There will be a public memorial service for Dave Brubeck in New York City next Saturday, May 11. Brubeck died last December at the age of 91. Along with, no doubt, hundreds of others I will be at the service in the cavernous Cathedral Of St. John The Divine on the upper west side of Manhattan.
A little known video of a Brubeck quartet performance recently surfaced. The other musicians are Jerry Bergonzi, tenor saxophone; Chris Brubeck, electric bass; and Randy Jones, drums. The piece is “All My Hope” from Brubeck’s mass To Hope: A Celebration, which premiered in 1980. This section of a Montreal television broadcast is almost certainly from 1980 rather than 1981, as YouTube indicates. It recalls the pleasure the pianist took in Bergonzi’s harmonic compatibility and daring during the saxophonist’s year or two with the quartet.
For information about the memorial service, including the list of performers paying tribute, click here.
I wish I could be present at the memorial service to pay tribute to the Great Man of the World Jazz and to express my highest respect to Mr. Eugene Wright, now the only living member of the Great Quartet who is nearing his 90th birthday on May 29.
We are so accustomed that Dave Brubeck is always with us that this wonderful video seems live in all respects.
After some initial digging, I come across this version of the Quartet being in Montreal in July of 1981. Anyone have any other information in regards to it being 1980?
Doug: It could be from March 1980. I have a radio broadcast labeled as being at En Scene in Montreal with the following tracks:
All My Hope
Tritonis
Symphony
Long Ago And Far Away
What Did I Do To Be So Black And Blue?
God’s Love (Made Visible)
Take Five