Live from the Northwest, 1959, by Dave Brubeck Quartet

(MVD)

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Dave Brubeck was in a New Orleans state of mind when he traveled with his quartet to Portland for a pair of gigs in 1959. This set of previously unreleased recordings from those concerts opens with “When the Saints Go Marching In” and follows with “Basin Street Blues.” Both melodies were familiar material to the era’s jazz fans; they were grist for the impressionistic improvisations of a pianist as much at home with Bach as Art Tatum.

The high-fidelity recording catches the classic Brubeck Quartet at their peak, with Paul Desmond’s dry Martini saxophone solos and the pin-point rhythms of bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello. Brubeck was a generous bandleader, handing the spotlight to Desmond for much of the concerts. Brubeck embodied the emotional cool of ‘50s jazz as much as anyone. His interchanges with Desmond framed the melancholy of standards such as “These Foolish Things.” Live From the Northwest also includes two Brubeck originals, “Multnomah Blues” and “Two Part Contention.”

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