Brubeck A La Mode

Label: Fantasy
Year: 1960
Released on LP: Yes
Released on CD: Yes

Tracks

1. Dorian Dance
2. Peace, Brother
3. Invention
4. Lydian Line
5. Catch-Me-If-You-Can
6. Frisco Fog 5
7. The Piper
8. Soliloquy
9. One For The Kids 3
10. Ballade

Personnel

Dave Brubeck (piano)
Bill Smith (clarinet)
Joe Morello (drums)
Eugene Wright (bass)

Reviews

Concord Music Group - Copyright

These ten compositions by Bill Smith explore modal music in a different manner from Miles Davis, who had recorded Kind of Blue a year earlier in 1959. Smith, a longtime colleague of Brubeck's, plays on nine of them, "Soliloquy" being an excursion for Dave, accompanied only by bassist Gene Wright.

Smith reveals a personal style that, however, sometimes sounds like Paul Desmond, if the latter had played the clarinet, and, at other points, conjures up of Jimmy Giuffre. Perhaps if the clarinet had been in jazz vogue at the time, Smith would have received his deserved recognition.


All Music Guide – Review – copyright

One of Brubeck's three recordings of the 1959-61 period that featured clarinetist Bill Smith in the place of altoist Paul Desmond with the Quartet, this one finds Smith contributing ten originals that use various modes and unusual scales.

Scott Yanow

© Copyright Rovi Corporation

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