“Dave has lost none of his youthful vigor and exuberance that inform his playing… [He] is the epitome of jazz piano class and excellence…”
Dave Brubeck live at the 2001 Litchfield Jazz Festival. Photo: Steve Sussman
Raised on a farm in Concord, California by his cattle-rancher father and pianist mother, young Dave Brubeck aspired to follow in his father’s footsteps. At the same time he became fascinated with jazz and began playing piano professionally by his early teens. Still, he enrolled at the College of the Pacific in California where he planned to become a veterinarian and return to the ranch. He supported his studies by playing jazz gigs in local clubs and, luckily for us, he changed his major to music.
Over the span of his career, Mr. Brubeck, who is now 87 years old, has played with the likes of Cal Tjader, Ron Crotty, Paul Desmond, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Rushing, Carmen McRae, Roy Hargrove, and many more. Beyond the jazz world, he has collaborated with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic and with the Murray Louis Dance Company on an international tour.
Brubeck has received numerous awards, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, induction into thePantheon of the Arts at the University of the Pacific and the International Jazz Hall of Fame, Down Beat Hallof Fame, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Medal of the Arts, the NEA Jazz Masters Award, the Connecticut Arts Award, he was designated a Living Legend of Jazz (2007), and he holds six honorary doctorate degrees.
His latest recording, Indian Summer (Telarc), released in August 2007, features a mix of timeless standards along with four of his most contemporary and complex compositions. In many ways, these sixteen songs tell the story of the legendary pianist and composer’s life.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet is Dave Brubeck on piano, Bobby Militello on alto sax and flute, Michael Moore on bass, and Randy Jones on drums. This is Mr. Brubeck’s third appearance at The Litchfield Jazz Festival.
