.

Dave Brubeck Dead at 91

Piano great spent his career pushing against the boundaries of jazz

December 5, 2012 11:57 AM ET
dave brubeck
Dave Brubeck
David Redfern/Redferns

Jazz piano great Dave Brubeck died this morning of heart failure in Norwalk, Connecticut, his manager told the Chicago Tribune. He was a day shy of his 92nd birthday.

2012 In Memoriam: Musicians We Lost

Brubeck spent his lengthy career pushing against the boundaries of jazz, blending classical influences with his own improvisational instincts on compositions that transcended standard notions of swing with unusual time signatures and rhythms. Brubeck's best-known work, the 1959 album Time Out, was an experimental collection accessible enough to reach Number Two on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and sell more than one million copies.

He recorded dozens of albums over the years, including orchestral compositions, film soundtracks and the jazz musical The Real Ambassadors. Brubeck received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996 and the National Medal of Arts in 1994.

Here's Brubeck performing "Take Five" in 1966:

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

prev
Music Main Next

blog comments powered by Disqus
Daily Newsletter

Get the latest RS news in your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Rolling Stone newsletter and special offers from RS and its
marketing partners.

X

We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

More Song Stories entries »