Brubeck Archive Now Available for Online Viewing, Listening

By DownBeat I Jul. 2, 2024

Dave and son Chris Brubeck with broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite in a historic photo from the archive.
(Photo: Courtesy The Brubeck Collection)

July 1 was the 65th anniversary of the biggest-selling jazz song of all time, “Take Five,” recorded that day in 1959 by the iconic Dave Brubeck Quartet.

The world can now see and hear Dave Brubeck’s archive of 22,000-plus items online at brubeckcollection.org.

While digging through boxes left behind by the late pianist and composer, Brubeck’s son Chris and his wife, Tish, uncovered a treasure trove of recordings, manuscripts, photos and memorabilia for The Brubeck Collection, established by late jazz legend Dave Brubeck and his wife, Iola, as a “living archive” of Dave’s long and illustrious career as a celebrated musician and composer. It is housed at The Wilton Library in Wilton, Connecticut, the New England town where Dave spent the last part of his life.

Chris says he remembers crawling under his father’s piano as world-class musicians played in the family living room with his dad and watching him shoot baskets with Miles Davis and others he simply knew as his dad’s musician friends. His father taught him piano in between tours, and his brothers learned guitar and bass. They would all gig together when the youngest was only 11.

A Grammy-nominated composer and performer in his own right, Chris now hopes to pass along his dad’s legacy to future musicians, fans, historians and anyone who is curious about Dave’s journey from growing up as a California rancher’s son in the 1920s to his Civil Rights involvement to becoming a champion of jazz education and one of the most celebrated musicians in jazz history.

In a gesture of “giving back” to music education, Chris set up the Brubeck Jazz Summit with his wife. He continues to tour the world in the Brubeck Brothers Quartet, whose recordings have landed in the Top 10 on Jazz Radio Charts. His compositions have been commissioned by the Boston Symphony, New York Pops, Kennedy Center, Baltimore Symphony and many others.

To view The Brubeck Collection, CLICK HERE. DB