Search - Dave Brubeck :: Brandenburg Gate: Revisited

Disappointing

R. LaRue | Crozet, VA United States | 11/03/2000

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this record on vinyl when it first came out. I found it again recently in my parents' attic. I took it home, and put it on my aging turntable again--and remembered why I didn't take it with me the first time when I left the house year's ago. Seems many, it not all jazz musicians (up through at least the '60's) felt the need to "legitimize" their work by playing in front of a full concert orchestra--or in the case of the immortal Duke, even composing for one.I like classical music. I like jazz. I also like orange juice and milk. But with music, as with beverages, I don't like the mixture.This album does not swing. It may lull you to sleep.I love every tune on this album--but not the versions on the album. The later versions are lush and phony--sounding like bad hollywood sound tracks, at best. The most telling example of degeneracy is the title piece, 'Brandenburg Gate,' first recorded on 'Jazz Impressions of Eurasia.' (A stupendous album, by the way.) Originally concieived as a Bach-like composition, both contrapuntal and polyphonic in form and execution, it is a masterpiece of integrating 18th century elements and reconceiving them in swing. And just like a great Bach keyboard work, it is spare and crisp--nothing wasted, yet nothing missing.Now, however, the same piece orchestrated in the style of Holly Ridge Strings loses every smidgeon of grace. The real "classic" elements of the original composition--the 18th century form, feeling, and intellectual tone--are subverted by a string arrangement that owes nothing to Bach and much to muzak.Don't buy this CD unless you are, like me, a fan, and would listen to anything DBQ ever did--even if it were awful."

Great with wine after a rough day at work/school

topaze15 | Charlotte, NC United States | 08/20/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is usually one of the first albums I reach for when I am looking for a smooth-over: the very first phrases of the first track are like a great big sigh, and it draws you into a fully engaging CD of classical and jazz. I notice this isn't one of Amazon's essential Brubeck recordings - his body of work must be stellar!"

Call this Brubeck's "Gil Evans album"

R. L. MILLER | FT LAUDERDALE FL USA | 05/26/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Classical and jazz can be mixed--he just didn't do it right here. All you get in the title track is the same theme and changes, repeated over and over for nearly 20 minutes. The thing just "changes clothes" in terms of arrangement each run-through. Even at that, I'm not sure that orchestral arrangements necessarily add up to classical/ jazz fusion--look at Henry Mancini, for example. Maybe Brubeck hadn't developed his version of it by this album's creation in 1959--he was to do much better five years later in 1964's "Time Changes", with the 18-minute "Elementals" (is that thing out of print? I can't find it here). And in my opinion, Chuck Mangione really perfected the concept in 1971 with his live "Friends & Love" album, joined by the Rochester NY Philharmonic Orchestra. Rayburn Wright of that very same orchestra had helped Brubeck arrange "Elementals" in '64. Coincidence? Perhaps not. Maybe this album simply lacks balance--the orchestral format continues into the short pieces further along in this album, while "Time Changes" starts out in quartet format--then it gives you "Elementals" as a grand finale. But this album at times verges on Muzak in the same way Miles Davis' Gil Evans series tends to do. I guess it takes some doing to drag in a symphony orchestra without making your music soporific. Brubeck didn't quite succeed in dodging that pitfall in this, his freshman effort in symphonia."