Jazz At Oberlin (Live At Oberlin College / 1953 (Mono Remastered)) The Dave Brubeck Quartet

• 1 The Way You Look Tonight (Live At Oberlin College / 1953) 07:51
• 2 How High The Moon (Live At Oberlin College / 1953) 09:11
• 3 These Foolish Things (Live At Oberlin College / 1953) 06:33
• 4 Perdido (Live At Oberlin College / 1953) 07:46
• 5 Stardust (Live At Oberlin College / 1953) 06:30
• Total Runtime 37:51

Info for Jazz At Oberlin (Live At Oberlin College / 1953 (Mono Remastered))

Jazz at Oberlin was recorded in the Finney Chapel at Oberlin College in March 1953. It is known as one of the early works in the “cool jazz” stream of jazz by departing from bebop and even hinting at free-jazz piano techniques. It is also credited as the performance that pushed Oberlin and other colleges to legitimize jazz as a serious area of musical and intellectual study.

Brubeck's 1953 live album showed that jazz didn't have to follow the bebop route, and that there was even a chart audience out there for it

The pianist and composer Dave Brubeck had more than his share of Great Moments: he was the first to sell a million copies of a jazz instrumental; he was one of Time magazine's rare jazz cover subjects; he has played for presidents and popes; composed everything from classic jazz themes to symphonies; and the tune of his most famous hit, Take Five, is familiar to music lovers, from eight-year-olds to octogenarians.

Brubeck's first Great Jazz Moment is one that has been overlooked though – the making of his quartet's 1953 live album, Jazz at Oberlin. Not only did this dynamic gig reveal Brubeck's vivacious creative relationship with west coast alto saxophonist Paul Desmond to a new and youthful audience, confirming the then 29-year-old Desmond as a sensational sax improviser, it also indicated new directions for jazz that didn't slavishly mirror bebop, and even hinted at free-jazz piano techniques still years away from realisation. The significance of Jazz at Oberlin didn't stop with the music either. The enthusiasm of the college audience, audible throughout the album, marked Brubeck's eager adoption by America's (predominantly white) youth – a welcome that soon extended around the world, and brought the pianist chart hits for a rhythmically intricate instrumental jazz in a period in which the newly emerged rock'n'roll was carrying all before it.

What came to be known as Brubeck's "classic quartet" (comprising of Desmond, bassist Eugene Wright and the astonishing polyrhythmic drummer Joe Morello) was still three years away when the Oberlin concert was recorded, though drummer Ron Crotty and bassist Lloyd Davis played the show with brisk empathy. At the same time the repertoire – variations on standard songs or bop anthems – gave no hint as to Brubeck's subsequent fascination with adventurous but very catchy time-signatures like 5/4 and 9/8, not to mention his adaptations of classical forms like rondos and fugues. Oberlin did, however, open a window on the core creative relationship that would soon ignite all those elements (Take Five was a collaboration, developed by Brubeck from a Paul Desmond theme), and revealed a wealth of harmonic and rhythmic references in the leader's own playing that would change the language of jazz.

"Although a touch underrated, Jazz at Oberlin is one of the early Dave Brubeck classic recordings. The interplay between the pianist-leader and altoist Paul Desmond on "Perdido" borders on the miraculous, and their renditions of "The Way You Look Tonight," "How High the Moon" and "Stardust" are quite memorable. Brubeck's piano playing on "These Foolish Things" is so percussive and atonal in one spot as to sound like Cecil Taylor, who would not emerge for another two years. With bassist Ron Crotty and drummer Lloyd Davis giving the Quartet quiet and steady support, Brubeck and Desmond were free to play at their most adventurous. Highly recommended." (Scott Yanow, AMG)

Dave Brubeck, piano
Paul Desmond, alto saxophone
Lloyd Davis, drums
Ron Crotty, bass

Digitally remastered

Please Note: we do not offer the 192 kHz version of this album, because there is no considerable or audible difference to the 96 kHz version!

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