Ineffable lightness

If there is a CD which discharges the air all pomposity, then it is this. There is hardly another album that gives a better idea of ​​what is jazz. When the album was released in 1959, jazz lovers were snubbed as jazz opponents alike and still say some critics, what do Brubeck, is not really jazz. His tempos (eg, 9/8 the opener "Blue Rondo A La Turk" - inspired by a trip to Turkey - and at 5/4 "Take Five") simply did not fit into the usual schemes that time. The album's title is therefore brings the same in both senses to the point.

We should also not ignore the fact that the Jazz to date a domain black musicians was (although the instruments such as piano, trumpet, guitar and saxophone European origin are). In the fifties and sixties, the fear took against a cultural quantum leap in the US to almost the extent of collective neurosis. It goes without saying that Brubeck recordings in the energized situation of those days varied reactions moved to itself.

Whether Dave Brubeck has always been ahead or the critics of ignorance blocked, I can not say. However, the sales figures speak their own language, because in addition to "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis heard "Time Out" still one of the best-selling jazz albums worldwide. It should be noted, Brubeck has made this recording with more friends than enemies and contributed like no other to the fact that the genre of jazz has established itself next to the fields of classical, rock and pop.

Perhaps Brubeck himself was most surprised by his phenomenal success. In his liner notes to this album he writes anyway, that everything had been other than its intention to produce a "hit" when he went into the studio with his fellow musicians. The effect of art can not calculate precisely, but there is something that could explain the persistently high demand. Since I first heard in the seventies by Dave Brubeck, I was impressed by the uninhibited vitality of his music.

The atmospheric density, the suppleness of unconventional phrasing and felt good understanding between him and his band members have always made a great impression on me. "Take Five" has not gone to me since the first hearing of the head and always remained in my trust in a welcome manner. I think this piece will always be associated with the name Dave Brubeck.

How interesting that "Take Five" - ​​was written by Paul Desmond, the alto saxophonist of the Dave Brubeck Quartet - originally conceived as a drum solo. Perhaps it is one of the most thrilling experiences of a musical friend, listen to himself in the virtuosic interplay between him and Brubeck. Listen to this piece once targeted on the bass. It sounds deep and unobtrusive, while floods seemingly effortlessly through space. Who the ineffable lightness of this piece do not like, will know what to do with the complete album. I love it.