Dave Brubeck was the first jazz musician to grace the cover of Time magazine since the weekly featured Louis Armstrong in 1949. Time heralded Brubeck’s music as the beginning of a new jazz era in 1954. Born and educated in California, Brubeck, who wanted to be a rancher but quickly succumbed to his interest in piano, graduated from College of the Pacific before serving in the Army where his musical skills flourished. With a GI Bill he attended Mills College to study with classical composer Darius Milhaud, a proponent of polyrhythms and polytonality, who fired Brubeck’s imagination. While at Mills Brubeck formed an experimental octet that occasionally included alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, but it wasn’t until 1951 that Brubeck expanded his trio with drummer Joe Dodge and bassist Bob Bates to include the brilliant saxist,.

Brubeck found his audiences on college campuses where the quartet recorded their first successful album in 1953, Jazz at Oberlin. In 1956 drummer Joe Morello replaced Dodge and soon Gene Wright took over from Bates. The “classic” quartet was in place, and in 1959 they recorded the phenomenally successful Time Out album in which they experimented with time signatures. Desmond’s composition written in 5/4 time, “Take Five,” was the first jazz instrumental to sell a million copies as a single and became the group’s signature tune. Brubeck’s “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” written in 9/8 time and derived from Mozart’s “Rondo alla Turca,” was another highlight of the album. Other Brubeck compositions which have entered the jazz repertoire include “In Your Own Sweet Way,” “The Duke,” and “Strange Meadowlark.”

Despite the overwhelming success of the quartet, which toured extensively abroad and introduced jazz worldwide, the restless Brubeck continued to expand his musical horizons. After he disbanded the quartet in 1967 he wrote ballets, oratorios, symphonies, a contemporary mass, and other sacred works. After Desmond’s death Brubeck formed a second quartet in the ‘80s that included his friend and a member of the octet at Mills, the brilliant clarinetist William O. “Bill” Smith. Brubeck also performed in various contexts with his musician sons: pianist/keyboardist Darius, bassist/trombonist Chris, drummer Dan, and cellist Matthew.

Brubeck has been honored in ways too numerous to mention, but perhaps dearest to his heart is the Brubeck Institute, established by the University of the Pacific in 2000 to honor graduates Dave and his wife Iola. The programs are both musically and socially oriented. It must be remembered that racially mixed groups were not the norm in the 1950s, and if a club would not accept Brubeck’s African American bassist or if a college campus refused to integrate the audience, Brubeck cancelled the gig. Throughout his life he has used music to reach out and to unite, and his legacy will continue for generations.

- Sandra Burlingame