Pianist/composer Dave Brubeck is one of the reasons jazz music enjoys the popularity it does today. You might say, “What do you mean? Jazz? Popular?" Granted, jazz recordings cannot boast the level of sales that a Mariah Carey or a Justin Timberlake recording might receive today, but jazz does have a healthy live concert audience, evidenced locally by last year's complete sellout 50th anniversary Monterey Jazz Festival weekend.
Yet, it's clear that without the work of Brubeck and his elite group of sidemen over the years, jazz could still be stuck in dark nightclubs and playing to an older generation of listeners who are all but extinct on this planet where the youth are attracted to the siren call of one-hit wonders and music industry manipulations.
The California born-and-raised Brubeck's experimental nature and interest in odd time meters, polytonality and the fusion of classical and jazz music, plus his civil rights-based social convictions, put him at odds with the musical establishment when he began his career in the late 1940s. Yet his perseverance and innovation in marketing to college students propelled his music into the lives of the general population of the 1950s.
The breakthrough recording “Time Out" established him as a hit-making jazz musician at a time when the world was shifting from the staid '50s to the hip '60s. He graced the cover of Time magazine and enjoyed immense popularity. He remains one of the most recognized jazz musicians in the world.
Yet, it's clear that without the work of Brubeck and his elite group of sidemen over the years, jazz could still be stuck in dark nightclubs and playing to an older generation of listeners who are all but extinct on this planet where the youth are attracted to the siren call of one-hit wonders and music industry manipulations.
The California born-and-raised Brubeck's experimental nature and interest in odd time meters, polytonality and the fusion of classical and jazz music, plus his civil rights-based social convictions, put him at odds with the musical establishment when he began his career in the late 1940s. Yet his perseverance and innovation in marketing to college students propelled his music into the lives of the general population of the 1950s.
The breakthrough recording “Time Out" established him as a hit-making jazz musician at a time when the world was shifting from the staid '50s to the hip '60s. He graced the cover of Time magazine and enjoyed immense popularity. He remains one of the most recognized jazz musicians in the world.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
