Dave Brubeck, The Very Best

Label: Sony Music Entertainment (UK)
Year: 2000
Released on LP: No
Released on CD: Yes

Tracks

1. Unsquare Dance
2. Take Five
3. Bossa Nova U.S.A.
4. Mr. Broadway
5. Trolley Song
6. Blue Rondo à la Turk
7. Camptown Races
8. The Duke
9. Three To Get Ready
10. Somewhere
11. In Your Own Sweet Way
12. There'll Be Some Changes Made
13. Fujiyama
14. It's A Raggy Waltz
15. La Paloma Azul

Notes

Performers

Dave Brubeck
Eugene Wright
Norman Bates
Salvador "Rabito" Agueros
Joe Dodge
Joe Morello
Benjamin "Chamin" Correa
Paul Desmond
Jimmy Rushing

Reviews

Amazon.co.uk - copyright

A generation ago Brubeck was largely dismissed as an unswinging pianist with a vulgar preoccupation with odd time-signatures. Now he is a senatorial figure whose work is celebrated as much as it used to be reviled. On this evidence the contemporary view is fair. Brubeck could be heavy-handed, and some of his 1960s work was undoubtedly pretentious; on the other hand, he had considerable harmonic imagination, constantly surprised with his delicate melodiousness, and could generate prodigious swing. Moreover, in Paul Desmond he enjoyed the services of a top-class alto saxophonist who was also a deeply sympathetic spirit. Here they are joined on all but one of the 15 tracks by Brubeck's finest rhythm section, bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello, and the programme, in addition to memorialising old favourites, includes Brubeck's excellent compositions "The Duke", "Mr. Broadway" and "In Your Own Sweet Way" and offers intriguing readings of "Camptown Races" and "Trolley Song". Strongly recommended to anyone new to Brubeck, the CD will please his dedicated fans too.

Richard Palmer