Dave Brubeck.

Dave Brubeck.

Very sad to hear that Dave Brubeck died yesterday; he was 92 apart from one day. Today is his birthday. My dad died the day before his birthday; it was a bit pathetic as the birthday cards came in the mail to him and he wasn't there to read them.

Dave Brubeck upset a lot of purist jazz fans in the 60s; his type of jazz wasn't traditional enough for them – his stuff was too clever; it was called modern jazz. I haven't heard that description for a long time and the other crime he was guilty of was having some of his records in the hit parade, the top twenty, the charts in other words they were hits!

The thing I really loved about Take Five, which is what he is famous for, was the repetitive rhythm of the piano; doo dat doo dat doo dah – I loved this minimalist accompaniment to Paul Desmond's solo on his licorice stick; a solo which was a kind of fugue which gave way to the best drum solo on record by maybe the best drummer ever, Joe Morello, who died not too long ago.

Joe Morello was almost blind and wore those dark spectacles for sight reasons as opposed to looking cool; but he looked cool as did Dave Brubeck.

Of course there were other hits (how terrible for those purists) Blue Rondo a la Turk and It's a Jazzy Waltz – I think it was a Jazzy Waltz or a Raggy Waltz but a something waltz at least.

Dave Brubeck's rhythm influenced my taste a lot as I have been hooked on minimalism ever since and another of my favourite composers is Philip Glass the greatest exponent of it.

It's a strange thing, isn't it, when purists protest at something new – Dylan going electric, springs to mind. Up to the time of The Beatles, University students in Britain would only follow jazz and they would grow beards of the type which seem to be fashionable at the moment – I don't know what it's called; Van Dyke?

But back to the jazz – I am not the greatest jazz fan but I do like piano music of all kinds. I love Fats Waller (and Fats Domino) and his stride piano style of play. Stride piano is when the left hand plays the bass part plus the rhythm; so it's like a guitarist playing the bass and rhythm guitar at the same time plus the lead. The little finger plays the bass and the chord follows it to keep the rhythm and the right hand plays the melody – or the solo.

A great stride piano player, besides Fats Waller, was a middle aged woman who was fairly heavy in weight who had permed hair – yes my mother. But another one was a woman called Mrs Mills. But because she was as she was – middle aged and permed – she wasn't very popular with jazz fans but she was with piano players; she was an amazing player. I can't say the same about my mother but she could certainly knock a tune out too.

A few years ago – and I can't remember the exact circumstances – The Dave Brubeck Quartet were due to play at The Hollywood Bowl, in Los Angeles, and on the night they were due to play something happened to the flights from New York to LA – it might have been the volcano but the point is Dave Brubeck was in Los Angeles and the other three were in New York and flights were cancelled between the two cities. So Dave merely recruited a clarinettist, a drummer and a bass player in Los Angeles who did the concert at a moment's notice; they knew all the tunes.

So that's the end of the Quartet - I have forgotten the name of the bassist as I didn't want to search the Internet for this particular post – and one wonders if it will go on like The Glenn Miller Band; I hope not.