Jazz Articles about Joe Morello

Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time OutTakes

by Chris May
November 23, 2020

Few albums in jazz history are as giant as the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out (Columbia, 1959). Deftly balancing experimentation with accessibility and containing amongst its many pleasures one of the most thrilling drum solos ever recorded, Time Out has become so familiar to us that the magnitude of its greatness has become near inaudible. So an album of previously unheard out-takes is an event. Even if all the tracks turned out to be dogs, the disc ...

Joe Morello

by Andrew Velez
November 11, 2007

It was actually as a violinist that drums meister Joe Morello began his musical life at age five in his hometown, Springfield, Mass. A musician's musician, Morello (79), who now teaches and conducts jazz clinics in the US and Canada, has appeared on over 200 recordings. Still, it's safe to say his place in jazz history is as the drum-beating heart of a now-legendary quartet of piano great Dave Brubeck. From 1956 through 1967, Morello, Brubeck, alto sax great Paul ...

Dave Brubeck Quartet: Jazz Impressions of Japan

by Wayne Zade
September 1, 2001

Like Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and their groups, Dave Brubeck and his first great quartet were among the first jazz musicians after World War II to travel diplomatically in the service of peace throughout the world. Armstrong released Ambassador Satch in 1955, and Brubeck released The Real Ambassadors, with Armstrong, Carmen McRae, and others, seven years later—helping, maybe, to thaw the Cold War.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet: Jazz Impressions Of Japan

by Jim Santella
April 1, 2001

Dave Brubeck has always been able to effectively communicate with the average “Joe." His compositions bring a spark of recognition. It's jazz, but with an underlying meaning easy enough to comprehend at first listen. Stereotypes enter the picture when particular harmonies are employed or when distinctive rhythms dance freely. His quartet could easily make “Chopsticks" appeal to the masses with a moody intro, an easy-to-recognize head melody, inspired solos all around, and a return to the starting point.

With the ...