Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Dave Brubeck: “Blue Rondo a la Turk”



This is the Dave Brubeck Quartet (Brubeck on piano, Paul Desmond on saxophone, Eugene Wright on the bass, and Joe Morello on the drums) on an Australian television special sponsored by Craven Filter cigarettes in the early 1960’s.

Blue Rondo a la Turk” starts in the uncommon time signature of 9/8 (the rhythm of the Turkish zeybek – folk music and dance from Western Turkey) while the saxophone and piano solos are in 4/4. The composition echoes Mozart’s “Rondo alla Turca” from his Piano Sonata No. 11.

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