solo in the middle!
Re: Dave Brubeck, Who Helped Put Jazz Back in Vogue, Dies at 91
#34That the Brubeck obit is a Top 10 HN story puts a smile on my face ;)
If you're in a jazzy mood tonite, I can strongly recommend the recent Shinichiro Watanbe anime "Kids on the Slope" (坂道のアポロン Sakamichi no Apollon).
Re: Dave Brubeck, Who Helped Put Jazz Back in Vogue, Dies at 91
#35That the Brubeck obit is a Top 10 HN story puts a smile on my face ;) If you're in a jazzy mood tonite, I can strongly recommend the recent Shinichiro Watanbe anime "Kids on the Slope" (坂道のアポロン Sakamichi no Apollon). http://www.crunchyroll.com/kids-on-the-slope
Completely OT but I just don't get anime at all. What am I missing? I got 10 minutes through Episode 1 at that link expecting something to happen - nothing did. I don't even really follow the storyline - a wimpy kid who can only stop himself throwing up by running onto the school roof.
It's like cryptic crosswords, god and football matches - I must be missing a part of the brain.
Re: Dave Brubeck, Who Helped Put Jazz Back in Vogue, Dies at 91
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Brubeck's career benefitted MASSIVELY from being white (ish: he was of mixed ancestry), a fact he was himself quite ashamed of.
As of this writing, kylebgorman's post is grayed out. That shows a substantial number of votes have expressed disapproval of the post. Does his insinuation really deserve the treatment? Couldn't the disapproving parties have elaborated on their castigation? If the disagreement is about the facts, then why not state so and corroborate with those facts? Cavalier down-voting is the cheapest form of expression and belong…
I didn't downvote him, but even if Brubeck's career was benefited "MASSIVELY from being white", this has absolutely nothing to do with whether he was a good human being or took a stand against racism.
Re: Dave Brubeck, Who Helped Put Jazz Back in Vogue, Dies at 91
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's two factors here. One is that bebop--the previous ruling jazz style--faded considerably during WWII, and was also dominated by black culture. Brubeck brought jazz back into style, and also--as you noted--made it less of a racial issue. The previous white jazz was big band swing, which had its heyday in the '20s and was long gone by Brubeck's day.
You're a bit off in your chronology. Swing was big up through the late 40s - Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington dominated the charts. Bebop didn't really take over until the post war years.
...and Benny Goodman and Count Basie.
Re: Dave Brubeck, Who Helped Put Jazz Back in Vogue, Dies at 91
#38I learned of Dave's music when I tracked down the theme song used in "The Secret Life of Machines" (which was "Take Five"). I bought his album "Time out" that had that song on it and really enjoyed it. Then bought the Christmas Album. Sad to hear he has died, but glad he chose to share his music with us.
Time Out is a pretty unique jazz album that's often overlooked. Most jazz, like rock, is in 4/4 time (with the odd waltz-time tune to liven it up.) Not good enough for Dave Brubeck: Time Out has all kinds of weird compound time stuff going on. Take Five is in 5/4, which gives it its unusual vibe; Three to Get Ready gives you two bars of 3/4 and two of 4/4, alternating (which to me it feels a bit like a car on the ver…
Or The Mars Volta, or Cinematic Orchestra, or the Mission Impossible theme. Anyway, Time Out is great, but it is anything but overlooked.
Re: Dave Brubeck, Who Helped Put Jazz Back in Vogue, Dies at 91
#39I learned of Dave's music when I tracked down the theme song used in "The Secret Life of Machines" (which was "Take Five"). I bought his album "Time out" that had that song on it and really enjoyed it. Then bought the Christmas Album. Sad to hear he has died, but glad he chose to share his music with us.
Time Out is a pretty unique jazz album that's often overlooked. Most jazz, like rock, is in 4/4 time (with the odd waltz-time tune to liven it up.) Not good enough for Dave Brubeck: Time Out has all kinds of weird compound time stuff going on. Take Five is in 5/4, which gives it its unusual vibe; Three to Get Ready gives you two bars of 3/4 and two of 4/4, alternating (which to me it feels a bit like a car on the ver…
If you want to get down with different meters and rhythm you need to check out: Dimi Mint Abba (album: Moorish Music from Mauritania), Afrocuba de Matanzas (find them playing a batarumba), Orchestre Poly-Rythmo (album: the vodoun effect). Lots of others, but those hit all sorts of territories taken together.
Re: Dave Brubeck, Who Helped Put Jazz Back in Vogue, Dies at 91
#40"put jazz back in vogue"? i've searched the article and still can't work out what this is referring to. is he particularly prized in the usa? was he some kind of tv personality? (i listen to a fair bit of jazz; respect to the guy - he made one of the famous jazz records - but if he was the first jazz musician on time's cover that, in honesty, says a lot more about time, american culture, and his skin colour (no criti…
In addition to what has already been commented, his music also reached the more classically-oriented people who found jazz to be too esoteric and incomprehensible. Basically, he created jazz music that a wide spectrum of people were able to appreciate and enjoy, while at the same time advancing the state of the art.
That's the biggest issue with jazz. It's for jazzers. But anyone, jazzers and newbies alike, can dig Take 5 or much of their other output.