OVER the past decade and a half, the Litchfield Jazz Festival in Kent and the Caramoor Jazz Festival in Katonah, N.Y., have reliably presented a selection of top players. But this year, taken together--both festivals are running from Aug. 6 to 8--they are offering more: a multigenerational history of jazz piano featuring the giants who made it.
“It's a kind of continuum," said Dan Morgenstern, the historian and director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University.
Four months from his 90th birthday, Dave Brubeck will bring his quartet to Litchfield on Aug. 6. Mr. Brubeck, who in December received the Kennedy Center Honors only months after a serious illness, said he was now in fine fettle, restricted from flying long distances but fully able to lead his group through tunes like “Take Five," the hit in 5/4 time that helped bring odd meters into the jazz mainstream in the 1950s.
Since those early days, Mr. Brubeck has branched out, producing ambitious works for orchestra and chorus that have been performed throughout the world. He gets special satisfaction, he said, from a symphonic piece inspired by Ansel Adams's photographs of the Yosemite Valley, not far from where he grew up in California. Written with his son, Chris Brubeck, the piece had its premiere last year.
“It's a kind of continuum," said Dan Morgenstern, the historian and director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University.
Four months from his 90th birthday, Dave Brubeck will bring his quartet to Litchfield on Aug. 6. Mr. Brubeck, who in December received the Kennedy Center Honors only months after a serious illness, said he was now in fine fettle, restricted from flying long distances but fully able to lead his group through tunes like “Take Five," the hit in 5/4 time that helped bring odd meters into the jazz mainstream in the 1950s.
Since those early days, Mr. Brubeck has branched out, producing ambitious works for orchestra and chorus that have been performed throughout the world. He gets special satisfaction, he said, from a symphonic piece inspired by Ansel Adams's photographs of the Yosemite Valley, not far from where he grew up in California. Written with his son, Chris Brubeck, the piece had its premiere last year.
