Dave Brubeck first recorded his composition The Duke during a live performance at New York's Basin Street East on October 13, 1954. His quartet at the time consisted of Paul Desmond (as), Dave Brubeck (p), Bob Bates (b) and Joe Dodge (d). The song has a wonderful swing feel and the melody and bass lines are sensual and hip.
When I interviewed David for JazzWax in 2010, I asked him about his song:
JazzWax: How did you come to write The Duke in 1954?
Dave Brubeck: The Duke I wrote after taking my son, Chris, to nursery school. On the way home, it was raining and I was watching the windshield wipers. They were loud and sounded like a cushioned metronome [sings “boom-chung, boom chung, boom chung" to mimic the sound]. That's when I started to sing the melody that had come to mind as I listened to the beat. It fit perfectly with the bump-bump of the wipers.
JW: What kind of car was it?
DB: A Kaiser Vagabond. Back then, after the war, Kaiser, a boat company, made a great car from parts left over from scrap. The melody line just popped into my head.
JW: Did you like the version that Miles Davis recorded with Gil Evans in 1957 on Miles Davis +19?
DB: I loved it. They invited me to the playback session. I thought it was great. At the date, Miles introduced me to Gil [Evans, the arranger], and Gil said, “Brubeck… do you have a brother named Henry?” I said, “Yeah.” Gil said, “He played drums in my first orchestra, and he was a great drummer.” Isn’t that something? My oldest brother played with Gil. In those days, there was so much coming out of Stockton, Calif. Gil’s first band was out of Stockton.
JW: The Duke is pretty remarkable, and it set the tone for your quartet's sound.
DB: I was playing The Duke at a college concert once, and the head of the jazz department came up to me and said, “I love how you use a 12-note tone row in The Duke.“ That's when all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are used in a composition with equal significance.
JW: What did you say?
DB: I said, “I didn’t know I was using a tone row. Where did you read that?” I thought a writer or reviewer had incorrectly come up with it. He said, “I didn’t read it. Check out the bass line.” So I did, and sure enough he was right. I must have done that unconsciously. Pianist Marian McPartland has said The Duke’s bass line is the best one ever written in jazz.
As you listen to it on Dave's Columbia album Red, Hot and Cool, think of those windshield wipers. Here's the first recording of Dave's The Duke...
f
When I interviewed David for JazzWax in 2010, I asked him about his song:
JazzWax: How did you come to write The Duke in 1954?
Dave Brubeck: The Duke I wrote after taking my son, Chris, to nursery school. On the way home, it was raining and I was watching the windshield wipers. They were loud and sounded like a cushioned metronome [sings “boom-chung, boom chung, boom chung" to mimic the sound]. That's when I started to sing the melody that had come to mind as I listened to the beat. It fit perfectly with the bump-bump of the wipers.
JW: What kind of car was it?
DB: A Kaiser Vagabond. Back then, after the war, Kaiser, a boat company, made a great car from parts left over from scrap. The melody line just popped into my head.
JW: Did you like the version that Miles Davis recorded with Gil Evans in 1957 on Miles Davis +19?
DB: I loved it. They invited me to the playback session. I thought it was great. At the date, Miles introduced me to Gil [Evans, the arranger], and Gil said, “Brubeck… do you have a brother named Henry?” I said, “Yeah.” Gil said, “He played drums in my first orchestra, and he was a great drummer.” Isn’t that something? My oldest brother played with Gil. In those days, there was so much coming out of Stockton, Calif. Gil’s first band was out of Stockton.
JW: The Duke is pretty remarkable, and it set the tone for your quartet's sound.
DB: I was playing The Duke at a college concert once, and the head of the jazz department came up to me and said, “I love how you use a 12-note tone row in The Duke.“ That's when all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are used in a composition with equal significance.
JW: What did you say?
DB: I said, “I didn’t know I was using a tone row. Where did you read that?” I thought a writer or reviewer had incorrectly come up with it. He said, “I didn’t read it. Check out the bass line.” So I did, and sure enough he was right. I must have done that unconsciously. Pianist Marian McPartland has said The Duke’s bass line is the best one ever written in jazz.
As you listen to it on Dave's Columbia album Red, Hot and Cool, think of those windshield wipers. Here's the first recording of Dave's The Duke...
f
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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