THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Dave Brubeck (1920-2012)

I met Dave Brubeck once. I was a young, very stoned fanzine journalist and I happened to be in a leisure centre in Torbay where Brubeck and Ronnie Scott were doing a gig. I was with my old schoolfriend Ian who was a jazz freak of many years standing. I knew absolutely nothing about Dave Brubeck except for Take Five and I blush to admit that the only reason that I knew that was because it had just been sampled by The Justified Ancients of MuMu. Ian and I bullshitted our way backstage and did a fairly uninspired interview with him. He couldn't have been kinder, and although I have only very few memories of the interview (it was in 1988) I do remember a kind, sweet man who went out of his way to be gentle and kind to two very worse for wear interviewers, one who was tonguetied with fanboyness, and the other who obviously had no idea what he was talking about.

What I do remember is that at the end of the interview I played him Don't Take Five Take what you want and he laughed so much he nearly fell off his chair. He seemed rather flattered that two situationist arty hiphoppers had cared enough to sample him, although he didn't understand the line about "cashing our giros" until I explained it. That made him laugh even more. I went home and bought half a dozen of his albums. I have been a fan ever since.

God Bless you Mr Brubeck. In a strange way you changed my life that day, and apart from when I blagged my way into a performance by a Polish folk group and interviewed John Paul Jones playing a bass balalaika, you were probably the coolest interview I have ever done...

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