Dave Brubeck Still Has All That Jazz

Almost 19 months after triple-bypass heart surgery, and just a few months shy of his 70th birthday, jazz great Dave Brubeck is still thriving on the fast-paced tempo of life on the road.

“I’ve been jumping all over the world--Turkey, Finland, Italy, Spain, Andorra, the Netherlands, England, France, California, Canada,” the pianist and composer said in a telephone interview from his home in Wilton, Conn.

“If you can live through what I just lived through, you’ve got to be in pretty good health, surviving all those different time zones, having to sleep in a different bed every night and having to eat different food every day. The only easy thing about life on theroad is when you finally get to play the concert,” Brubeck said.

Life on the road has had some pleasant surprises for Brubeck as a father who takes great pride in his musical sons.

“I ran into my son Danny, a drummer who has his own fusion band called the Dolphins, at several festivals in Europe. Purely by accident, my band followed his on the same stage at Nice, France, so I actually got a chance to sit in with his group, which had an arrangement of ‘Blue Rondo a la Turk,’ ” he said.

“Blue Rondo a la Turk” was one of many big hits by the Brubeck Quartet, one of the hottest bands of the 1950s and early ‘60s, before rock monopolized the pop music marketplace.

“Back then, jazz was more like the acceptable music of America. It was our popular music and our classical music. Now it’s more our classical music,” Brubeck said.

Jazz education has played a key role in spreading the word about the music, he said. That role is being performed at the university level by two of his sons: Matthew, who lectures at Cal State San Jose, and Darius, who teaches at the University of Natal in South Africa.

This year is filled with many more concerts for Brubeck, including two special dates in London. Brubeck, who was born Dec. 6, 1920, in Concord, Calif., will celebrate his 70th birthday by performing with the London Symphony Orchestra Nov. 27 and 28. He’ll be joined by his musical sons, Chris, Matthew, Darius and Danny and French violinist Stephane Grappelli.

Both dates are sold out.