DAVE BRUBECK, d. December 5, 2012

Dave Brubeck died yesterday at the age of 91.  I think there was no other musician who gave me a sense of what the 1960's could be about. listening to his very sophisticated use of 5/4 time in "Take Five" or his other famous jazz pieces, "Blue Rondo a la Turk," "Three To Get Ready," "Bossa Nova USA," etc.

Even though he was almost as old as my parents, I thought of him as an ultra-cool almost-contemporary, expressing both youth and sophistication at the same time with his extraordinary music.  I thought both he and I would live forever.  Reading about his death abruptly jerks me into the reality of knowing how much older I am now, as when the person you once knew as a baby now stands before you as a college graduate, or even a parent herself!

My musical tastes and preferences have changed over the years, from rock 'n' roll, to soul, to beach music, to the Beatles & Stones, to bluegrass, to (traditional) country, to psychedelic, to Little Feat, to Big Band, to jazz, etc.  Those are not sharp delineations, they all just "evolved" into each other.  (I NEVER liked rap "music"!)  But, I have always enjoyed listening to Brubeck.  Now, I somehow find myself smack in the middle of trying to sell blues music in a shrinking market, knowing I'll never be as good a sax player as Jr. Walker or Paul Desmond.  Instead, I SHOULD just be collecting my Social Security, taking my numerous pills and trying to figure out which Medicare supplemental insurance plan to choose by December 7!  And, with frost on the ground, there is definitely going to be a "nip" in the air tomorrow!  (I never liked doing what I SHOULD!)

Thanks to modern technology, Dave Brubeck's music will live forever, even as he has died.  I am just amazed that my iPod, smaller than a soft book of matches, stores over 3500 songs!  Some of those songs and albums are Dave Brubeck's music.  I can and will be listening to Dave, until I die.

December 6, 2012.