Another golden celebration

Was there something in the water back in 1959 that made it such a very good year for jazz recordings? We’ve already seen tribute events celebrating the 50-year legacy of Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue and John Coltrane’s Giant Steps. The folks in his hometown of Stockton, California, aren’t about to let us forget Dave Brubeck’s classic (time-signature-stretching) Time Out.

At the 2009 Brubeck Festival (running March 28 to April 4) Brubeck will perform the album in its entirety. Organizers say it'll be the first time he's peformed all of the album's seven pieces in one concert. That April 3 concert is at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.

In addition to the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s performance of Time Out, the concert will include a performance of Dave and Iola Brubeck’s choral and orchestral work, “Earth Is Our Mother.” Also that week, the festival will premiere an orchestral composition, “Ansel Adams: America,” that was co-written by Dave Brubeck and his son Chris. The work, being performed by the Stockton Symphony, is based on photographs by another California treasure, the late Ansel Adams.

Dave and Iola Brubeck, 2004... > >>
Mark this one down as a festival that appeals greatly to my twin interests in jazz and photography.