The Riddle - Dave Brubeck

Blue Ground

The Riddle
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
Featuring: Bill Smith, Clarinet
Compositions by Bill Smith
Cover Photo: Scott Hyde
Columbia CL 1454
1960

From the back cover: Bill Smith

Born in Sacramento, Calif. in 1926. Started clarinet at ten years old and studied at Juilliard for a year while working at "Kelly's Stable" on 52nd Street. Learned that Darious Milhaud was at Mills College in Oakland, California and went there to study with him. Met Brubeck at Mills. In the spring of 1947, formed the Octet and worked in a small place near Oakland (the group consisted of those people who were studying under Milhaud). The following year Milhaud and half of the Octet went to Paris and Smith went to U.C. and studied with Roger Sessions.

Received his M.A. from California and spent two years in Paris as the recipient of the Prix de Paris and has also taught at U.C. and the San Francisco Conservatory. In 1956 he was awarded the Prix de Roma and, as a result of this, spent the following year (1957) in Rome. While in Rome, Dave Brubeck invited him to write a group of compositions for him. This album is the result. Brubeck and Smith found that the ideal time to record the album was in the summer of 1959 when they are both in Lenox, Mass., Smith at Tanglewood with the Fromm Players and Brubeck on vacation at the Music Inn.

About "The Riddle," he says "My main interest in this album was to make 3/4s of an hour of well integrated jazz, unified by relating each tune to the English folk song. "Heigh, Ho, Anybody Home." In some of the tunes, the relationship is quite apparent as in "Hey, Ho, Anybody Home" of "Blue Ground, Swingin' Round" where it is used in the bass or where it is treated as a round. The relationship to the original in the others is more subtle (like a cousin whose only family resemblance is the eyes or a dimple or some other detail). "The Twig" is an outgrowth of the last two measures of the original. "Offshoot" use the tune in major considerably altered and expanded. "Quiet Mood" takes the second two-measure segment of the original and uses it as a point of departure. "The Riddle" contains the original melodic shape but is played in shorter note values, while in "Yet We Shall Be Merry," the main tones of the original are lengthened and combined with a new thematic idea."

From Billboard - June 27, 1960: Very original material here. Each tune is related to the English folk song, "Hey, Ho, Anybody Home?" Parts are written and parts are improvised. All in all, it makes an original, modern package which will intrigue jazz students. Brubeck and Smith worked out the basic ideas of this album at Tanglewood during a festival.

Hey, Ho, Anybody Home?
The Twig
Blue Ground
Offshoot
Swingin' Round
Quiet Mood
The Riddle
Yet We Shall Be Merry