Dave Brubeck Quartet - Live from the Northwest, 1959

[GA Russell]

NEW LIVE Brubeck Quartet Recordings from 1959 Dave Brubeck Quartet   Live from The Northwest, 1959   Jazz, Non-Com, AC, Live from the Northwest, 1959     In April 1959, sound engineer WALLY HEIDER packed his AMPEX 350-2 tape recorder in his station wagon and headed to Portland, Oregon to create some of the very first high-quality remote recording of the classic Dave Brubeck Quartet.   This was just 4 months before the rhythmic invention and hallmark sound of the quartet’s historic “TIME OUT” took the world by storm.   Captured with exceptional sonic clarity on April 4, 1959, in the popular Multnomah Jazz Club and on April 5th in the auditorium at nearby Clark College, the Quartet was playing-in some of the repertoire for the upcoming Gone with the Wind sessions later that month.       WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN - 6:38 BASIN STREET BLUES - 6:43 THESE FOOLISH THINGS - 7:14 GONE WITH THE WIND - 8:10 MULTNOMAH BLUES - 8:40 TWO PART CONTENTION - 11:45 LONESOME ROAD - 7:38     P   Website: BrubeckEditions.Com

[jlhoots]

👍

[Gheorghe]

My relation to Brubeck is a very difficult one, "we" didn´t have a good start. When I was very very young, in my earliest teens and just had discovered jazz and was crazy about Mingus, Dolphy, older and new Miles Davis, Ornette, Rollins and did not know other "names" , somewhere the name of Brubeck was written and someone told me that he is some of the very best. 

When I heard it, from track to track I was "waiting" for something that might bring emotions to me like the before mentioned but in my case it didn´t happen.

I think later on the weekly jazz radio show for new records they spinned a live set from some University, where they play two standards and it sounded a bit rough but well enough. It is possible that it was from 1953 or 1954 and appeared on a Bellaphone LP from the "Jazz Tracks" series. First I thought it is much better than the studio LP I had heard, but later again a problem for me: The drums sounded to straight and metronome like, as the bass, and the piano was intented to be very powerfull, with block chords and so, but somehow a bit more stiff than a natural "jazz feel", at least that´s what I heard. 

What I like on that short video footage is the blonde chick in the audience, in general the mass of the chicks was much better dressed than in comparation to audiences of today 😉

[mikeweil]

3 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

.....  and the piano was intented to be very powerfull, with block chords and so, but somehow a bit more stiff than a natural "jazz feel", at least that´s what I heard. 

That reminds me of what Joachim Ernst Berendt wrote about Brubeck in his book, talking about "unswinging phrases" and the like. Brubeck was classically trained and many of his rhythmic ideas have a lot more to do with Darius Milhaud and such, and for that you need a straight rhythm section. His concept of rhythm was beyond simple swing feel. 

[JSngry]

About the record at hand...BAU for the DBQ, but...Mat Brubeck's liner comment to the effect that this might be the best that Eugene Wright was ever recorded is ringing true to me. I kept it playing in the car for two weeks just to repeatedly savor that full sound and stone solid pocket. 

[hbbfam]

Has anyone found this available as a download?

 

[medjuck]

10 minutes ago, hbbfam said:

Has anyone found this available as a download?

 

Went to their website, think it will be tomorrow.

[hbbfam]

1 hour ago, medjuck said:

Went to their website, think it will be tomorrow.

Yep.  Hopefully on the regular download sites as well. If this sounds this good on my laptop, I am anxious to here the release.

[Gheorghe]

21 hours ago, mikeweil said:

That reminds me of what Joachim Ernst Berendt wrote about Brubeck in his book, talking about "unswinging phrases" and the like. Brubeck was classically trained and many of his rhythmic ideas have a lot more to do with Darius Milhaud and such, and for that you need a straight rhythm section. His concept of rhythm was beyond simple swing feel. 

Yeah , JEB´s Jazzbock was the first jazz book I head, of course in German since at that time I didn´t know enough English to read a jazzbook (now I can read em , but my vocabulary is quite limited to jazz so I can´t read other books 😉).

At first reading I noticed one thing: For JEB and of course for a lot of other hard core jazz fans and musicians of that time, the names (Brubeck, Peterson)  that sounded great for people who otherwise didn´t listen to jazz , were mentioned only as sidelines in Behrends book. 

That´s how I still somehow think about Brubeck : Music for people who don´t really like "other jazz" . But it keeps my mind on that impression on the video footage: That blonde chick, mighty fine, that´s our "bad luck" as jazz musicians 😄 Those kind of chicks listened to let´s say "Brubeck" not so much to what I´d listen to or play 😄

Same with my lady: Stunning  blonde, long legs, beautiful face, and......if she hears somewhere as background music in a bar or a shoppin´ mall some "Take Five" or "Mercy Mercy".... she say´s "that´s fantastic, why don´t YOU play stuff like that ? ". 

Well dude, that´s our fate. Took me quite a long time in my youth to combine somehow to get the right mixture. beeing "weird" but somehow managing to get straight enough to keep a fine girl.....😀

[mikeweil]

I just ordered a copy.

[hbbfam]

19 hours ago, medjuck said:

Went to their website, think it will be tomorrow.

Not seeing a link to purchase the download?

[hbbfam]

Its available on HDtracks (44/16).

[AllenLowe]

to me Brubeck's playing was the equivalent of a card dealer who just kept shuffling the deck, over and over again, and never actually dealt the cards. It drove me nuts.

Though it did inspire a new tune we just recorded for our Louis Armstrong project called:

"Shufflin' the Deck: Take Five (Please)"