Jazz Casual

Other Album Covers & Images

Jazz Casual DVD

Label: Rhino Home Video
Year: 1961
Released on LP: No
Released on CD: No

Tracks

Take Five
It’s A Raggy Waltz
Castilian Blues
Waltz Limp
Blue Rondo A La Turk

Notes

KQED Television broadcast on 17th October 1961.

The show was produced by Ralph Gleason and Dick Christian. It was presented by Ralph Gleason.

Personnel:

Dave Brubeck
Paul Desmond
Joe Morello
Eugene Wright


From the Back Cover

When Ralph Gleason asked Dave Brubeck to appear on his television series, Jazz Casual, in 1961, it was only natural; not only was the Dave Brubeck Quartet one of the most popular jazz combos in the world at that time and a favorite at clubs in San Francisco, but both Dave Brubeck and his featured alto sax player Paul Desmond were Bay Area natives (Brubeck was born in Concord, Desmond in Berkeley).

This episode features the quartet performing Paul Desmond's 1961 jazz classic Take Five. This lineup of the quartet, with Brubeck on piano, Desmond on alto sax, "Senator" Eugene Wright on bass, and Joe Morello on drums, was considered by many, including Gleason and Brubeck, himself, to be the best of the Brubeck Quartet lineups to date.

The cover photo on this volume, by Jerry Stoll, is a rare treat in and of itself. As Jazz Casual was recorded and mixed "live" to videotape, the noise of a still camera was discouraged. So this photo comes from the only roll of still photograph film of a Jazz Casual production set known to exist!

Toby Gleason

Reviews

Amazon.com

On October 17, 1961, the popular and pioneering pianist-composer Dave Brubeck performed on Ralph Gleason's Jazz Casual, the television show that showcased some of the finest jazz artists in a half-hour of no-frills performance and conversation. Backed by the Lester Young-influenced alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello, Brubeck and his combo perform some of their odd-metered hits. Desmond's dancing ditty, "Take Five" is rendered in a faster tempo than the studio version. Brubeck's ragtime-flavored "(It's a) Raggy Waltz," highlights his percussive piano lines, while "Castillian Blues" and the Turkish strains of "Blue Rondo a la Turk" reveal his multicultural, compositional genius.

Gleason, the show's creator and host, was a well-respected, San Francisco-based jazz critic and author. He remarks during the show that Dave Brubeck was "a provocative, experimental, and interesting musician." That statement is still true today.

Eugene Holley Jr.