Dave Brubeck- One Alone

[Stormcrow]

Dave has recieved a lot of flak in his time. Some people deride his playing, saying it is just pounding.

Well, those people need to check out his newer solo recordings! Yes, a few times he pounds... but only when it suits the song. Other times he is wistful... playful... mediative... romanitc.

This CD was very good (if not quite reaching as high as the, IMHO, masterpeice "Just You, Just Me.") Dave opens with "That Old Feeling," which is sentimental and touching. "One Alone," the title track, is great.. opening pensively but developing into a romping, stomping, playful tune. The two Ellington tunes, "just Squeeze Me," and "Things Ain't what they Used to Be," are great. "Summer Song" is also very nice. "Weep No More" is deeply emotional. "Bye Bye Blues" sees Dave playing stride-style, and the closing "Over the Rainbow" is also fantastic... a minimalist, quiet end to the CD.

This CD is great. Whoever under-appreciates Brubecks's work needs to check out both this and "Just You, Just Me."

[Stormcrow]

Hmm... after a few more listens I think i have decided that "One Alone" is better than "Just You, Just Me."

And I'm not the only one who thinks so:

InfoTrac Web: InfoTrac OneFile.


Source: Down Beat, April 2001 v68 i4 p66.

Title: One Alone.(Review)_(sound recording review)
Author: John Ephland

Subjects: Sound recordings - Reviews
People: Brubeck, Dave
Nmd Works: One Alone (Sound recording) - Reviews

Electronic Collection: A72502741
RN: A72502741


Full Text COPYRIGHT 2001 Maher Publications, Inc.
Dave Brubeck
One Alone
Telarc Jazz 83510
****

One Alone is a lovely record. In fact, it may be the loveliest record that
pianist Dave Brubeck has ever made. It certainly helps that it's a solo-piano
album. The 80-year-old's approach on One Alone suggests a definitive
mellowing--on tunes like Harold Arlen's "Over the Rainbow" and "I'll Never
Smile Again," the veteran's hallmark percussive cadences and harmonic
punctuations are nowhere to be heard. Instead, Brubeck's way with a melody,
and his inventive, patient explorations, are emphasized and expressed.

The delicacies of One Alone harken back to a style that has permeated
Brubeck's work as a melodicist of the first order: e.g., "Softly, William,
Softly" and "Lonesome" (from 1966's out-of-print Time In), one of his earlier
versions of "Summer Song" (from 1961's The Real Ambassadors) and "Autumn in
Washington Square" (from 1964's Jazz Impressions Of New York). These examples
reveal the cliche that Brubeck was incapable of anything other than forceful,
unswinging meanderings or melodic invention in a trendy search for more exotic
time signatures.

On One Alone, those fortissimos are gone, replaced by a sound that is almost
unrecognizable. The subtle reharmonizations of "Over The Rainbow," his stride
tendencies on Mercer Ellington's "Things Ain't What They Used To Be" and his
makeover of his own beautiful "Summer Song," refashioned almost beyond
recognition, all indicate a more muted rumination is at work. None of the 13
cuts here--played with little or no improvisational punch, let alone
swing--provide much heat. But there is much light, and certainly much warmth.

The one thing I don't agree with is the "let alone swing" part. I've never quite understood why people say Dave can't swing.