Brubeck and rhythm

"Polyrhythmic feeling", says Dave Brubeck, "is part of all jazz. People who say we are getting too close to the classical should listen to some African music." Most of Brubeck's half of Saturday's concert at the Town Hall was devoted to developing this theme. The quartet laid down basic rhythms of 1¼, Ragtime vs. ¾, 2/4 vs. ¾, 5/4 and even 4/4 for the really far-out.

This is the first time I have heard Brubeck live, and the experience was not entirely satisfactory; perhaps the group was jaded after a long series of trips around the Pacific, but the feeling is that they have lost some of their original character.

Morello in particular, who began, when he joined the group, by using his naturally dynamic and imaginative approach to urge both Brubeck and Desmond into compacting their more scholarly ramblings, seems unfortunately to be developing into a sort of "show" drummer of the Krupa-Hamilton-Bellson variety. Brubeck's emphasis on formalized rhythmic experiments may have something to do with this. A lot of responsibility has developed on Morello to maintain these complex beat cycles, while Brubeck in particular seems to have lost the real freedom that intelligent phrasing can give to the more "pedestrian" rhythms such as 4/4.

The effect has been to shift the balance of the group, and to place Morello in semi-isolation (although his histrionic solos may admittedly have been pandering to an audience which in turn seemed anxious to please). On the other side, the rapport between Desmond and Brubeck, which was a keypoint in the quartet's early development, has not been fully explored. The most attractive moments in the concert were when Desmond had a chance to display the sweet, lyrical alto that has made him famous: his spare, classical solo in the opener "St. Louis Blues" and the long swinging line of the 4/4 ballad (title unannounced) towards the end were the highspots of the evening. Eugene Wright, who gets more change than any other of Brubeck"s numerous bassists, was humorous and full of ideas. I particularly liked his solo on "Take the 'A' Train".

Brubeck himself seemed to be struggling to maintain a degree of cohesion, supporting the rhythmic development as best he could with his characteristic blocked chords. Once or twice his intent became clearer: Desmond's solo in the ballad seemed to inspire him to explore the end-point of chord permutations with some subtly allusive dissonances, reminiscent of Monk. "Raggy Waltz" (Rag vs. ¾) and "Waltz Limp" (2/4 vs. ¾) offset two rhythms to produce a strongly syncopated beat with a "lag" effect in the left hand very similar to the great rag pianists.

The less said about the first half the better.

Laurie Loman, in another one of those damn gold lame dresses, provided some pleasant if overamplified singing, and Don Gillett (who apparently worked for Stan Kenton) and his septet spent fifty minutes justifying all the criticisms of jazz, although Less Still was a useful bassist. He could profitably have reminded the drummer what rhythm he was playing in his (and I quote Mr Gillett) "great" solo. All sympathy to Brubeck for taking on two shows in an evening, but it is annoying to have to wade through an hour of this willing but inferior entertainment to get to the main event.

—R. G. L.