Old Brubeck Blues

Good old video keeps surfacing. The new Jazz Icons series of DVDs (about which, more later) is a prime example. Short clips show up on YouTube, Google, Yahoo and whatever new video sites have materialized in the past half hour. A recent addition to the YouTube gallery is a 1961 performance in Holland by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. They play “St. Louis Blues,” for years Brubeck’s concert opener. All hands solo at length following Brubeck’s introduction, beginnning with Paul Desmond’s five choruses overflowing with invented melodies and a couple of borrowed ones. This is prime Desmond about halfway through his nearly two decades with the quartet. Sound and video quality are good. To see and hear the DBQ when “Take Five” had made them even more famous, click on this link.
Watch for terrific closeups of Eugene Wright, smile in full flower, reacting to Brubeck’s solo then continuing to smile through his own. Listen to Desmond make “The Lady in Red” almost fit behind Brubeck’s penultimate sixteen bars before the coda. These guys did have fun.