Celebrate Jazz Great’s Birthday With New Album Collection Release

For Release: December 8, 2011
Press Release by Legacy Recordings, 12/1/11

As family and friends around the world celebrate Dave Brubeck’s 91st birthday on December 6, 2011, attention is also drawn to notable anniversaries of key albums in the Columbia Records discography of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. These include the 55th anniversary of their landmark 1956 album Jazz Impressions Of The U.S.A., the 50th anniversary of the 1961 LP Time Further Out, and the 45th anniversary of Time In, their 1966 finale to the signature series that started with the all-time classic, RIAA® certified double-platinum Time Out in 1959.

Those four studio albums, alongside the 15 other Columbia studio recordings that the Quartet released between 1955 and 1967, are brought together for the first time in THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET – THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA STUDIO ALBUMS COLLECTION. The deluxe 19-CD box set is available now for pre-order at Sony Music’s retail website in advance of the December 6th (Brubeck’s birthday!) release date. The box set is released by Columbia/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.

The 19 titles in THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET – THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA STUDIO ALBUMS COLLECTION are as follows:
1. Brubeck Time (1955)
2. Jazz Impressions Of The U.S.A. (1956, first time on CD in U.S.)
3. Jazz Impressions Of Eurasia (1958, first time on CD in U.S.)
4. Dave Digs Disney (1957)
5. Gone With The Wind (1959, first time on CD in U.S.)
6. Time Out! (1959)
7. Southern Scene (1960, first time on CD in U.S.)
8. Bernstein Plays Brubeck Plays Bernstein (1961)
9. Time Further Out (1961)
10. Countdown: Time In Outer Space (1962)
11. Bossa Nova U.S.A. (1963, first time on CD in U.S.)
12. Brandenburg Gate: Revisited (1963)
13. Time Changes (1964)
14. Jazz Impressions Of Japan (1964)
15. Jazz Impressions Of New York (1965, first time on CD in U.S.)
16. Angel Eyes (1965, first time on CD in U.S.)
17. My Favorite Things (1966, first time on CD in U.S.)
18. Time In (1966)
19. Plays Cole Porter - Anything Goes! (1967, first time on CD in U.S.)
(This discography, starting with 1959’s Gone With The Wind, also represents the total Columbia studio output of the classic longtime lineup of the Dave Brubeck Quartet that began in ’58 – Brubeck on piano, Paul Desmond on alto saxophone, bassist Eugene Wright, and drummer Joe Morello.)

THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET – THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA STUDIO ALBUMS COLLECTION features each of the 19 albums in a replica mini-LP sleeve which reproduces that LP’s original front and back cover artwork. Where applicable, the albums in each box include the bonus tracks that have been released on the expanded CD editions over the years.
As noted above, nine of the titles in THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET – THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA STUDIO ALBUMS COLLECTION are making their debut appearance on CD in the U.S. with this box set.

The arrival of THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET – THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA STUDIO ALBUMS COLLECTION follows Columbia/Legacy’s November 1st debut release of the double-CD, Their Last Time Out (subtitle: The Unreleased Live Concert – December 26, 1967). Recorded in Pittsburgh, the night after Christmas, the concert reflected Brubeck’s decision to disband the Quartet at the end of 1967, their tenth and final year together. The concert covered virtually every phase of the Quartet’s tenure, from blues (“St. Louis Blues”) and standards (“Swanee River,” “These Foolish Things,” “Take The ‘A’ Train,” “Someday My Prince Will Come,” “I’m In A Dancing Mood,” “You Go To My Head”), to the Latin flavor of which they were so fond (“Cielito Lindo,” “La Paloma Azul”). In true democratic fashion there is also one original composition by each musician: Brubeck’s “Three To Get Ready” (listen for Desmond’s “12 Days Of Christmas” riff), Wright’s “Set My People Free,” Morello’s “For Drummers Only,” and of course, Desmond’s “Take Five.”
The 16 core years that Dave Brubeck spent at Columbia Records (from 1954 to 1970), saw this complex musician and compassionate bandleader develop into a multi-talented composer, arranger, producer, orchestrator, and ultimately a father figure for at least three generations of jazz players.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet, in its early lineup (with alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, drummer Joe Dodge, and a succession of bassists) was signed to Columbia in 1953, by the renowned George Avakian. He followed the pianist’s early format (of live concert recordings on Fantasy) and also recorded him live for his Columbia debut, Jazz Goes To College.

THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET – THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA STUDIO ALBUMS COLLECTION focuses on the Quartet’s studio LPs, which actually began with their second album, Brubeck Time (1954). The so-called ‘classic’ Dave Brubeck Quartet took shape with the entrance of drummer Joe Morello in 1956 and bassist Eugene Wright in 1958. They staked their claim to jazz immortality in 1959 with the Time Out album, the first million-selling LP in jazz history, featuring the single that changed all the rules, “Take Five” between “Blue Rondo A La Turk.”

Included with this set is Brandenburg Gate, Revisited which features a 10-part, 20-minute work for strings arranged and conducted by Howard Brubeck on a theme by Dave Brubeck that was first heard on Jazz Impressions Of Eurasia (1958). In addition to Eurasia, all the other albums in the Quartet's "Jazz Impressions" series are represented in this collection: Jazz Impressions Of The USA (1957), Jazz Impressions of Japan (1964), and Jazz Impressions of New York (1965).

The Quartet was disbanded in 1967, the year of their final Columbia studio LP, The Dave Brubeck Quartet Plays Cole Porter - Anything Goes!, a swingin’ affair.