Brubeck Octet

10 CD box set containing sixteen original LP albums by the legendary jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck, including 'Time Out', which was the first jazz album to sell more than a million copies and featured the best-selling jazz single of all time, "Take Five". These classic albums were recorded between 1946 and 1960 and document arguably the most important years of Brubeck's career…

There is no denying that Dave Brubeck's hit sides for Columbia permanently established him in the popular jazz consciousness, but that's also a limiting factor: he cut great music before and after his tenure there. The Definitive Dave Brubeck, a double-disc, 26-track collection issued just in time to celebrate the pianist's 90th birthday and to coincide with the documentary film Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Time (whose executive producer is Clint Eastwood), fills in key points in the rest of the story. This compilation was assembled by Russell Gloyd, Brubeck's manager, producer, and conductor since 1976…

The title of this two-CD compilation of the earliest commercial Dave Brubeck recordings does in fact document some of the early concepts that Brubeck was employing as a young artist in search of his own voice. The well-annotated information included by producer Joop Visser, using much of Ted Gioia’s West Coast Jazz as a reference, follows the progress of Brubeck’s artistic development, as indicated by the chronological recordings. And the liner notes include some little-known information, such as the poor prognosis, and possible paralysis, for Brubeck after a swimming accident in 1951, leading indirectly to the addition of Paul Desmond (then named "Paul Breitenfeld") to the group - which remained intact, becoming one of the legendary quartets in jazzdom, until 1967…

This is the third and final guest appearance by clarinetist Bill Smith in the place of Paul Desmond with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Like the earlier record dates, this 1961 session focuses exclusively on Smith's compositions, resulting in a very different sound for the band than its normal mix of the leader's songs and standards. Smith was a member of Brubeck's adventurous octet of the late '40s and, like the pianist, also studied with French composer Darius Milhaud. So the clarinetist is willing to take chances, utilizing a mute on his instrument in "Pan's Pipes," and having drummer Joe Morello use his timpani sticks on the piano strings in the swinging "The Unihorn." Smith proves himself very much in Desmond's league with his witty solos and equally amusing, pun-filled liner notes…

In 1982 pianist Dave Brubeck welcomed clarinetist Bill Smith (who he had played with back in his octet days in the late '40s) as a permanent member of his Quartet along with drummer Randy Jones and Chris Brubeck on electric bass and occasional bass trombone. This album features the new Quartet at the Concord Jazz Festival playing what would become their typical mixture of songs: three Brubeck compositions ("Benjamin," "Koto Song" and "Softly, William, Softly"), a standard ("Black and Blue") and yet another remake of "Take Five." These are fine performances.

Dave Brubeck - Reunion (1957) {Fantasy OJCCD-150-2 rel 1990}
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© 1957, 1990 Fantasy Records | OJCCD-150-2
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Piano

Tenor-saxophonist Dave Van Kreidt, a former member of Dave Brubeck's octet in the late '40s, had a reunion with the pianist, altoist Paul Desmond and bassist Bob Bates for this unusual session; Brubeck's new drummer Joe Morello made the group a quintet. Van Kreidt supplied all of the compositions (some of which are fairly complex), giving this set a sound very much different than the usual Brubeck Quartet outing. Interesting if not essential classical-influenced music that predates the Third Stream movement.