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 ... !):-/