The vacation is over. I’m getting back into some kind of routine, if not yet what could be called a groove. Before that happens, I’m hitting the road again to spend a bit of time with my brother, who is less than well. In the meantime, here’s a followup to a post that attracted considerable comment.
The item about Paul Desmond’s 88th birthday included a link to a 
track called “Pilgrim’s Progress†from a 1956 Dave Brubeck Quartet concert recording. The piece is a close relative of “Audrey,†“Balcony Rock†and several other DBQ blues performances. Rifftides reader and frequent commenter Terence Smith pointed us to a fairly recent Brubeck solo with the same harmonic approach and mood. It’s from a 2003 Clint Eastwood film called Piano Blues in which Eastwood presents several pianists including Ray Charles, Jay McShann, Otis Spann, Pete Jolly and Dr. John, as well as film of Nat Cole, Art Tatum, Duke Ellington and others. In the course of the program, Eastwood sits at the piano to chat with his guests and listens to them play. Here is part of the Brubeck segment.
Brubeck will be 92 on December 6.