Back to overview David Warren "Dave" Brubeck, born 1920 in California, studied music among others with Darius Milhaud and Arnold Schönberg. While still a student, Brubeck founded an Octet. In 1949 Brubeck started a trio, which he expanded to a quartet in 1951 and spent several years playing only jazz standards. In 1954 Brubeck appeared as the first musician after Louis Armstrong on the cover of Time Magazine. Then he formed the Dave Brubeck Quartet. In 1959 he led his brother, Howard Brubeck's, "Dialogue for Jazz Combo and Symphony" with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. At the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival he interpreted his "Elementals" for quartet and symphony orchestra; the same year he gave a concert at the White House.
He gave concerts in about 80 cities per year. Brubeck composed numerous jazz standards, but Paul Desmond, his longtime musical partner, wrote the assuredly most famous piece of the Dave Brubeck Quartet: "Take Five."
Photos: © C. Bechstein Archiv
