Darius Brubeck Quartet
For Lydia and the Lion
Accessible jazz with a South African accent; loose, live feel - good for parties and/or serious listening.
About the CD:
We simply played everything twice in this London recording, hoping to capture the feeling of the live gigs that we've played in the last couple of years. Some takes were edited together to include the best of both, but the immediacy of live performance remains.
Tsakwe, Baby I Don't Know and my own tunes, Monkey's Wedding and The Lion at the Bar are from my South African period teaching at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. I believe that Blowin' in the Wind, so often heard during the Vietnam war, is still relevant and asks the significant question, "how many times?"
For Lydia is new and the standard I'll Be Seeing You is old, flavored with hints of Bach and Monk.
My thanks and appreciation to Mike, a long-time comrade in many bands and many places and to Wes and Matt for their great contribution. And, special thanks always to Catherine Brubeck, Executive Producer, Manager and wife, for conceiving of this project and making it happen.
"For Lydia and The Lion" is a double dedication, to a multi-talented and musical grand-daughter, Lydia Elmer and to Glynis Malcolm-Smith, Program Administrator at UKZN's Centre for Jazz, where she also presided over the very popular bar for 15 years with sagacity and authority.
- Darius Brubeck
October, 2008
After 25 years of teaching in South Africa, where he founded and directed the first jazz degree course at an African University, Darius Brubeck is concentrating on composing and touring. He has just recorded a new CD, “For Lydia and the Lion” and has started his own label, Gathering Forces. The name suggests pooling energies and influences, appropriate for someone whose experience includes folk, blues, soul and rock bands in the ‘60s, backing Don McClean and Larry Coryell, playing with some of the all-time greats of South African jazz, composing for the London Symphony Orchestra and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and leading his own groups. As a jazz pianist, Darius’ biggest influence is undoubtedly his famous father, Dave Brubeck. Darius and his brothers, Chris and Dan, toured with Dave as “Two Generations of Brubeck” and “The New Brubeck Quartet” in the ‘70s and still play together from time-to-time.
World: African- South