Dave Brubeck Quartet Minus One in Vienna

Joe Morello, Dave Brubeck, and Eugene Wright in Vienna (album cover image courtesy of Play MPE)

About two and a half months ago Brubeck Editions released a Dave Brubeck album that might raise a few eyebrows. The title of the album is Live From Vienna 1967, and the performance is by the Dave Brubeck Trio. The tracks were recorded in November of 1967 during a tour of Europe by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. After a performance in Hamburg on November 10, saxophonist Paul Desmond went AWOL. As a result, the following morning Brubeck flew to Vienna with drummer Joe Morello and bassist Eugene Wright.

Dave’s son Darius, who now has his own quartet, offered some commentary on this incident:

Dave said that the best concerts by the Classic Quartet took place when he was angry. On this occasion Dave was mad because Paul was unacceptably missing. This unplanned trio turned in a performance charged with energy, dynamics and confident shifts of style and feel. The spontaneous arrangements featured extended and unusual solos by the piano bass and drums. This is a rare, revealing and wonderfully accidental addition to the Brubeck legacy.

The Live From Vienna album has only six tracks, only one of which was composed by Brubeck, “One Moment Worth Years.” Three are Brubeck arrangements, one of which is the Mexican children’s song “La Paloma Azul” (the blue dove), which may have interested Brubeck for being one of the sources for Aaron Copland’s “El Salon Mexico.” The other two are more “mainstream,” Stephen Foster’s “Swanee River” and W. C. Handy’s “St. Lous Blues.” The last two tracks are “Someday My Prince Will Come,” composed by Frank Churchill for the Walt Disney animated movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Billy Strayhorn’s “Take the ‘A’ Train.”

With the exception of “Take the ‘A’ Train,” these are moderately long tracks that allow for some very engaging listening experiences. In other words Darius’ assessment of his father’s angry moods seems to ring true over the entire course of this album. One might almost go as far as to say that all three of the players encounter opportunities for subtleties that might otherwise have been obscured by an obstreperous saxophone! This is definitely an album that deserves more than casual listening.