Thirteen years into their tenure,
the Dave Brubeck Quartet
was still able to mine the creative vein for new means of expression. Despite the hits and popularity on college campuses, or perhaps because of it,
Brubeck
,
Paul Desmond
Eugene Wright
, and
Joe Morello
composed a restless band with a distinctive sound. These eight tracks, all based on a tour of Japan the year before, were, in a sense,
fulfilling a dictum from his teacher, the French composer
Darius Milhaud
, who exhorted him to "travel the world and keep your ears open." The sketches
and
Desmond
created all invoke the East, particularly the
folk
melodies of Japan directly, while still managing to use the
Debussian
impressionistic approach to
jazz
that kept them riding the charts and creating a body of music that, while playing into the exotica craze of the moment, was still
composed and played with integrity. The gorgeous modal
blues
that uses Eastern scale whole tones with Western harmonic notions -- chromatically -- that comprise the melody and solo frameworks for
in
"Fujiyama"
are a beautiful contrast to the relatively straight-ahead
ballad
style featured on
"Zen Is When,"
with its 4/4 time sling rhythm and simple melody -- extrapolated by
in purely Japanese whole tone scale on the harmony. Also, the shimmer and whisper of
"The City Is Crying,"
where
's solo is one of the most beautiful of his career, using arpeggios as half tones to reach down into the middle of his horn's register and play harmonically a counterpoint that is as painterly as it is poignant. On
"Osaka Blues,"
once again reaches for an oriental scale to play a modal
a la
Miles Davis
with
Wynton Kelly
;
responds by playing straight
post-bop
Bluesology with even a squeak or two in his solo. In all,
Jazz Impressions of Japan
is one of the great forgotten
records. Its sweetness is tempered with musical adventure and the improvisational experience only a band that had been together 13 years could provide. It's truly wonderful. ~ Thom Jurek