Customer Reviews

Indian Summer

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It's been nearly fifty years since "Take Five" vaulted Dave Brubeck out of the ranks of popular jazzmen and into the top tier of multi-genre music icons. He got there in 1960 without compromising his musical standards, and he has continued his career the same way. Indian Summer is a solo piano outing that ranks with the 86-year-old's most satisfying work. The first thing that comes to the mind of a longtime Brubeck fan is that his playing here is more subtle than generally remembered. The obvious reference is Bill Evans, not Time Out/Time In Brubeck Quartet. There are hints of the softer side of Scott Joplin, reminders of Keith Jarrett's solo explorations, and glimpses of Eubie Blake and Fats Waller, but mostly it's just Dave at his most reflective, meditating on a mix of standards, originals and songs he loved long ago. Very nice.

copyright © 2007 Port Folio Weekly. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.

Originally published in Port Folio Weekly, 8/21/07

I don't often write reviews, but I was so angry at another reviewer's rude comment "Dave does elevators" that I had to respond. If there is an elevator with such glorious music, tell me where it is, so I can repeatedly ride it.

Folks like me that read the solo piano playlist before buying would have an idea what to expect from this recording. With the title "Indian Summer," one would expect it to be reflective of Dave's long life as a musician. He delivers a very nuanced, beautiful, intimate set of pieces, at age 86 and with a very painful injury (explained in the liner notes). These are mostly ballads, yet the pacing and dynamics vary, some swing, some get downright funky, others are quieter and more melodic. All have Dave Brubeck's intricate harmonies. This is a wonderful recording to sit and reflect on the Indian Summer of your own life.

I have been buying Dave Brubeck recordings for over 50 years. My first recordings were Dave at Storyville and Jazz goes to College. This latter album has been my favorite album for this whole period of time. I have heard him in person several times. I think he is simply amazing still making recordings at the age of 86. His playing is so good. I wish some music critics would have been kinder to him. One person said that Dave Brubeck is not much better than a cocktail pianist. This is a gross insult to one of the greatest jazz pianists I have ever heard. Lance Leipold

One might say this CD encapsulates the life of a classically trained Jazz pianist. However, shades of Art Tatum, Scott Joplin, Fats Waller and yes Darius Milhaud come to light here. If you are seeking fireworks and presto this CD is not for you. That does not mean this music isn't without dynamics--it has--but the potent is in the subtlety. Listen.

Take a listen to track three, "Autumn in Our Town" a beautifully expressed and crafted Indian Summer piano vignette by Dave Brubeck. This track is a definitive tone poem of the title.

Remember Paul Desmond Pure Desmond and his sweet signatory embouchure profiling his tone? Well the piano as played here by Dave Brubeck atavistically ordains resemblance. A truly beautiful CD. A must have CD if you enjoy piano.

The imbecilic rubes might assign a moniker of smooth Jazz or the like. This is not the case. This CD is an etude, an excursion of the soul.

I first heard Dave Brubeck in 1953 when a friend of mine brought me Jazz at Oberlin.What an exciting dsicovery. I find it hard to think of Brubeck without Paul Desmond. They were such a gestalt. But I do love this recording. I imagine walking by his house where the windows are open early one morning hearing him playing some of those songs he has loved for many years just for himself and perhaps Iola.There is an ease and clarity and subtlety of phrasing that takes a lifetime of playing to develop. He is at one with his piano.A treat.

there are some things out there that are way hip and way cool and revolutionary.
dave brubeck is.
even at his age.
well, fine wine is even better with age....
this record just has a certain something about it.
like almost anything i've heard with him. it so transcend any music genre. its just lovely.
there are a few tracks i recognize off his older records, just played with a little variation or at a different tempo. its nice to hear them on here, and as his solo interpretation instead of with the quartet.
i'm listening to this on an august afternoon as i'm doing housework. there is nothing that distracts, nothing that overwhelms. it reminds me as if i were there and having a cup of coffee and hanging out while this was recorded.
he says that this is the first thing that he has recorded with his wife being present. thats amazing to me. and yet i think that because of that i an imagine her standing there with her hand on his shoulder as he plays.
i really enjoy this. i am picking up other stuff that he has done. this is a record well worth getting.
i'll say this tho. if you're new to brubeck, get time out first. if you've got that, then get jazz impressions of japan. then i think this is next.

Very personal Solo piano renditions of standards, the jacket shows all, very very autumnal music from a man well in to the autumn of his life. Sweet and Bittersweet, full of memories, even ghosts of autumns past. Elegaic. He uses more slow dark chords on these standards than I've ever heard from him in his more Pop albums. Sounds almost like Thelonious Monk in places, minors, diminished minor 7ths, 9ths, 13th's, whatever, he hangs these dark chords out these and sometimes he resolves them into the majors they were written in and sometimes he doesn't. It is between wrong note and really clever. Very well recorded solos so these chords hang in the frosty autumn air. Slow tempos.

Dave Brubeck has outlived them all. He was a contemporary of Cool Jazzmen Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Bill Evans, Gerry Mulligan, not to mention his wonderful alto sax man Paul Desmond, etc. Clean living, I guess. While his contemporaries were shooting drugs and/or guzzling booze, Brubeck was drinking milk and going home early to his wife of many years. Raising a family. So he's still with us and to my ear has done one of the most involving albums I've heard from him in more than a decade.


It is as if he was remembering his whole life. And the ghosts are just beyond reach. Brubecks new CD is really thoughful and late night.
Elevator music, huh?? He has spent more time agonizing over each note and chord he plays than I have ever heard.

paritularly good are the Impressionistic September Song, and Spring is Here, and the dark So Lonely.

resonates with listeners who feel that Jazz should be melodic, original and thoughtful need not be frenetic or noisy.

highly recommended

Dave Brubeck has been a major force in the music world for over 50 years. This solo album, made when the he was in pain from an injured leg, is further evidence that he is as good on the piano by himself as he was with his jazz combo in years past.

The music consists of well-known standards and is both relaxing and emotionally satisfying. If you like jazz, Brubeck, or top-notch piano music, you will be pleased with this CD.

I've been following Dave Brubeck since the 1950's. I ordered this latest CD the day it was released. Although I have loved Dave's various instrumental groups, my favorites are his solo piano albums where he explores harmonic structure like no one else. On "Indian Summer" Dave is still the pioneer he has always been. He is plowing new ground all the while. You'll hear chords here you've never heard before. At the same time, this music is lyrical, melodic and beautiful. The tracks on the CD are highly varied and therefore interesting, but generally this music is mellow and sweet. As I was raving to some friends, this is not only cerebral music of interest to students of composition and harmony, but is music to sip wine by as you gaze into the embers of a fire, or is music to watch a snowfall by. Bravo Maestro Brubeck.
-Sonny Gentry - Memphis

Yes - Dave still has it. I hear familiar improvisations at times, but they are still remarkable.
I started listening to Dave when I was 12 and am now 67.
God has blessed us both. One for being the innovator and one who being the appreciator.