Dave Brubeck, Richard Avedon, and Me...

Dave Brubeck Trio (1960)) signed by Dave

Newport 1958 (1958) signed by Dave, Joe Morello

There's a way of playing safe, there's a way of using tricks and there's the way I like to play which is dangerously, where you're going to take a chance on making mistakes in order to create something you haven't created before.

               Dave Brubeck

Jazz Impressions Of The U.S.A. (1957) signed by Dave, Joe Morello

In Europe (1958) signed by Dave, Joe Morello

Brubeck Plays Brubeck (1956) signed by Dave

Jazz stands for freedom. It's supposed to be the voice of freedom. Get out there and improvise, and take chances and don't be a perfectionist - leave that to the classical musicians.

               Dave Brubeck

Dave Brubeck Octet (1950) signed by Dave

Southern Scene (1960) signed by Dave, Joe Morello

Dave Brubeck is best known for his song "Take Five", the first jazz single to sell one million copies when it was released in 1959 - a nearly impossible feat for a jazz song then, and especially now. Though Dave was a prolific composer and wrote many jazz standards - "In Your Own Sweet Way", "The Duke", "Blue Rondo a la Turk" - "Take Five' was written by Paul Desmond, his longtime colleague and superlative alto saxophonist. The song derived its name from the unusual 5/4 time in which it was played. Interestingly, when Desmond died of lung cancer in 1977, he left all "Take Five" royalties to the American Red Cross, a nice stream of recurring revenues, I'm sure.

Time Out (1959) signed by Dave, Joe Morello

One night at the Blue Note in New York City, I was visiting with Dave after a concert and I asked him about the album cover shot by legendary photographer Richard Avedon for Jazz: Red Hot And Cool, released in 1955 on Columbia Records. I remarked that the model was wearing a beautiful red dress. He corrected me, "That was no dress. That was a piece of fabric that was draped (strategically) over her." While Dave looks and plays straight ahead, Paul Desmond's attention and focus is elsewhere.

Red Hot And Cool 1955) signed by Brubeck, photo by Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon, a fashion and portrait photographer at Harper's Bizarre and Vogue for decades, also took portraits of Barbra Streisand, Simon & Garfunkel, Lena Horne, Sly & The Family Stone, and The Beatles for album covers. Avedon once said, "All photographs are accurate. None of them are the truth." He must not have been thinking about his Brubeck and Desmond photo on Jazz: Red Hot And Cool. It is a perfect metaphor for the two jazz men's disparate lives. Dave Brubeck, a teetotaler who never took drugs, was a devoted father and husband. Brubeck stares cheerily ahead, past the remonstrances of his comely, barely dressed suitor. In contrast, Paul Desmond was a womanizer and a dissolute, drug abusing alcoholic who died from lung cancer. Not an unexpected outcome for a man who chain smoked and once said, "I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini." Paul Desmond stares exactly where you think he would, and Richard Avedon captured the truth in that photo.

Most days, I try to live like Dave Brubeck, but some days, I’d rather be Paul Desmond…

Bookends (1968) signed by Simon & Garfunkel, photography by Richard Avedon

The artistry of Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond and Richard Avedon colliding as they left enduring legacies of beauty in their works.

Brubeck a la mode (1960) signed by Dave, Joe Morello

Dave Digs Disney (1957) signed by Dave

Bossa Nova USA (1962) signed by Dave

Blues Roots (1969) signed by Dave

All The Things We Are (1973) signed by Brubeck, Roy Haynes, Lee Konitz

Choice Dave Brubeck Cuts (per BKs request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT9Eh8wNMkw
"Take Five"  Brubeck and Desmond, live in Belgium 1964

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcnSDOJoEbI
"La Paloma Azul (The Blue Dove)"  exquisite Mexican folk tune rendered by Brubeck, Desmond in Antibes, France 1967

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBFzLEMvi4M
"Someday My Prince Will Come"  Dave Digs Disney  1957

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYlO3H40V2o
"Somewhere Over The Rainbow"  Brubeck reinvents with beautiful chords and time changes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DXWJWkeVww
"Angel Eyes"  Dave Brubeck Quartet  1962

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9GgmGLPbWU
"Blue Rondo A La Turk"  Live, 1959

Gone With The Wind (1959) signed by Dave

Instant Brubeck (1969 reissue, 1954 recordings) signed by Dave

Dave Brubeck Paul Desmond (1982 reissue, 1952 recordings) signed by Dave

Jazz Impressions Of New York (1964) front cover, unsigned

Back cover signed by Dave

all signed albums from the Kirk vinyl collection  

copyright 2019