नवे सूर अन्‌ नवे तराणे Dave Brubeck 1920-2012, Narayan Rao Koli and Take Five

"या भवनातिल गीत पुराणे
मवाळ, हळवे सूर जाऊ द्या, आज येथुनी दूर

भावभक्‍तिची भावुक गाथा
पराभूत हो नमविल माथा
नवे सूर अन्‌ नवे तराणे
हवा नवा तो नूर
जाऊ द्या दूर जुने ते सूर"

[from Marathi play 'katyar kaljat ghusli' (कट्यार काळजात घुसली) by Purushottam Darwhekar (पुरुषोत्तम दारव्हेकर) ]

Herbie Hancock (listen to his talent: 'Watermelon Man'  here):

"Dave Brubeck was a pioneer, so many of us sprang from his incredibly creative and daring work. He even proved that a song with 5 beats in it and one with 9 beats in it could become popular, with Take 5 and Blue Rondo à la Turk. We were so lucky to have had him for as long as we did and will never forget his musical gifts as a pianist and composer, his kindness, his generosity, and his smile."

ERIC FELTEN:

"Miles Davis's masterpiece, "Kind of Blue," was recorded at 30th Street, and so too, just a couple of months later, was Dave Brubeck's album "Time Out." David Simons, in his book "Studio Stories," suggests that the success of those two records owed something to how they sounded, something that wasn't just a function of the quality of the recording equipment. There was the sympathetic resonance of the studio's unvarnished wood floor and the distant reverberations reflected by its towering ecclesiastic architecture: "To hear 30th Street is to hear drummer Joe Morello's snare and kick-drum shots echoing off the 100-foot ceiling during the percussion break in Dave Brubeck's great 'Take Five.'"

 I have already written about Anthony Prabhu Gonsalves's piano for "Hum aapki aankhon me" ('Pyaasa', 1957). 

 That is the kind of music Dave Brubeck played every time he sat at the piano. Just listen to his:

Blue Rondo A La Turk - Dave Brubeck.

Dave Brubeck's 'Take Five',  first recorded in 1959  has been viewed on YouTube for more than 50 lac times! 

I have heard it on my cassette player so many times that the tape is now damaged. Even my son once was  very fond of it. (He wrote on his FB page: "Farewell Dave !!!! You were the most influential musician of my childhood.")

"It is famous for its distinctive catchy saxophone melody; imaginative, jolting drum solo; and use of the unusual quintuple (5/4) time, from which its name is derived."  (Wikipedia).

Now do you know that our own Mridangacharya Narayan Rao Koli (नारायणराव कोळी) might have played a big role in this?

"That is perhaps why Fernandes chooses to concentrate rather on a forgotten and tragic genius, the jazz pianist Edward “Dizzy Sal” Saldanha, who was feted by a visiting Dave Brubeck, who went to study jazz in Boston, cut a well-received album in the U.S. and then returned to India into self-enforced exile. Brubeck and his drummer Joe Moreno, meanwhile, experimented with the Goan drummer Leslie Godinho and the percussionist Narayan Koli, from whom, some say, Moreno learned the unusual 5/4 time signature that informed Brubeck's classic, “Take Five”...."

(VIJAY PRASHAD, 'The Indian jazz age', review of 'Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay's Jazz Age' by Naresh Fernandes, Frontline, April 6 2012)

p.s I think there is a mistake  in Mr. Prashad's statement- It should be Joe Morello and NOT 'Moreno'.

Dave Brubeck listens to pakhawaj player Narayan Koli

Image Courtesy: Naresh Fernandes