Time Out

In the spirit of my recent break I've been listening to the Dave Brubeck Quartet's iconic album Time Out on my new record player.  Featuring eccentric time signatures and broad minded melodies, the album is a classic.  My personal favourite is either the Balkan (Zeybek) themed Blue Rondo a la Turk in 9/8 and 5/4 time or the signatureless Strange Meadow Lark but the most critically notable track is certainly Take Five.

I've always been a fan of his music, but as you can see from this article in Jazz Times, he's also quite the character:

“One morning I woke up and I heard somebody playing Beethoven on my piano, by memory. It was a roadie for my son Chris’ band. I said, ‘My God, this kid who’s a roadie can play better classical piano than I’ll ever play.’ Just looking at these kids kind of turned me off but I started thinking, don’t judge people by their hair and how they’re dressed. Pretty quick I had long hair.” 

Iola Brubeck, Dave's wife of 67 years is also a formidable force behind his career, having been both his partner and the mother to his children:

“I was a stay-at-home mom until everybody was out of the nest. But I also worked with Dave. When he was traveling with our sons, I did all the booking for traveling and took care of the business. Some people give me credit for getting Dave started [playing on] college campuses. I don’t think it was that I was so smart. I like to eat!”

A Political Statement, of Sorts

On a pair of hanging lamps in the living room:

Dave: “Iola, did I bring these from Iraq or Iran?”

Iola: “From Iraq but they’re falling apart, like Iraq is.” 
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