| The Dave Brubeck Quartet | Primary Artist, Track Performer |
| Dave Brubeck | Piano, Indexed Contributor |
| Paul Desmond | Alto Saxophone |
| Joe Morello | Drums |
| Eugene Wright | Bass |
| Dave Brubeck | Composer, Liner Notes |
| Didier C. Deutsch | Reissue Producer |
| Russell Gloyd | Reissue Producer |
| Teo Macero | Producer |
| Fred Plaut | Engineer |
| Robert Waller | Engineer |
| Darcy Proper | Reissue Producer, Mastering |
| Randall Martin | Reissue Design |
| Stacey Boyle | Tape Research |
| Dianne Spoto Shattuck | Packaging Manager |
Anonymous
Posted October 1, 2010
If by chance you have stumbled upon this album, don't dismiss it as one of those gift-shop shelf world music albums! This album is an overlooked classic in jazz music. What Brubeck and his quartet deliver here is a true set of musical paintings, impressions of scenes and emotions, even charachters. The reason it works so well is because of Brubeck's own love of the culture. He approaches the music with a japanese ethic of simplicity that works well with the quartet's sophisticated style. His playing is beautifully organic on Fujiyama, complementing Desmonds masterful solo. Tracks like Tokyo Traffic and The City Is Crying showcase the band at thier best, and along with these song's great interplay, they add some musical textures that jazz often overlooks (Of special interest, the bass work on the City Is Crying). The crowning acheivment of this album, though, is the use of Japanese scales and modes in the mystical Koto Song. Brubeck seems to weave around them effortlessy, creating a restlessly mysterious scene, not unlike an impressionist painter. The song was a concert favourite of Brubeck's, and it's one of my personal favourite tracks. Any Brubeck fan should have got this years ago. Any lover of music should get it now.
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Posted April 8, 2010
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Editorial Reviews
All Music Guide - Thom Jurek
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, Brubeck 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 Brubeck and Desmond created all invoke the East, particularly the folk melodies of Japan directly, while still managing to use ...