Dave Brubeck: A Life in Time

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Tutored also by his mother (Bessie) who was fairly well down the path of a concert pianist career - her hopes dashed by her rancher husband moving the family to run a cattle ranch in remote Ione (Sacremento). Woven throughout are cameo appearances from a host of unlikely figures, from Sting, Ray Manzarek of The Doors, and Keith Emerson to John Cage, Leonard Bernstein, Harry Partch, and Edgard Varèse. You think of Beethoven, or Stravinsky, he'd say, they are always leading you somewhere new, and for that to happen you need to move between keys. If you like the music of Dave Brubeck get this book to put some flesh on the bones but remember I did warn you!

Something that was obvious was the author’s dedication to presenting an excellent and thorough presentation of the life and works of Dave Brubeck, but unfortunately I was unable to maintain interest for more than a chapter or two at a time as a result of what I’ve mentioned that seemed to get in the way of enjoying this book as much as I’d hoped to. The first of his own encounters with Brubeck came in 1992, after a concert in Manchester, when he asked the artist to cast an eye over one of his own student compositions and received an encouraging response.

At Mills College: In terms of the octet, the most important thing Milhaud taught us all- and you can hear it in the records-was about counterpoint, which helped us create our own sound.

The sheer descriptive verve, page after page, made me want to listen to every single musical example cited. I started to read looking for the key to appreciating Brubeck which in over 50 years of intense jazz listening I haven't managed to do. In Dave Brubeck: A Life in Time , Clark provides us with a thoughtful, thorough, and long-overdue biography of an extraordinary man whose influence continues to inform and inspire musicians today. However after reading the biography especially regarding polytonality and polyrhythms both of which I was aware of, I felt the need to actually listen to the particular piece of music that he was talking about to totally understand what he was referring to. Apparently, this tendency got him in hot water with many jazz critics over the years who believed "true" jazz only resided only in the kind of innovations in melody wrought by bebop.Clark lives in Oxford with his wife, two children, two cats, and more recorded music than he can ever listen to. This biography, written with love and passion, is a landmark document that is insightful and inspiring all in itself. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.