During Friday night’s Brubeck Brothers Quartet performance at the Montalvo Arts Center’s intimate Carriage House theater, the quartet played original as well as historical jazz. There was precise drumming by Dan Brubeck. His brother Chris, on bass and trombone, kept the rhythm going talking to the audience between sets. Pianist Chuck Lamb echoed and created melodies with Mike DeMicco on guitar doing the same. They played dynamic, cohesive jazz classics and some newly written pieces.
“People with above average intelligence listen to jazz, as it has intense, complicated rhythms,” Chris told the genre aficionados.
He was referring to how other forms of music can be easier to play and are more predictable, but jazz is an organic conversation between musicians.
On that same stage, the following morning, this form of dialog was on the lesson plan as the Brubeck Brothers Quartet shared their expert knowledge with a group of young musicians.
A LEGACY LIVES ON
Their father, Dave Brubeck, famously played “Take Five” (a jazz standard composed by Paul Desmond). It was first recorded in 1959 and is the third track on Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet which has become one of the world’s most popular jazz pieces. The work was released on the album “Time Out,” which sold over 1 million copies. Written in an unusual musical signature of 5/4, “Take Five” is recognizable all around the world. In November 1954, Brubeck made the cover of Time magazine; he also performed up to the time of his death at almost 92, in 2012.
In addition to playing jazz, after being drafted into the Army in 1942, Dave Brubeck formed the Wolf Pack while in the Army. This was the first integrated armed forces musical group. His music was part of the independent Radio Free Europe, which began broadcasting on July 4, 1950. This music was inspirational to those trapped behind the Iron Curtain, receiving only propaganda, and to this day his music remains inspirational. RFE was a U.S. funded broadcasting service.
Chris and Dan Brubeck grew up around music and cut their first record together in 1966. Their mother was a classically trained pianist, and of course their father was a jazz giant. The two non-family members have been with Chris and Dan for many years and they too write original jazz.
STUDENTS SAT IN WITH JAZZ MUSICIANS
On Saturday morning, after the performance on Friday night, the musicians shared their vast knowledge with young students in the intimate setting at Montalvo’s Carriage House. These students got to go onstage and play with professional musicians and learn a bit more about jazz.
Los Gatos Music & Arts has been producing Jazz on the Plazz for the past 22 years. Almost every local knows about the performances, yet as Board Member Jonathan Knowles said: “Yes, I know we are the best thing in town in the summer, we love presenting Jazz on the Plazz; however, this venue allows us to fulfill the goal of LGM&A’s mission. Our mission is to take kids on their musical journey and allow them to play with professional jazz musicians. We host 50 to 100 young musicians each year in a lecture-lab as well as hands on.
“The board consists of three people: Teri Hope, the founder, with board members Ginger Taylor McDonald and I. We are all unpaid,” Knowles explained. “We take great pride in offering lectures and lab workshops to students every year and we hope this will help them have a more meaningful musical journey.”
LGM&A also supports various programs including Turn-A-Around Scholarships, Special Games and youth leadership and community service clubs at area schools. Quoting Knowles again: “This is the reason that we do Jazz on the Plazz. For a young musician this is the opportunity of a young lifetime, to jam with professionals, and to support various youth causes.”
Knowles added, “The-three member board coordinates these workshops and we operate very efficiently. We are in year 23 of offering music and arts to students, hopefully helping to guide their musical journey. The attendees get to engage onstage and interface with professional jazz musicians.” Workshops are held around the South Bay, sometimes in private homes or rented venues. LGM&A coordinates and supports.
At Friday’s concert closing Chris Brubeck said, “Jazz is freedom, a beautiful representation of musical democracy. In Poland jazz clubs were underground and they were not allowed to show much appreciation for it or the government would shut it down. We have found that in the more oppressed countries artistic freedom was limited, and in these times may God help us all.”
