Dave Brubeck at Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI 5/13/06
Although I played the saxophone in jazz band as a high school student, it wasn't until I was in my mid-twenties that I developed a significant interest in listening to jazz music, with John Coltrane being my starting point.
I especially enjoy hearing live performances, so it was a distinct pleasure to attend a Dave Brubeck concert at historic Hill Auditorium on the campus of the University of Michigan.
The concert was also a tribute to Brubeck, the iconic pianist and composer, who received the University Musical Society's Distinguished Artist Award at the end of the show.
The performance included the Dave Brubeck Quartet, currently featuring Bobby Militello on alto saxphone and flute, Michael Moore on bass, and Randy Jones on drums. Backing up the quartet for the entire performance was the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra.
My wife surprised me with the tickets a few days before the show. She wasn't very familiar with Brubeck's music, but had been around me and my jazz collection long enough to recognize the name. Somehow, the whole thing had slipped under my radar - I hadn't heard anything about the concert being scheduled. In fact, I wasn't even aware that Brubeck was still touring. After all, the guy is eighty-five years old.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet first played Hill Auditorium in 1954, at which time a portion of their breakthrough album Jazz Goes To College was recorded. Hill is a wonderful venue for live music, with superb acoustics and sightlines. Even from our seats, tucked away in an upper corner of the balcony, the clear sound and unobstructed view were impressive. The auditorium was built in 1913 and recently received a major renovation.
I wasn't sure what to expect from this show, given the fact that the program listed mostly Brubeck's classical compositions, with which I wasn't familiar. Also, I wasn't sure if his advanced age would work against him.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Brubeck took the stage with a slightly unsteady gait, but then proceeded to play with the grace and dexterity of a man half (or a quarter) his age. Although he laid back in the mix, preferring to showcase his sidemen, he threw in enough flourishes and short solos to dispel any doubts about his current proficiency.
The classical compositions included excerpts from Brubeck's 1968 work, The Light in the Wilderness, which featured son Chris Brubeck on trombone during the middle section, "The Sermon on the Mount". The proceedings got a bit out of hand once the combined choirs of the UMS Choral Union and the First Presbyterian Church were added to the symphony and jazz combo, but this was a lifetime tribute, after all. If Mr. Brubeck wanted a choir, he was going to be given one.
The climax of the show was the one-two punch of the most famous pieces from the massively influential 1959 album TIme Out: "Blue Rondo a la Turk", and "Take Five". Both tunes employ complex time signatures and rhythmic changes that were quite avant-garde when originally released. "Blue Rondo", being classically influenced in its original version, was perfectly suited for orchestral backup, and the Ann Arbor Symphony pulled it off flawlessly. The show closer, "Take Five" -- ironically, the only non-Brubeck composition on the tribute program, it was penned by the late saxophonist Paul Desmond -- was the Dave Brubeck Quartet's most famous song, and has become one of the most recognizable jazz tunes of the modern era. On this night, it was a crowd-pleaser (as expected), and the orchestral arrangement worked favorably (not quite so expected), with the strings playing in unison on the melody lines with the alto sax.
After receiving his Distinguished Artist Award, and a well-deserved standing ovation, Brubeck returned to the grand piano for the encore, the Billy Strayhorn standard, "Take the 'A' Train".
As my wife and I were descending the balcony stairs after the performance, herded along with the flow of the capacity crowd, I overheard a young student talking excitedly on his cell phone: "Hey, I'm on my way out of the show . . . dude, not to rub it in or anything, but you just missed, like, the best concert ever." That was, perhaps, a bit of an exaggeration. But in the post-show vibe that night, it didn't sound at all unreasonable. Not just any musician can produce those kind of feelings.