Dave Brubeck

During the 1950s and 1960s, Dave Brubeck ranked among the most influential and widely embraced American jazz musicians of his era. Even while cooler West Coast jazz styles captured mainstream attention, Brubeck attracted listeners well beyond narrow circles of aficionados, and his focus on unusual time signatures together with adventurous tonalities demonstrated that ambitious, demanding music could still connect with broad audiences. As rock & roll seized control of popular music at the start of the 1960s, Brubeck attained some of his strongest commercial and critical achievements, widening jazz's reach and rendering it fashionable among young adults and college students.

David Warren Brubeck entered the world in Concord, California, on December 6, 1920. Music filled his early surroundings: his mother performed as a classically trained pianist, both older brothers pursued professional careers as musicians, and he started piano lessons at age four. Although he initially resisted learning to read music, his innate keyboard skill and talent for learning melodies by ear let him conceal this fact for years. His father earned a living as a cattle rancher, and in 1932 the family relocated from Concord to a 45,000-acre ranch near the Sierra foothills. As a teenager Brubeck remained devoted to music, playing in a local dance band during free hours, yet he intended to follow a practical route by studying veterinary medicine. After enrolling at the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California, he took piano jobs in nearby night spots to cover expenses, and his evident passion for performance prompted one professor to recommend switching to music studies. Brubeck accepted the suggestion and graduated in 1942, though several instructors expressed surprise upon discovering he still could not read music.

Brubeck completed college while World War II raged and soon entered the Army, serving under Gen. George S. Patton; he would have taken part in the Battle of the Bulge had he not been assigned to perform piano in a Red Cross show for troops. He was asked to assemble a jazz band from fellow soldiers and created the multi-racial combo called the Wolfpack during an era when the military remained largely segregated. Honorably discharged in 1946, he enrolled at Mills College in Oakland, California, studying with French composer Darius Milhaud. Unlike many art-music composers, Milhaud held a strong appreciation for jazz, prompting Brubeck to weave Milhaud's concepts of unusual time signatures and polytonality into his own jazz writing. In 1947 Brubeck assembled the Dave Brubeck Octet with fellow Mills students, yet the group's adventurous sound exceeded typical jazz tastes of the period, leading Brubeck to form a streamlined trio featuring Cal Tjader on vibes and percussion alongside Ron Crotty on bass. He made his earliest commercial recordings with this trio for Fantasy Records in California; while building a following in the San Francisco Bay Area, a swimming accident that caused a back injury sidelined him for months and forced a reorganization of the group.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet debuted in 1951, pairing the pianist with Paul Desmond on alto sax; Desmond's relaxed yet exploratory style complemented Brubeck perfectly. Although the rhythm section changed several times in ensuing years, Joe Morello joined as permanent drummer in 1956 and Eugene Wright assumed the bass chair in 1958. By then Brubeck's reputation had extended well past Northern California. His Fantasy recordings earned strong reviews and solid sales, and the Quartet began mixing regular club dates with frequent campus concerts nationwide, introducing their innovative music to an eager new audience of students. Popularity grew sufficient for a November 8, 1954, Time magazine cover story—the second such honor for a jazz musician after Louis Armstrong in 1949. Brubeck signed with Columbia Records, then the nation's leading label, in 1955; his first Columbia album, Brubeck Time, appeared several months afterward.

A steady flow of live and studio releases followed as the Dave Brubeck Quartet became America's most commercially successful jazz ensemble. In 1959 they issued the ambitious Time Out, featuring compositions in unconventional meters such as 5/4 and 9/8. Columbia initially hesitated to release material they considered too arty for broad tastes, yet those concerns proved unfounded: Time Out became the first jazz album to sell a million copies, and in 1961 it reentered the charts after "Take Five" emerged as an unexpected single, reaching number 25 on the pop survey and number five on the adult contemporary chart.

While enjoying mounting commercial success, Brubeck pursued fresh directions. In 1959 the Quartet collaborated with the New York Philharmonic on "Dialogues for Jazz Combo and Orchestra," composed by Dave's brother Howard Brubeck. Dave's own orchestral-and-jazz work "Elementals" premiered in 1962 and later received a dance adaptation by choreographer Lar Lubovitch. With his wife Iola, Brubeck created the song cycle "The Real Ambassadors," which honored jazz history while confronting racism; it received its premiere at the 1962 Monterey Jazz Festival with performances by Louis Armstrong, Carmen McRae, and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. The Quartet also gained international stature through State Department-sponsored tours to countries seldom visited by jazz artists, including Poland, Turkey, India, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Sri Lanka.

Brubeck disbanded the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1967 to concentrate on longer compositions often centered on spiritual themes. These included the 1968 oratorio "The Light in the Wilderness" for jazz ensemble and orchestra, "The Gates of Justice" first performed in 1969, which combined Biblical passages with writings of Martin Luther King, and "Upon This Rock," commissioned for Pope John Paul II's 1987 visit to San Francisco. He continued performing in traditional jazz settings, launching a new group in 1968 that featured Jack Six on bass, Alan Dawson on drums, and Gerry Mulligan on baritone sax. During the 1970s he toured with a band including his sons Darius on keyboards, Chris on bass and trombone, and Dan on drums; billed as Two Generations of Brubeck, the ensemble blended jazz, rock, and blues. In 1976 the original Dave Brubeck Quartet lineup reunited for a 25th-anniversary tour, though the reunion ended with Paul Desmond's death in 1977.

From the mid-1980s onward, Brubeck sustained a performance and recording pace more typical of an emerging artist than a revered veteran. He kept composing orchestral and jazz works while appearing regularly with varied accompanists. Among the most decorated jazz figures of his generation, he received the National Medal of the Arts from President Bill Clinton in 1994 and the Kennedy Center Honors from President Barack Obama in 2009. Additional honors included a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a lifetime achievement Grammy from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Medal, and honorary degrees from universities in five countries. Brubeck died of heart failure in late 2012, one day before his 92nd birthday, prompting worldwide tributes to his life and music.