Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Indiana
2. Perdido
3. Take The 'A' Train
4. Le Souk
5. Audrey
6. The Duke
7. In Your Own Sweet Way
8. Weep No More
9. Some Day My Prince Will Come
10. Tangerine
11. Brandenburg Gate
12. Three To Get Ready
13. Blue Rondo A La Turk
14. There'll Be Some Changes Made

Disc 2:

1. Take Five
2. Maria
3. It's A Raggy Waltz
4. Unsquare Dance
5. Kathy's Waltz
6. Travelin' Blues
7. Summer Song
8. That Old Black Magic
9. Bossa Nova U.S.A.
10. Autumn In Washington Square
11. Theme From 'Mr. Broadway'
12. La Paloma Azul
13. Recuerdo
14. Caravan
15. Stardust
16. Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?
17. Love For Sale

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54114 in Music
• Released on: 2003-03-25
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered

Album Description
Dave Brubeck is a member of that charmed circle of improvising artists whose popularity is commensurate with his musical accomplishments. He has for nearly half a century been a major figure as pianist, composer, and leader of perhaps the most widely known and well-traveled quartet in the history of jazz. THE ESSENTIAL DAVE BRUBECK provides the ideal survey course in Brubeck Time with 31 tracks from 24 albums, spanning 53 years!

Customer Reviews

damaged
Case was cracked when it arrived, but I know from past experience if I try to return it I will get a restocking charge. This is not my first bad experience with Amazon, gave 'em a second chance, no more.

" Not essential " Dave Brubeck
This " essential Dave Brubeck " tracks were selected by Dave Brubeck himself,therin lies the problem with this cd.
The true genius behind the band was Paul Desmond with his wonderful compositions and beautiful sax playing. Tony Morello is to my mind the best drummer I have ever heard. I enjoy Wright on bass too.All this is on disc 2
I can only describe Brubecks's playing as plodding, mainly on disc 1. He is a brilliant at comping,and good at writing, but as a soloist he is not up to par with his band mates.This is of course in my view, as many would disagree.
I rate disc number 1 as zero and disc number 2 as five, so I gave the average as three.
I have just thrown out disc 1, as I have never gotten to like it, even after many listening attempts.

Essential, perhaps, but hardly adequate
Brubeck's greatest popularity occurred during his association with Columbia Records, and this collection certainly documents some of the commercial and artistic highlights of this productive period. Particularly heartening is the inclusion of three tracks from the "Brubeck Plays Brubeck" solo piano album, including his exceptional improvisation on "In Your Own Sweet Way," an original that subsequently became a jazz standard. Still, this sampler does not include enough of the early work to dispell three widely held misconceptions: 1. that Brubeck and Desmond (or Brubeck and any other soloist) would regain the extraordinary chemistry of the 1950's quartet; 2. that the studio sessions, beginning with "Time Out," were equal if not superior to the earlier college concert dates; 3. that Brubeck's later experiments with time signatures represented an advance over his earlier adventurousness with melody, harmony, meter.

Neither Brubeck nor Desmond ever played with more in-the-moment inspired inventiveness than on their live 1950's dates. The excitement ensuing from their empathy with one another as well as their reactiveness to the palpable encouragement of their audiences was a singular moment in jazz history. In fact, during the 1950's they were to small-group modern jazz and its adherents what the Benny Goodman Big Band had been to attentive young listeners in the 1930s. The "Essential Dave Brubeck" provides only four examples from this fertile period, barely enough to whet the appetite. Moreover, the selections appear to be more abitrary than representative of this highly-charged edition of the quartet at its very best.

If you really want the essential Brubeck, be sure to supplement this collection with the '63 Carnegie Hall Concert but also with the earlier "Jazz at Oberlin" and "Jazz Goes to College." If the superior heat, intensity, and risk-taking extemporaneousness of these sessions recommend them over the later, more tepid, recordings, look next for "Jazz at the College of the Pacific, Volumes 1 and 2."