Breaking all the rules
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Pianist, composer and jazzman Dave Brubeck shows off his pianist's hands.
Dave Brubeck ignored the establishment and became a major force on the jazz scene
By Tim Ryan
Star-BulletinDAVE Brubeck looks nothing like a troublemaker. Sitting on the lanai of "my favorite hotel room in Hawaii" - the New Otani - Brubeck, 77, seems almost too easygoing. He's soft-spoken as a whisper and quite relaxed in his brown slacks, black shoes and red aloha shirt.
Easygoing until you ask him the secret behind his best known single, "Take 5" from the equally successful "Time Out" album.
"Never listen to a record company's sales department," Brubeck says, chuckling at his disdain for authority. "Columbia Records didn't want to put the album out when we finished it. I broke every one of their unwritten laws: a painting on the cover, not a photograph; all original tunes, no standards; no songs to dance to."
"The only guy at Columbia who had any musical sense and supported us was the president, who also was a musician."
Despite the album's immense popularity, it took the record company a year to release "Take 5" as a single.
"They were determined to prove themselves right and me wrong," Brubeck said. "I was right."
Brubeck, a major force on the jazz scene since the late '40s, takes center stage at Blaisdell Concert Hall tomorrow and Saturday when the Honolulu Symphony presents "Take 5 - The Very Best of Dave Brubeck," featuring the jazz master, his sons Daniel and Christopher, and conductor Russell Gloyd. The program features Brubeck classics, original compositions and jazz standards.
The musician has a special love for Hawaii, having vacationed and performed here several times. In a few days Brubeck and his wife will move to a oceanfront suite at the Halekulani Hotel, a Symphony sponsor. In 1951 his trio, including Cal Tjader, played Waikiki's Zebra Room. Those were the days when Brubeck could be persuaded to play the ukulele.
"Oh boy was I bad, just awful," he said, laughing. "I used to sit under a big tree right over there and listen to the Kalima Brothers for hours every night. They were so great."
Farther down the beach near the Halekulani Hotel, on a summer day some 40 years ago, Brubeck nearly killed himself. He loved to run along the beach, catch a shore-break wave, then skid along on his body. On one wave, the breaker disappeared and a shallow sandbar popped up.
"I turned my neck and damn near broke it," he said. "I was paralyzed."
Brubeck spent 21 days in Tripler Hospital, mostly in traction. The doctor released him only an the condition that he not leave Oahu and swim daily for a month.
"It still hurts," Brubeck said, rubbing his neck.
Brubeck still swims whenever he's home, in an indoor pool in the Connecticut house he shares with his wife of 55 years, Iola. The 6-foot, 163-pound musician also walks five miles a day and rides a stationary bike with an electric piano attached to the handle bars.
David Warren Brubeck was born in Concord, Calif. Initially taught piano by his mother, Brubeck began performing with professional jazz groups at age 13.
"Jazz keeps alive what classical let die: improvisation," he said. "People think there's this great difference between jazz and classical music. I've worked with both people and when it comes to really understanding music I'd put the edge with the jazz composer/improviser."
At the College of the Pacific in Stockton, he created a 12-piece band, but spent lots of time studying music theory and composition. After graduating, Brubeck continued his formal classical training at Mills College, then served 46 months under Gen. George Patton during World War II.
When he returned home, Brubeck formed his first serious jazz group, the "Jazz Workshop Ensemble," an eight-piece unit that became the Dave Brubeck Octet. In 1949, he created his first trio, with Tjader and Norman Bates. But it was in 1951 that Brubeck began receiving major acclaim with the addition of saxophonist Paul Desmond.
The quartet lasted 16 years, until Desmond left. Brubeck formed a new group in 1972 with his three sons.
But central to Brubeck's success was his musical relationship with Desmond, who composed the group's 1959 classic "Take Five" and deftly illustrated an extraordinary gift for melodic improvisation. Brubeck has always seen himself mainly as a composer rather than a pianist. In his own solos he relies greatly on his ability to work in complex time signatures, sometimes two at once.
Despite his age and a touch of frailty, Brubeck performs as many as 80 concerts a year - he just returned from the Soviet Union - and composes daily. On the dresser of his hotel room is a Casio electric piano and several sheets of paper with musical notes scribbled.
"I'm writing pieces from eight poems by Langston Hughes that will be performed with inner city kids from Trenton, N.J., and Princeton students," Brubeck said. "Everyday I try to write, even if I'm not working on a specific project. It's just a part of my day.
"Staying excited is easy when you work on projects that are interesting."
Dave Brubeck with the Honolulu Symphony
Show times: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday
