NEW YORK, Dec. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — American jazz legend
Dave Brubeck, who celebrates his 91st birthday today (December 6),
reached another milestone recently when /*Time Out*/, his 1959 watershed
masterpiece, was awarded Double Platinum status by the RIAA in
recognition of sales of more than two million copies in the United States.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20060130/LEGACYLOGO )
A profoundly pivotal and influential recording, /*Time Out*/ — which
began as a musical experiment showcasing the Dave Brubeck Quartet
performing seven original jazz compositions, each in a different time
signature — became an iconic crossover smash, reaching #2 on the
Billboard Pop chart in 1961, eventually spending a mind-blowing 164
weeks on the charts. Propelled in part by “Take Five,” the DBQ’s
signature classic in 5/4 time, /*Time Out*/ is the first jazz album to
sell more than one million copies and one of the select few to achieve
Double Platinum status.
/*Time Out*/ was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording
Registry in 2005. Legacy Recordings released a three-disc 50th
Anniversary Edition of /*Time Out*/ in 2009, the same year the album was
inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame (established by The Recording
Academy’s National Trustees in 1973 to honor recordings of lasting
qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old).
Brubeck’s album, /*Dave Brubeck: Legacy of a Legend*/, released in
advance of the legend’s 90th birthday last year, hit #1 on the CMJ Jazz
Top 40 chart as the album garnered critical acclaim and coast-to-coast
airplay. With the album reaching #13 on the Billboard Top Jazz Album
chart and #8 on the Traditional Jazz Album Chart, Brubeck earned the
rare distinction of having played on albums charting in every decade
since the 1950s. /*Dave Brubeck: Legacy of a Legend*/, a commemorative
collection of tracks hand-picked by the artist, featuring extensive
annotation and anecdotal liner notes written by his son Darius, was
released through Columbia/Legacy, a division of Sony Music
Entertainment, to all physical and digital retail outlets last November.
Brubeck received Kennedy Center Honors in December 2009, and, along with
his ensemble, was named the Jazz Group of the Year in the 2010 Downbeat
Reader’s Poll.
*/Dave Digs Disney/*, Brubeck’s delightfully groundbreaking jazz
interpretations of classic songs from Disney films, has recently been
made available as a two CD package in the US featuring the original mono
album on Disc 1 and stereo mixes and alternate takes of the album on
Disc 2. Recorded in New York and Los Angeles over the course of three
historic sessions in June and August 1957, /*Dave Digs Disney*/ is often
cited as one of the most important titles in the Brubeck canon.
On November 1, 2011, Legacy Recordings released /*Their Last Time Out*/,
a two-CD, 15-track recording of the December 26, 1967 concert (with the
exception of a 1976 reunion tour) of the classic Dave Brubeck
Quartet–featuring Paul Desmond on alto sax, Eugene Wright on bass, and
Joe Morello on drums–the group’s final performance (with the exception
of a 1976 reunion). Recorded in Pittsburgh, */December 26, 1967: Their
Last Time Out /*finds the classic DBQ at the top of its game, marking
the close of an 18-year run as one of the most influential, and popular,
ensembles in jazz. An emotional celebration of the quartet’s
repertoire, the 98 minute concert has been made available for the first
time by the Brubeck Archives and signs off with the consummate
performance of “Take Five,” that unpretentious and infectiously swinging
combination of melody, rhythm and sound that’s come to signify jazz itself.
