1966 in Germany Dave Brubeck - piano Paul Desmond - alto sax Eugene Wright - bass Joe Morello - drums.
Brubeck was a great advocate of progressive jazz. His most famous piece, Take Five, was a 5/4 time signature that once heard, remained in our heads forever. Brubeck didn’t stop at 5/4 ... he used 6/4, 7/4, 13/4 and in another of his most famous, Blue Rondo à la Turk, Brubeck employed 9/8. Last year his Christmas album (A Dave Brubeck Christmas) was suggested to me and there’s some wonderful music on it.
Check out the New York Times article on Brubeck here.
All I know is trying to adjust an ingrained 4/4 signature to Take Five’s 5/4 was about the most frustrating exercise in the world ... and when I don’t do it twenty or thirty times in a row, it’s like starting all over when I give it another try. The drum tabs stare me in the face and I’ll be damned, but my right foot usually refuses to ignore 5 ... not so easy, amici ... not so easy at all.
Gail Collins on Rick Santorum … Lately, he’s been on a crusade against a dangerous attempt by the United Nations to help disabled people around the world. This week, he won! The Senate refused to ratify a U.N. treaty on the subject. The vote, which fell five short of the necessary two-thirds majority, came right after 89-year-old Bob Dole, the former Republican leader and disabled war veteran, was wheeled into the chamber to urge passage.
“We did it,” Santorum tweeted in triumph.
Well, it doesn’t get any better than that.
New York Post headlines … they’re either funny or offensive. This past week a photographer caught some poor guy who’d been pushed onto subway tracks scrambling to get up on the platform as a train roared into the station. Reportedly, there were several people who watched instead of helping the guy … all while the photographer took the time to get the shot seen round the world. We won’t post it here because it really is offensive. Whether the photographer saw dollar signs in the poor man’s dilemma or not is up for debate, but one has to wonder how he could sell the shot (which he did) and not donate ALL the money to the victim’s family.
Drummers Galore …
Speaking of David Brubeck, one of his long-time drummers, Joe Morello, passed last year (2011). Morello was one of the smoothest drummers of all time. Even in his later years, after dropping the sticks in this Conan O’Brien feature, he could outplay most drummers in the world.
Morello’s solo after Brubeck is pretty amazing ... watch how he adjusts his base while playing with one hand ...
Even when he was up there in age, Morello could still swing ...
Speaking of drummers … how ‘bout Gene Krupa!
Somebody say Buddy Rich …
How ‘bout the both of them:
And then there’s my favorite, Peter Erskine …
The Devil and Ginger Baker … speaking of great drummers (although I wouldn’t put him in a class with the guys above (not by a longshot), Ginger Baker was the best the rock world had to offer, (even if he hated being considered a rock drummer), but probably because he was a jazz drummer first. Jazz was his roots and he returned to them later in life. I still can’t wait to see this documentary on him (by a guy from Brooklyn) … Read the Rolling Stone article here.
—Knucks
Swing baby, swing ...
For my daughter, from Buck Privates ... three generations of Stella love this one ... the Andrew sisters ...
