composing partners' blog

On "TSF Jazz" radio, I came across "The Duke", a huge tribute by pianist and composer Dave Brubeck who wrote this song in 1958 to another great pianist I let you guess the name ...
Brubeck has enchanted my youth, I saw him ten years ago (at least) on stage, in Créteil (near Paris); Paul Desmond his wonderful sax was not there, alas, he died too soon. That day he was accompanied by a singer ... his daughter! The same thick glasses, but the white hair; Another time, another performance (a little disappointing) ...

I found again this wonderful version, with its fantastic chords. Let us not forget that Brubeck was a student, as other jazz composers (Quincy Jones, Astor Piazzola, etc.), of "The Boulanger" (Nadia, of course, the French teacher, her sister having died too young too).

And here's another version, (not as good, unfortunately, this is not the Newport version !), but it is still "The Duke", played by Brubeck himself. It has been uploaded on Youtube, but this is not a video, there's only music, and picture of the composer at that time ... !):-/

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(Published by The New York Time: June 25, 2009)
DONGGAOCUN, China — Perhaps the only thing more aurally challenging than a roomful of novice violinists screeching their way through “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is a roomful of novice violinists screeching along on out-of-tune instruments.



Violin lessons in Donggaocun, about an hour’s drive from downtown Beijing. The town manufactures string instruments.

“Stop,” Chen Yiming shouted to her students, an enthusiastic bunch, ages 8 to 47. “Can we please pay attention to our instruments and make sure they are tuned correctly?”
After a short break for adjustments, the cacophony resumed.
Violin fever has hit this drab rural township with hundreds of residents, young and old, picking up the bow as Donggaocun tries to position itself as the string instrument capital of China.
Once known primarily for its abundant peach harvest, the town, about an hour’s drive from downtown Beijing, has become one of the world’s most prodigious manufacturers of inexpensive cellos, violas, violins and double basses. Last year the town’s 9 factories and 150 small workshops made 250,000 instruments, most of them ending up in the hands of students in the United States, Britain and Germany.

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