Now playing in heaven: an editorial tribute to Dave Brubeck

on December 07, 2012 at 7:50 PM, updated December 07, 2012 at 7:51 PM

brubeck.jpg Composer Dave Brubeck played at the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, R.I. in 2010, in what may have been his last public performance before his death this week, a day shy of his 92nd birthday.  

Dave Brubeck, the phenomenally talented and beloved jazz pianist and composer who died Wednesday at 91, wanted to be a cowboy when he was a kid. He roped cows on the 45,000-acre ranch in California that his dad managed. For a few beats, he considered becoming a veterinarian.

Fortunately, a college professor steered him back to his first love, music, which he had learned to play by ear from his mother, a classically trained pianist.

Good thing, too, for all who love Brubeck's classic "Take Five" or "Blue Rondo a la Turk," unorthodox songs that catapulted him to stardom when they were released on the "Time Out" album in 1959.

Still popular today, "Take Five" was a major evolution in jazz, so rhythmically complex that it befuddled musicians who had trouble playing its five beats to the measure, instead of the traditional two, three or four. "Blue Rondo" was in 9/8 time, and as lush as the music of Istanbul, where Brubeck first heard some of the rhythms.

In addition to his jazz legacy, Brubeck also wrote classical and religious pieces and was a longtime musical ambassador, appearing on college campuses and in concert halls until he took ill last year. He's long been entitled to take five, but he will be missed.
