Dave Brubeck
Playhouse. Edinburgh. Photo copyright marc marnie.
Dave Brubeck
He didn't write his best-known work -- the ubiquitous "Take Five" was
composed by the great alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, the pianist's ideal
foil for many years in his quartet -- but it made him one of the most
famous jazz musicians of his day. The commerical success of his
sophisticated, sometimes rather prissy chamber jazz style (and, let's face
it, his skin colour) has sometimes been allowed to obscure the fact that he
is a highly gifted jazz musician, even if he sometimes sounded as if he
really wanted to be a classical composer.
Born: 1920, in Concord, California