Thomas Cunniffe’s excellent weblog Jazz History Online has managed to find the performance by Paul Desmond and his Canadian quartet originally broadcast in 1975 by the Canadian Broadcasting Company. That is good news for listeners who continue to follow the alto saxophonist’s career after the dissolution of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, in which he starred with Brubeck for seventeen years. Cunniffe also presents the complete interview of Desmond by the CBC’s Mary Lou Finlay, with enthusiastic, nearly rhapsodic, commentary by her co-host Paul Soles. Previously, the interview has aired in the United States mostly in bits and pieces. To see all of the interview, the segment by Desmond’s Toronto-based quartet, and Tom Cunniffe’s extensive backgrounder, click here.
Thanks to Thomas Cunniffe, Mary Lou Finlay and the CBC for sharing an important moment in jazz history.
Have a good weekend.