Their Last Time Out

Dave Brubeck | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 1, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2011
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B005JC1YR2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,083 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Introduction

2. St. Louis Blues

3. Three To Get Ready

4. These Foolish Things

5. Cielito Lindo

6. The Blue Dove (La Paloma)

7. Take The A Train

8. Someday My Prince Will Come

Disc: 2

1. Members Presentation

2. Swanee River

3. I m In A Dancing Mood

4. You Go To My Head

5. Set My People Free

6. For Drummers Only

7. Take Five

Editorial Reviews

On December 26, 1967, the classic Dave Brubeck Quartet (Paul Desmond on alto sax, Joe Morello on drums, and Eugene Wright on bass) gave its final concert as a group. On this occasion, they appeared in Pittsburgh, and while Columbia didn't do a recording (a studio session had taken place on the 18th, but didn't yield much that was interesting), the concert was recorded and has been made available by the Brubeck Archives. In that live recording, "The Last Time Out - December 26, 1967," the four musicians made the best out of this last opportunity to play together, in a final musical gesture that shows they were still at the top of their game. It is bound to attract the attention of Brubeck fans and jazz fans, given the fact that it marked the end of a celebrated quartet that had spanned some 18 years and given the 1960s one of its signature themes, "Take Five."

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Way to Go Out! - 4.5 stars November 17, 2011

By John Tapscott

Format:Audio CD

The Dave Brubeck Quartet consisting of Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright and Joe Morello, played its final concert in Pittsburgh, Pa. on December 26, 1967. Luckily the concert was recorded (though not by Columbia) and the tapes finally discovered last year among Brubeck's personal collection. While there are no great surprises here, there is a sense of excitement in the playing and the solos, especially those of Brubeck himself. Desmond's flowing, lyrical alto solos are always a delight to hear; he was really at his best in the Brubeck Quartet. Despite the go-for-broke atttitude, the group maintains the legendary tightness and discipline developed over years of playing together. The program includes a number of Brubeck originals new and old, as well as some standards often played by the quartet. Every tune is noteworthy with La Polama Azul, Swanee River, I'm in a Dancing Mood, These Foolish Things, and Set My People Free being special highlights. The mono sound is decent and easily listenable. The only real drawback is that Desmond is slightly under-recorded on some tracks.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet may have been finished this night but they went out in grand style and this concert recording will greatly please the Quartet's many fans.

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Dave restores Duke's theme to Sweet Pea January 31, 2012

By Samuel Chell HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

To my ears the most arresting piece in the performance is "Take the 'A' Train" which, like Billy's "Satin Doll," has never sounded like a Strayhorn composition. In both cases, the chords and their progression are simply too conventional to evoke the more elusive and exotic harmonies that distinguish a Strayhorn tune. "Take the A Train" was the first track on Dave's wildly popular "Jazz Goes to College," the LP that introduced many of us to the Brubeck Quartet, since like Miles' "Kind of Blue" it was one of tens of thousands of copies sent out by the Columbia Record Club to a nation of subscribers. On the present occasion, Dave completely transforms the song into something worthy of the composer of "Blood Count" and "UMMG." Taken at an uncharacteristically fast tempo, "A Train" oscillates between major and minor, occasionally playing with augmented chords that make the normally major key all the more indeterminate--and suggestive of Strayhorn.

Overall, this is one of the most satisfying sessions by this complement of players. Morello fans, especially, are likely to find the percussionist featured more prominently than on any other recording that comes to mind. And although i've read complaints about Paul's horn being slightly off mike, the instrument that suffers the most is Eugene Wright's bass, which is muddy, distant and unfocused in the mix (is it possible the recording was made with a single microphone placed at the rear of the auditorium?) Whatever the case, the music soon overrides any shortfalls in the quality of the audio. But, if anything, the realism is enhanced by the circumstances of this monaural recording, which sounds as though a single premium mic might have been used, one capable of being a stand-in for the audience member's perspective.... It's unlikely that any other recording captures the force of Dave's legendary heavy, two-fisted attack (Oscar Peterson used to complain about following Dave into a club: after a Brubeck beating, a single tuning of the piano was never sufficient to bring it back up to speed. (To be fair, Dave's playing on "La Paloma Azul" is sublimely lyrical--and subdued.)

There's no gainsaying the high quality of the playing or the significance of the moment. But there's also no denying that the historical importance of this previously unreleased date is subject to a certain amount of exaggeration. In 1963 the same four musicians had recorded a killer concert in New York City's Carnegie Hall, which is arguably their most electrifying and satisfying recording of all--especially to close jazz followers who, unlike the more casual masses, do not regard the introduction of Desmond's "Take 5" and the studio album "Time Out" (1959) as representing the high-water mark of the music's entire history. Moreover, after the group had disbanded, they would reunite, most notably for the 1976 release, "The 25th Reunion Concert," which carries with it the added drama of the moment--the detached retina suffered by Joe Morello during the making of the record (necessitating that it be a compilation of two concerts) and the heroic performance of Paul Desmond, who was then in the late stages of terminal cancer.

Nevertheless, the present album deserves to occupy a place, at the very least, alongside the aforementioned two concerts. It indeed was the final concert by the four musicians who had, perhaps more than any other group, made the small combo almost as vital to jazz in the minds of the public as big bands were during the late '30s and first half of the '40s. Granted, there were also the "hard bop" groups of Art Blakey, Horace Silver and Cannonball Adderley, the "classical" jazz of The Modern Jazz Quartet, and the musically influential small ensembles of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans. But Brubeck's was the group that reached the broadest cross-section of the American public, with all of the quartet's international travels as well as Dave's thematic studio ideas documented on big-label Columbia Records, prior to release throughout the country by the Columbia Record Club, a mail-order service that serviced tens of thousands of subscribers from its offices in Terre Haute, Indiana.

In diametrically opposed contrast, "Their Last Time Out" contains music that went unnoticed by Columbia Records. Recorded by amateurs in Pittsburgh, the day after Christmas, 1967, the music is not even in stereo. Nevertheless, the "novelty" factor of stereo has worn off sufficiently, and the music is of such undeniably high quality, that there's little doubt that, for the majority of listeners, substance will prevail over audio quality or packaging. This is the commercially-successful Brubeck Quartet at its very best. If it lacks some of the excitement of the two concert recordings mentioned above, it surpasses them in the sheer musicality of the proceedings. On this occasion, the quartet plays "music" rather than the "audience." It has nothing to prove; it would be simply another gig, were it not the last one. But it represents the kind of relaxation and mastery that make for timeless music--playing that is inexhaustible, capable of maintaining its welcome freshness, regardless of how often the listener returns to it.

There's no argument about which was Dave's best group over his singularly long career: it was these four musicians who, if anything, are ironically "underrated" by many contemporary young players, whose roots are far more deeply implanted in the fertile soil of the Parker-Davis-Coltrane tradition than that of Brubeck. In fact, both Desmond and Brubeck are among the most unique musicians in the music's history. Neither legend has spawned any recognizable imitators or proteges to speak of.

I hope it will be taken as no sleight to this group or this recording, but if I were to attempt to "win over" a young musician, or even a former Brubeck detractor (during the '50s there was no small number of musicians who, armed with their numerous Blue Note recordings, heaped relentless disparagement upon, and even animosity towards, Brubeck, Desmond, and numerous other white musicians associated with "West Coast," "cool jazz"), I would look to the recordings preceding the Columbia dates. "Jazz Goes to Oberlin" and "Jazz at the College of the Pacific" continue to impress, especially for the imaginative heat, more than most of the ensuing "smash hit" albums on Columbia. "Jazz Goes to College" would be an exception, another example of playing that's daring, unfailingly inspiring and unpredictable. Yet all of these early recordings have nondescript rhythm sections. The bass player and drummer may not approach the level of musicianship exhibited by Joe Morello and Eugene Wright, but they're unselfish "service musicians," who merely lay down a solid 4/4 and stay out of Brubeck's and Desmond's way. The results speak for themselves, making manifest the place Desmond had earned right alongside Charlie Parker as the other dominating alto voice of his era. Still, it surprises many to hear the radio interview on which Bird compliments Desmond as one of jazz's great innovators, and Paul returns the compliment to Bird, who responds that he was far from finished (sadly, that was not to be the case).

But as for Joe Dodge, Norman Bates, and the other nearly forgetten drummers and bass players who accompanied Brubeck and Desmond on most of their 1950s albums, they could not have served their employers any better, providing invaluable support--for the two front-line players and for those of us who still shake our heads in wonderment at the unprecedented, timeless creativity that characterized these early meetings between Dave and Paul. Listening to Dave in the company of Gerry Mulligan, Bill Smith and a succession of acclaimed jazz players and then directing our attention to Paul in the quiet, intimate surroundings of the Modern Jazz Quartet or in a group replacing piano with guitar, is inescapably a "let-down." But it's also a moment when the listener is apt to become keenly aware of the degree to which Dave and Paul served as catalysts to one another, resulting in some of the most inimitable, exciting music of jazz mid-century. In fact, their music--whether on their first album or the last--is bound to strike many of us as no less freshly minted in the new millennium as it did when we first heard it. As this latest example demonstrates, their music was not so much characterized by an exclusive focus on time signatures and meters as it was--and is--a "timeless" art, equally resistant to classification and obsolescence. Neither Brubeck nor Desmond had any use for "closure"; so, too, the listener is likely to discover this music, though captured during the middle of the 20th century, no less inspiring--and inspiriting--in the second decade of the 21st. In fact, I have little doubt that some of their grandchildren will discover its flame undiminished as we approach the century following the current one. Read more ›

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The last original Brubeck Quartet album March 18, 2012

By Steve

Format:MP3 Music|Amazon Verified Purchase

I hear a few cuts from this album on KJZZ, one of the last remaining jazz stations on the radio. I get it on the internet because I have moved away from the Los Angeles area, and happened to be listening during one of their pledge drives recently (it broadcasts out of Cal State Univ. Long Beach, so it gets no advertising revenue) and they were playing songs from some of the albums they were giving as premiums for becoming a member.

I am a huge Brubeck Quartet fan. Hearing Take Five on the radio when I was a teenager in the very early '60s got me into jazz. This album was recently found and just released last year although it is many years old. It is the last studio recording done by the original Quartet and the tape was put in a box and forgotten for years. It was discovered last year and put out for us to hear. It is typical, classic Brubeck with most of the old standards, but is well worth listening to. There are subtle differences in this performance compared to the ones on earlier albums. That's what is so great about jazz -- always something new. Just when you think you've heard it all, there is something new, no matter how subtle.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brubeck in Pittsburgh ... the last time March 18, 2012

By hippy Mac

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Brubeck is an icon. Desmond is still my fave alto player. To have this historic CD rounds out my large Brubeck collection. My ears are smiling! Thank you!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING ALBUM!! February 1, 2012

By CozzieMoto

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

The musicianship on this album with the most popular four [or should i say eleven/four =)] is of course unsurpassed as usual, but the fact that it's live makes it all the more astounding! The quartet is tight, yet free to go where they wish, again, as usual. But the interplay between the players is magical! I highly recommend it to anyone even remotely into the D.B.Q. Put in your catalogue for special occasions. My thoughts but then again, they've only influenced me my whole life! Thanks,Coz

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Mono Issue, But Performance Multi-Faceted February 20, 2013

By Joe Schmo

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Historically speaking, capturing the last performance of the Dave Brubeck Quartet is no less an event than the last Beatles performance (on the Abbey Road Studios rooftop, not the abbreviated fiasco at Candlestick Park in '66). In brief, these recordings were discovered in Brubeck's closet by his longtime producer, Russell Gloyd, and are rumored to have been recorded directly off the sound board during the performance on Dec 26, 1967. They have been prepared for release, and the result is nothing short of great. NOTE: If you are put off by the fact that this recording is in mono, then don't buy it. If, however, you are a Brubeck fan or otherwise want to explore a new addition to the canon, then this is for you. The enthusiasm and performance of these guys, knowing that this was 'Their Last Time Out,' sparkles, including songs never before (or since) recorded by them. My personal favorite is the Joe Morello composition, "For Drummers Only," a nearly 12 minute blast of percussive pyrotechnics by Morello, punctuated by Brubeck's swinging solo piano. Of note also is the performance of Take Five, without the famous Morello drum solo, but overwhelming with audience excitement, seemingly felt symbiotically by the musicians during the performance. A winner!