It was the kind of success that resists analysis, but it undoubtedly involved the contrast presented by (Dave) Brubeck and (Paul) Desmond, the pianist openly touching on the pensive, the boisterous, and the bombastic, the saxophonist a self-effacing master of a coolly detached, liquid lyricism.
–Stuart Broomer, pianist and critic, Amazon.com review
The word bombastic keeps coming up, as if it were some trap I keep falling into. Damn it, when I’m bombastic, I have my reasons. I want to be bombastic. Take it or leave it.
–Dave Brubeck, quoted in Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music and Some of its Makers.