We're All Together Again For The First Time

 

Truth

We're All Together Again For The First Time

Produced by Dave Brubeck and Siegfried Loch

Photography: David Redfern

Cover Design: Stanislaw Zagorski

Production Coordinator: Ilhan Mimaroglu

Re-mixed at Atlantic Recording Studios, New York, N.Y.

Re-mix Engineer: Ilhan Mimaroglu

Atlantic Records SD 1641

1973

Truth, Unfinished Woman & Take Five were recorded on November 4, 1972 at the Philharmonie in Berlin.

Koto Song was recorded on October 26, 1972 at the Olympia Theatre in Paris.

Rotterdam Blues & Sweet Georgia Brown were recorded on October 28, 1972 at De Doelen in Rotterdam.

From the back cover: He has had it all: the swift rise from local acceptance (in San Francisco) to national prominence and worldwide acclaim; the poll victories year after year, the meetings with ambassadors and royalty, the Times cover story, the police escorts, the insatiable crowds who kept him playing encores and signing autographs long beyond the deadline.

When the quartet disbanded at the end of 1967 after 17 years of catalytic artistic achievement, Dave and Iola Brubeck worked together on their most serious challenges: a contemporary oratorio, "The Light In The Wilderness," its text adapted from the scriptures; and the cantata "Truth Is Fallen" with its heady mix of piano, rock group, soprano, chorus and the Cincinnati Symphony. No less moving than the cantata itself was the eloquent written statement that accompanied it, baring their souls in an assessment of the social, political, religious and musical significance of the cantata.

Brubeck's involvement with ambitious works as a composer on this scale has not induced him to sever ties with jazz – the music that elevated him to a level of security at which he could afford to devote his time to these new enterprises. And so, in the fall of 1973, by agreement with George Wein, he led one of the six combos that took to the road (or rather the skies) for yet another overseas Newport Jazz Festival tour.

His outline of the itinerary was enough to give the listener a severe case of jet lag. Running into him in Berlin (I tagged along with the Wein junket for a couple of weeks) I found Dave in a rare moment of relaxation at his hotel. "I'm so used to this kind of schedule it really doesn't faze me," he said. "We started in New Zealand, Australia and Japan; then after a brief stop in the United States we headed for Paris, London and a dozen other European dates.

"Parts of this tour are under State Department auspices, so in a sense history is repeating itself: you know, we were the first to play an Eastern European country for the U.S. government, when we went to Poland in 1958. This time around we're headed for Belgrade."

It was in Belgrade that we met again a few nights later. Dave's concert (this was one of several dates on which he split the bill with Charles Mingus's group) attracted a typically responsive, capacity crowd. The fans were perhaps a little older than at the U.S. jazz festival; U.S. Ambassador Malcolm Toon and his wife were present; the State Television cameras rolled.

Brubeck's program that night was substantially similar to the assembly of Berlin, Paris and Rotterdam tapings on these sides. The group was, in effect, a blend of the old quartet with Paul Desmond; the newer unit with Gerry Mulligan that has played together off an on since 1968; and, of course, the rare and delightful quintet sound distilled on the numbers involving both horns.

The Mulligan-Desmond interplay (first commemorated when they when they co-starred in the memorable "Two Of A Mind" LP for RCA in 1962) is beguilingly in evidence on Truth, a very free adaptation of the track from Dave's oratorio entitled Truth (Planets Are Spinning). The theme is used only as a brief point of departure; improvisation reaches several heady peaks of creativity. Brubeck makes characteristic use of space, playing complex but, on the surface, deceptively simple tricks with time, and benefiting from the extraordinary sensitive consistency of Alan Dawson's percussive accents. The Jack Six bass solo (Jack incidentally, played in the premiere performance of the oratorio) sustains the level of intensity until Brubeck, in a puckish, almost Monk-like mood, returns to center stage.

Unfinished Woman is a Mulligan composition blessed with a charm and lack of pretension that I have always admired in him. Its basis is a happy, almost old-fashioned syncopated riff, with Dave taking over as Paul and Gerry offer their counterpoint comments.

Koto Song, first introduced by the old quartet in the "Jazz Impressions Of Japan" album, was described then by Dave as "a blues related to the delicate music I heard performed by two Japanese girls in Kyoto. Of the classical instruments I heard, I was most fascinated by the koto... Koto Song is the most consciously Japanese of these pieces, and tinged with a bit of sentimental sadness at leaving our new friends." Another version, recorded live in Germany in 1966, was issued in the "Brubeck Summit Sessions" LP; but this new interpretation is probably the best, bringing out all the elements of Paul's elegant style, nonaggressive sound and ability to create sinuous melodic lines.

Take Five is, of course, another rerun, one that we see now in a 13 year perspective. The "Time Out" album was released in January of 1960. As Dave now recalls: "That entire LP was an ice breaker. Even Paul Desmond didn't realized at the time the significance of what he had achieved by producing a hit record – and a great composition – in 5/4 time. Steve Race, who wrote the notes, called the whole album an experiment that might be regarded as more than an arrow pointing to the future. He said something great had been attempted and achieved."

Even today, when 5/4 can be felt and played competently and comfortably by high school bands (and of whom also deal with 9/4, 7/4 and other meters that seemed impossibly exotic in the days of Desmond's venture), the original composition has a special character, one that takes on a new dimension with the unison and harmony passages by Gerry and Paul.

Dave might be expected by now to have tired of responding to this most-requested of works, yet he says: "We really still enjoy playing it – and you've heard what kind of audience reaction it still receives wherever we go."

Of all the concert on the route, none was more wildly acclaimed than the Rotterdam date. As Dave recalls it, "They just wouldn't let us off the stage. We must have played at least 40 minutes of encores.

"In fact, Rotterdam Blues begins with just me at the piano after I retuned for another bow; the rhythm section and horns came in later, and the entire thing was completely spontaneous, but I think it resulted in some terrific blues solos." Bur's estimate is correct; good humor, funkiness and spirited blowing were the order of the night. The power of positive swinging, generated by the leader and picked up by his sidemen, has rarely if ever been more accurately pinpointed.

Since even this supposedly final encore would not satisfy the Rotterdam fans, Dave administered on brief, good-humored coup de grace, playing a single unaccompanied chorus of Sweet Georgia Brown. "I don't know how it happened to come to mind; I probably hadn't played the tune since my trio days over twenty years ago. But it just seemed like fun to do it."

None of use who heard and witnessed the pleasure Dave and his musicians shared during this tour can believe that they five will not reunite at some point in time, even though Dave presently is involved in a different and particularly rewarding venture. His "Two Generations Of Burbeck" concerts, with major contributions by Chris Brubeck (whose New Heavenly Blue rock group contributed to "Truth Is Fallen") and Darius Brubeck (named for Dave's teacher) are spanning two generations not only onstage but, logically, in the audiences they attract.

I doubt that Dave Brubeck will ever reject or neglect any area of music with which he has ever been associated. He is the product of a multiple cultural heritage and social milieu; just as his oratorio transcends sectarian religious boundaries, his music will remain neither exclusively jazz nor classical, traditional nor avant garden, neither black nor white, but rather a summation of all he has absorbed during 40 years in and around music (almost 30 of them as a professional).

I look forward eagerly to an album entitled "We're All Together Once More For The First Time Again." – Leonard Feather (Author of From Satchmo to Miles; Stien & Day)

Truth

Unfinished Woman

Koto Song

Take Five

Rotterdam Blues

Sweet Georgia Brown