Dave Brubeck – A Tribute

Dave Brubeck, jazz pianist and composer died on the 5th of December 2012, just one day short of his 92nd birthday. With his loss we have had to say goodbye to the last remaining Jazz great from the Golden Age of Jazz.

 

Though much younger than such jazz icons as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie or Duke Ellington, Brubeck belonged to the generation of Jazz musicians who came to the fore in the 50s and 60s through Cool Jazz. Though he never played with Miles Davis (Davis was born in 1926, Brubeck in 1920), he was his contemporary, and this vanguard of artists were the ones who made jazz a popular art form in the late 50’s and 60′ – a period that can now regarded as the heyday of jazz, when Jazz musicians might be on the cover of magazines, spotted in St Tropez and sought after for interviews.

 

Dave Brubeck is most commonly associated with the music of his famous quartet, which featured Paul Desmond on Alto Sax, Joe Morello on drums and either Eugene Wright or Joe Benjamin on Bass. The line-up featuring Brubeck and Desmond was active from 1952 till 1968, and the so-called Classic Quartet mentioned earlier was together from 1958 – 1968. The quartet wrote jazz history with the release of the classic album Time Out in 1959, which included the jazz hit Take Five (which was written in 5/4 time). Although Brubeck wrote almost all the compositions for the quartet, it is ironic that the tune they are most identified with, Take Five, was actually penned by Desmond. The album consisted of tunes in odd time signatures, and the label, Columbia, had to actually be talked into releasing the album, as they thought it was far too advanced for the listening public!  The follow-up album, Time Further Out, also included the hit Unsquare Dance (in 7/4 time). Brubeck and Desmond were musically, on paper at least, an unlikely paring. Desmond, lyrical and soft, Brubeck rhythmic and, as his critics would point out, at time thunderous and heavy-handed. But opposites clearly attracted and this musical partnerhsip created some of the most wonderful music of the 20th century.

 

 

When I started learning jazz, and started playing Brubeck’s pieces, I often struggled playing the left hand – I could not imagine how anyone could play such large intervals. Some years later I went to see Brubeck play (this was in the last 90s) in Frankfurt, and my Dad persuaded the security people to allow us backstage, and I could meet the great man. He was incredibly friendly and courteous, even though endless scores of people wanted to meet him. And I got to shake his hand, and suddenly the riddle of how he could play those patterns in the left hand was solved. Brubeck had the most enormous hands, and had he been English, he would have made a great slip fielder in cricket. He also signed my favourite cd of his quartet: Jazz Themes of Eurasia. My mother said that when she heard that Paul Desmond had died (aged 52 in 1977) she cried – I would have only been two years old, so cannot remember this. But I can recall feeling a similar shock when my piano playing heroes Kenny Kirkland and Esbjörn Svenson died before their time. When musicians are lost to the world far too early in their lifetime, there is a real sense of loss, of what could have been. With Dave Brubeck we can celebrate a lifetime of achievement, and salute and say farewell to the last remaining Jazz greats.

 

Thank you for all the great music, Dave.

 

Lincoln Jaeger

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The Selmer Cigar Cutter – A Classic Sax (Buying An Alto Saxophone)

Hi Everyone

I recently had the good fortune to buy a new alto sax. Well I say buy, I was actually trading/exchanging my beloved Yanagisawa s880 soprano sax for an alto. As my soprano was in good nick (though 15 years old) the plan was to trade it (hopefully) for something equally good 2nd hand, or pay a bit extra for a brand new sax.

Why was I getting rid of my soprano though? Well, I never really had the time to play it properly, and the soprano sax, let me tell you, is not the sort of instrument you can just occasionally have a blow on: it needs serious dedication. The intonation is a pain to get right, and it is very difficult not to make a sound like a squeezed duck. Even one of my favourite saxophonists, Branford Marsalis, in my opinion has certain duck-like qualities in his soprano sound, so what chance do I have to make the instrument sound good? Unless you play it all the time, it can seriously hurt your jaw, as the pressure you have to apply to get to the high notes is quite extreme.

So anyway, should I get a new sax or a second hand one, and how much would I get for my soprano? Well, saxophones are a bit like 2nd hand cars, there is little point in buying a new one, as a well maintained second hand sax gives you much, much better value for money, and horns last a very, very long time: dents, scratches, pads: all can be fixed and repaired (unless you decided to drive over your sax with a 2nd hand car, then it will only be good for hanging on the wall ;-).

But where to start? I stumbled across a very quirky sax repair shop just down the road from me in Hove (that’s on the English South Coast). The guy who runs it, Rupert Noble, is quite a character: deeply passiontae and highly knowledgeable about horns (here is Rupert with some off his many vintage saxes).

You won’t find a single new horn in his shop, but many vintage ones and many others that are currently being repaired. Whilst I was in his workshop a very happy succesion of musicians came and went to have a chat, a cup of tea, try out some horns, and have broken ones repaired or serviced. Someone should write a book about this place. To say it has character is an understatmenet. Anyway, moving on, I got to try out (i.e. submit poor Rupert to my very rusty sax playing) some vintage, basic Yamaha altos, an old Toneking (Keilwerth), SML (Strasser-Marigaux), vintage Yanagisawa (though they were sold under a different name in the US) and a Selmer Cigar Cutter (a.k.a. Pea Shooter, Super). The Yamahas were very easy to blow, but lacked a little character, but are highly recommended for beginners as the tone production was simple and easy. The three others were all different, each with their own personality. I was going to have to come back for a second try to decided which one I might want to purchase.

A day later I headed up to London to check out some brand new horns, just for comparison, and some nearly new ones. A Selmer Mark VII (Circia 1981), new Yanagisawa A901 and various new Yamaha Models.

The difference between the nearly new/new and vintage saxes was indescribable. The vintage saxes at Rupert’s shop had warmth, character and sheer class, whereas the new ones felt like playing a piece of plastic. Now the sax isn’t my first instrument but even I could tell these differences immediately. The contrast between the Selmer Mark VII (circa 1981) and The Selmer Cigar Cutter (circa 1930), was especially interesting to note. Here were two saxes form the same maker, one sounded like a playground toy (Mark VII), the other like a work of art (Cigar Cutter). Yet the Mark VII was substantially more expensive. The only very slight downside was that the Cigar Cutter had its lacquer coming off – in fact it looked as though it had been re-lacquered at some point in its life, and this was now coming off. But to anyone contemplating buying a vintage sax: this does not matter one bit. In fact some argue that saxes sound better with the lacquer removed. If need be you can have the whole sax stripped of its lacquer or even have it subsequently re-lacquered: but if the sound is great, don’t mess with it.

Amongst sax players it is a well known fact that Selmer seem to have stopped making good saxes some time in the 70s. The theories as to why this may be abound (just check out various internet forums on this), but logic tells me that more and more machines were used to finish the products, rather than using expensive craftsmen, corners and quality of materials were cut in production, etc, and suddenly you have a less superior horn.

So in the end it was the Selmer Cigar Cutter I went for. It seems to have layers and layers of sound in it, and suited my more soft sound on the sax very well. After all, my hero Paul Desmond played a Selmer Alto, though a Super Balanced Action (circa 1951), so a model 20 years younger. Here is my new pride and joy:

The reason why that particular version of Selmers altos were nick-named Cigar Cutters or Pea Shooter is due to the design of the octave mechanism (see picture). Their official seris name is “Super”. The Super series ran from 1931 to 1935 and was followed by the Balanced Action Series.

So anyone contemplating buying a vintage sax: go for it, as long as you can try it out first (never buy any instrument without trying it out first) and buy it from a reputable shop.

Oh and by the way, playing an alto or tenor is a million times easier than paying the soprano.

Hope that was useful :-).

Lincoln Jaeger

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