Weekend Extra: DBQ In Germany

A contributor with the internet handle Astrotype just sent YouTube five videos taken from a 1966 Dave Brubeck Quartet concert in Germany. If you're thinking of Paul Desmond on this thirtieth anniversary of his death, you may remember him even more kindly as you listen to a "Take Five" solo unlike any other I've heard from him, and a four-minute Desmond rumination on the minor blues of "Koto Song." Brubeck, Desmond, Wright and Morello were in great form, collectively and individually. Rebutting critics who loved to rail against Brubeck, Desmond often praised his friend's sensitive accompaniments. This version of "Take the 'A' Train" offers evidence for the defense. It also has Morello and Brubeck in a spirited, and well photographed, exchange of four-bar phrases.

For Astrotype's menu of five Brubeck videos from the German concert, three new ones of John Coltrane and four of Thelonious Monk, go here, and you'll be glad you stayed home this Memorial Day weekend. Isn't this more fun than being in a traffic jam?*

*For Rifftides readers in other countries, this American form of expression reaches its fullest flower on the weekend set aside to honor those who have fallen in war. Millions of us pile into cars and trucks (also known as SUVs) and park on the roads and freeways, honking horns and swearing oaths in remembrance.