I've NEVER thought of Dave Brubeck in that way. I first heard him live here in Clemson in 1955 and really enjoyed hearing him. I liked his <div>rhythms and complications. I heard him again in Key West in the late 80's and he was even better. I guess all of us have different opinions.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Anita</div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 3:56 PM, David Pelletier <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:promonde@aol.com" target="_blank">promonde@aol.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div>Gee, how PC are you?<br><br>Sent from my iPhone</div><div><div class="h5"><div><br>On Dec 5, 2012, at 2:58 PM, "Robert Merkin" <<a href="mailto:bobmerk@earthlink.net" target="_blank">bobmerk@earthlink.net</a>> wrote:<br>
<br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype">Nil nisi bono de
mortuis.</font></div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype"></font> </div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype">Beyond his freakish finger span -- I
think he could play a 12th -- Brubeck filled a very undistinguished niche in
jazz. He produced a "safe," unsurprising product that white
college-educated audiences felt comfortable consuming. It was also "television
safe" because with very few exceptions, USA commercial networks took
decades to broadcast African-American (Negroes in those days) artists.
</font></div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype"></font> </div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype">(Only Hefner's "Playboy After Dark"
featured integrated or black jazz artists; it was a syndicated show never
broadcast in the racially segregated South.)</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype">With his "revolutionary" and whack
time signatures, Brubeck's work was European//classically sophisticated -- but
soulless. He seemed to view improvisation -- the heart of jazz -- as a slovenly
embarrassment; there's not a measure of improvisation in his super-selling
breakthrough albums.</font></div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype"></font> </div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype">That's why saxophonist Paul
Desmond deserted the DB Quartet. He knew Brubeck wasn't playing jazz and never
would. Desmond and Gerry Mulligan were the only white contemporaries of Brubeck
who "got it," who seamlessly recorded with black artists.</font></div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype"></font> </div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype">I'm sorry to say that in the USA
1950s, genuine, historical-roots black jazz and R&B scared white Americans.
It was spontaneous, energetic, exciting, thrilling, and worst of all, highly
sexual, its sexual references only thinly veiled with puns and jokes. That
didn't matter until the 1960s, because none of the major recording labels would
touch black artists; their brilliant (and naughty) work got its limited airplay
and sales on "race" labels sold only in the black ghettos.</font></div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype"></font> </div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype">Brubeck got all that airplay and
filled stadiums because his stuff wasn't very challenging, contained
references to respectable classical music, and didn't
frighten white kids (or their parents who snooped to hear what the kids
were listening to).</font></div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype"></font> </div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype">Brubeck didn't invent this niche. In
previous decades, Paul Whiteman (and no white man was more aptly named)
sanitized George Gershwin's jazz derivitives for white audiences, and in the
'40s Benny Goodman did the same. Goodman actually featured African-American
musicians in his band (I don't think Glenn Miller did).</font></div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype"></font> </div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype">It's easy to blame the big
labels and radio and television networks as the villains of this sad
American history, but it was the timidity and conformity of white consumers
which did most of the harm. (It was rock's "scholars" like the Rolling
Stones, Eric Clapton and the early Beatles who re-discovered historical
African-American jazz and blues for white audiences.) </font></div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype"></font> </div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype">Europeans weren't so timid. During
the Nazi era, Germans (Berliners mostly) braved the concentration camp to
smuggle in black American jazz records, and during the Soviet era Eastern
Europeans would risk the gulags to listen to their beloved jazz. This was,
after all, depraved and decadent Western music.</font></div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype"></font> </div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype">I've often wondered if I'd have the
guts to risk prison to listen to my favorite music. But for decades thousands
did -- and I suspect in some "Great Firewall" places, people still
do.</font></div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype"></font> </div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype">Bob</font></div>
<div><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype">Massachusetts USA</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT:#000000 2px solid;PADDING-LEFT:5px;PADDING-RIGHT:0px;MARGIN-LEFT:5px;MARGIN-RIGHT:0px">
<div style="FONT:10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="FONT:10pt arial;BACKGROUND:#e4e4e4"><b>From:</b>
<a title="Kpapademas@aol.com" href="mailto:Kpapademas@aol.com" target="_blank">Kpapademas@aol.com</a> </div>
<div style="FONT:10pt arial"><b>To:</b> <a title="f_minor@glenngould.org" href="mailto:f_minor@glenngould.org" target="_blank">f_minor@glenngould.org</a> </div>
<div style="FONT:10pt arial"><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, December 05, 2012 12:31
PM</div>
<div style="FONT:10pt arial"><b>Subject:</b> [f_minor] Take Five</div>
<div><br></div><font color="#000000" face="Arial">
<div>The passing of Dave Brubeck, 91 years old!</div>
<div> </div>
<div><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-dave-brubeck-dead-20121205,0,7126256.column" target="_blank">http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-dave-brubeck-dead-20121205,0,7126256.column</a></div>
<div> </div>
<div>Take Five!</div>
<div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=faJE92phKzI" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=faJE92phKzI</a></div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>K</div>
<div> </div></font>
<p>
</p><p></p><br></blockquote>
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