Jazz Great Brubeck Returns to Lobero

At a cool 87 years old, Dave Brubeck endures and his musical passion continues to inspire. Having recently released an intimate new CD, Indian Summer, he returns to the Lobero on Monday, August 27, at 8 p.m. Brubeck’s remarkably cohesive new album contains both classic standards as well as elegant new material, all done as solo piano work. Boldly, Brubeck recorded most of the material in one take, yet the music nevertheless achieves a beautiful timelessness, even as it evokes decades of images and memories.

Perhaps most poignantly, Brubeck remembers thinking of his wife Iola’s lyrics for “So Lonely” as he performed this song for this recording, and of how it was written “about the time our first troops were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan and we were watching on television [saying] those tearful good-byes” and how it brought back memories of his own experiences going overseas in 1944 during World War II.

Like his music, Brubeck’s personal history remains highly relevant to today’s world.

The fact that Brubeck then visited Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan as a U.S. cultural ambassador during the Cold War years of the 1950s adds powerful historical and emotional context to the pianist’s musical statements. Here in America, Brubeck often used his musical skills as a force for positive social change by fighting segregation in the music industry. Brubeck was one of the first jazz musicians of the 1950s to assert that he would not perform for segregated audiences.

Brubeck’s steadfast dedication to breaking down borders comes out in his music as well. As a pianist, band leader, and composer, he has consistently pushed himself to transcend limits, and his distinctive rhythms and time signatures have done just that. His cross-cultural musical vision broke new ground, and today it’s hard to imagine a world without his many masterpieces. Not just the immortal “Take Five,” which was actually written by his longtime saxophonist, Paul Desmond, but also the equally glorious “Blue Rondo la Turk” and many others. As an artist, Brubeck took chances and pushed the music forward, and as a result he has had a permanent and dramatic impact on the shape of jazz history.

The idea of the shape of time is one that has remained central in Brubeck’s life and music since the beginning. He often refers directly to the concept of time in his album titles, and his trademark exotic time signatures-5/4 on “Take Five” and 9/8 for much of “Blue Rondo la Turk”-transformed jazz. Brubeck was the first jazz artist to reach the cover of Time magazine, and, at 87, he continues to push jazz’s limits in the most elemental way possible.

Born in Stockton, California, and with many close connections to the Santa Barbara area, Brubeck will soon be the subject of a new documentary. Clint Eastwood is planning to go ahead and make everyone’s day by producing the upcoming Brubeck film, which will be directed by Bruce Ricker. It will cover the entire arc of Brubeck’s remarkable life as a California rancher, a legendary musician, and a social activist.

Even now, in 2007, Brubeck’s accomplishments and honors continue to accumulate. This year the Kennedy Center proclaimed Brubeck an official Living Legend of Jazz-hardly a surprise. Back in 1994, Bill Clinton enthusiastically presented Brubeck with the National Medal of Arts.

Santa Barbara always warmly appreciates the opportunity to hear and see Brubeck, and he has played five sold-out Santa Barbara shows in the past six years. People come to his shows to witness an artist whose story and music embody many of the best and most complicated aspects of the past 50 years, not only in California and America, but in the world. Best of all, Brubeck has always done it his own way.