The dean only allowed him to graduate on the condition that Brubeck never teach. Prior to his Mills College experience in 1942, he was almost not allowed to finish at the University of the Pacific because of his dyslexia. His dyslexia, which he referred to as “my problem,” proved to be a motivating factor for him, as he never used it as an excuse and he developed an incredible ear for capturing harmonies and melodies. He enrolled at Mills College in 1946 after a stint in the Second World War to study with Darius Milhaud, but he couldn’t read music. Brubeck was born cross-eyed, and had vision problems that made it difficult for him to read. This trademark was not intentional, but necessary. While I don’t remember as much as I wish from my dad’s interview with Brubeck, I still remember the signature thick tortoise-rimmed glasses the legendary pianist wore. As directed by Desmond’s estate after his death in 1977, all of the royalties from the song go to the American Red Cross. “Take Five” was originally intended to be a drum solo, but after collaborating with Desmond, it became a jazz standard that inspired other 5/4 themes, such as Lalo Schifrin’s classic “Mission: Impossible.” “Take Five” became such a part of the American vernacular that it was even used as the theme of NBC’s Today Show in the 1960s. He wanted a groove that was slow enough that one could follow the odd meter, but fast enough for listeners to shake their heads. Morello was bored playing in 4/4, so he started working with uneven time signatures for a change of pace. Paul Desmond came up with the melody, it was drummer Joe Morello who came up with the groove. From the collection Van Vechten Collection. Most mainstream jazz was in 4/4 or occasionally 3/4 time in that era, but this album explored 9/8, 6/4, and the meter of “Take Five”: 5/4. The album consists of seven songs unified by irregular time signatures, and it was inspired by music the quartet heard while on a State Department-sponsored tour of the Middle East and India. Ironically, Columbia Records only allowed the album to be released under the assumption that the quartet would go back to recording jazz standards for subsequent projects. The song came from the album Time Out which spent 164 weeks on the Billboard 200 in 1959, and was the first jazz LP to sell one million copies. It was written by his legendary saxophonist, Paul Desmond. Five,” along with “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” is a tune that is forever branded with our association of Dave Brubeck.
For most of those interviews, we would meet the artist at their hotel or concert hall, but Brubeck was so humble and unassuming that he drove to our studio for an on-air conversation. I was a young student broadcaster when my dad interviewed Dave Brubeck in the late 1980s. Doc Severinsen, John Browning, Richard Stoltzman, John Wallace, and Aaron Copland all come to mind. Whenever a performing artist was touring through the area to play with the local symphony or headline a jazz festival, my dad could always pull some strings and land an interview, often giving the students access to these performers.
TAKE FIVE JAZZ PIANIST HOW TO
He was the Program Director of a small radio station in Chesapeake, and it served as a vocational school where students could learn how to run a broadcast studio. As a child growing up in southeastern Virginia, I got to tag along with my father on a few journalistic adventures.
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