Search - Dave Brubeck :: The Essential Dave Brubeck

Essential, perhaps, but hardly adequate

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 12/10/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Brubeck's greatest popularity occurred during his association with Columbia Records, and this collection certainly documents some of the commercial and artistic highlights of this productive period. Particularly heartening is the inclusion of three tracks from the "Brubeck Plays Brubeck" solo piano album, including his exceptional improvisation on "In Your Own Sweet Way," an original that subsequently became a jazz standard. Still, this sampler does not include enough of the early work to dispell three widely held misconceptions: 1. that Brubeck and Desmond (or Brubeck and any other soloist) would regain the extraordinary chemistry of the 1950's quartet; 2. that the studio sessions, beginning with "Time Out," were equal if not superior to the earlier college concert dates; 3. that Brubeck's later experiments with time signatures represented an advance over his earlier adventurousness with melody, harmony, meter.



Neither Brubeck nor Desmond ever played with more in-the-moment inspired inventiveness than on their live 1950's dates. The excitement ensuing from their empathy with one another as well as their reactiveness to the palpable encouragement of their audiences was a singular moment in jazz history. In fact, during the 1950's they were to small-group modern jazz and its adherents what the Benny Goodman Big Band had been to attentive young listeners in the 1930s. The "Essential Dave Brubeck" provides only four examples from this fertile period, barely enough to whet the appetite. Moreover, the selections appear to be more abitrary than representative of this highly-charged edition of the quartet at its very best.



If you really want the essential Brubeck, be sure to supplement this collection with the '63 Carnegie Hall Concert but also with the earlier "Jazz at Oberlin" and "Jazz Goes to College." If the superior heat, intensity, and risk-taking extemporaneousness of these sessions recommend them over the later, more tepid, recordings, look next for "Jazz at the College of the Pacific, Volumes 1 and 2.""

Spectacular collection of Brubeck's work - definitely worth

Joseph M. Siegler | Garland, TX USA | 08/04/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I used to have an older Dave Brubeck Greatest Hits package, but it came out in 1966. Brubeck started in the 50's I believe, and is still out there touring and making records in the 21st centry. Amazing given that man's age. But it's the longevity that made me want this package.



This collection came out in 2003 and covers his entire career. It has the signature stuff from Time Out, as well as numerous tracks. The sticker on the CD says "covers 53 years, 31 tracks, 24 albums". It is quite a wide selection of material. Now Brubeck has an absolute avalanche of recorded material, so for someone that only had one album (Time Out) and one 36 year old greatest hits album, this career spanning 2 CD retrospective is perfect. Over so many years and so many record labels, I'm sure there were some rights issues with all this, and I'm glad they were overcome.



I'm sure some Brubeck purists will say that it's not worthy, that one should buy the albums and all that, but he has SO MANY albums, it's extremely daunting to a Brubeck newbie, so this was a prefect choice, and I have to say I really enjoy this collection. I think you will too (unless of course you already own all of this stuff)."

" Not essential " Dave Brubeck

Jc Mahne | 05/30/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This " essential Dave Brubeck " tracks were selected by Dave Brubeck himself,therin lies the problem with this cd.

The first disc is really a showpiece for Brubeck, and it's only on disc two that the genius of his bandmates are revealed.The Dave Brubeck Band's popularity is basically due to Paul Desmond (Take Five).

The true genius behind the band was Paul Desmond with his wonderful compositions and beautiful sax playing. Tony Morello is to my mind the best drummer I have ever heard. I enjoy Wright on bass too.All this is on disc 2

I can only describe Brubecks's playing as plodding, mainly on disc 1. He is a brilliant at comping,and good at writing, but as a soloist he is not up to par with his band mates.This is of course in my view, as many would disagree.

I rate disc number 1 as zero and disc number 2 as five, so I gave the average as three.

I have just thrown out disc 1, as I have never gotten to like it, even after many listening attempts.

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