BRUBECK: Songs Choice Online

With this recording we are hearing the original version of The Dream Keeper, heretofore known only as a composition for four-part chorus. In fact Dave had originally set Langston Hughes’ moving and inspirational text as a duet. In So Lonely, Dave Brubeck begins with a lone vocal line, later joined by the piano and a second voice, ultimately forming a beautifully meandering – almost living – fabric of sound. The flowing, unfolding music of Dave Brubeck, together with the moving Langston Hughes texts, seems to conjure a picture of people moving together through this life toward a common goal. The centre piece of this recording is the unaccompanied Tao, borrowed from The Futility of Contention of the Tao te Ching, the oldest scripture of Buddhist Taoism. Dave Brubeck sent his manuscript to me along with the following handwritten note: ‘This has been laying around the house for decades and so I thought I’d send it to you. You could sing it as a duet with your wife, or she can sing it or you can sing it. You can change the key if you want to… another option… throw it in the garbage!’ Needless to say, I did not choose his last option. He employs the pentatonic oriental scale as a pedestal for the simple, yet profound words of Lao Tsu. Using the range of but one octave, his unhurried rising and falling vocal line seems to mirror the tenets set forth in the ancient writing. This recording also captures Dave Brubeck at the height of his creative powers as an improvisational pianist. His improvisational accompaniments are so varied that it often seemed like each take was an entirely new composition. During the recording sessions, I frequently became so engrossed in his improvisatory introductions and bridges that I forgot my entrances. Once when this happened, he said with that inimitable twinkle in his eye, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll look at you when it’s time for you to come in’.