This Can’t Be Love – Bossa Nova to Beguine 40 Years Later
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009As I’ve mentioned in several of my blog posts, my musical preferences shifted from popular music to jazz while I was in high school. In my efforts to develop my skills at the keyboard, I sought out musical models by listening to records as well as jazz radio stations. Because I grew up in Westchester County, I lived close enough to the Big Apple that it was possible to get to New York City by car or train within about an hour.
One of the benefits to being near this cultural hub was that my early exposure to jazz included some transformational experiences that have had an impact on my entire musical career. Sometime between attending the two concerts that I wrote about in my Summer in Central Park Brings Memories of Great Music blog post, a friend of mine introduced me to the music of the Dave Brubeck Quartet.
In addition to sharing some of his Brubeck LPs with me, he and his father invited me to attend one of the Quartet’s concerts held at Lincoln Center during the ensemble’s Take Five heyday period. Needless to say, as an impressionable young pianist, I was blown away by the performance.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that Brubeck (often with long-time partner saxophonist Paul Desmond) had an extensive discography that featured interpretations of the standards of the American Popular Songbook. Even though two of my three Brubeck records fit into this category, it was only much later that I realized how important this contribution was.