{"id":6676,"date":"2015-05-30T23:42:48","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T06:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=6676"},"modified":"2015-05-31T09:38:07","modified_gmt":"2015-05-31T16:38:07","slug":"paul-desmond-38-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2015\/05\/paul-desmond-38-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Desmond: 38 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Des<\/a>Since Rifftides<\/em> began, every year on May 30 I have posted something about Paul Desmond. He died thirty-eight years ago today. For reasons that I cannot clearly identify, this year I struggled with the idea. Until the last moment I put off the remembrance and finally concluded that the best option was to have Paul speak for himself with his playing.<\/p>\n

At the 1954 recording session for the Dave Brubeck Quartet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s album Brubeck Time<\/a>, LIFE magazine photographer Gjon Mili shot the film you will see. Mili had egged Brubeck into an pugnacious frame of mind by saying that he did not consider that what the quartet played was jazz. That got the result he was hoping for, a surge through the harmonies of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, Lady Be Good\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that ended up titled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Stompin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 For Mili.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the piece you hear and see last in the film clip. Brubeck later recalled that producer George Avakian then asked for a quiet minor blues. The preamble here is from my 2005 book The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would like,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Gjon, closing his eyes and raising his hand expressively, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would like to see Audrey Hepburn come walking through the woods\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u0153
\nGee,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Paul wistfully, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So would I.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153One,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I said, noticing the glazed expression about Paul\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153two, three, four. And we played it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Mili may not have known of Desmond\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s infatuation with Audrey Hepburn, but he could have said nothing more likely to inspire the playing that followed. Paul never met Audrey Hepburn, though he came close many times that summer of 1954. In the Jean Giraudeaux play Ondine<\/em>, she was an underwater nymph who fell in love with a knight. She won a Tony award for her work in the title role. Ondine<\/em> played at the 46th Street Theatre, not far from Basin Street.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Paul would look at his watch the whole time we were playing at Basin Street,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Brubeck told me. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He knew when she would walk out the stage door and get in her limousine, and he wanted to be standing there. So, when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d see him watching the time, I knew I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d better take a quick intermission or I was going to have problems with Paul. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d put his horn down, and out the door he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d go, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d run down just to stand and watch her leave.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Paul told me that,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I said to Brubeck, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and I asked him, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWhat did you say to her?’ And he looked surprised and said, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcNothing. Are you kidding?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is “Audrey,” note for note as it appeared on the album<\/p>\n