Saturday, December 08, 2012

RIP another one

Some time back I shared my thoughts on the passing of songwriter Hal David. Then on Wednesday Geogal texted me asking if I heard Dave Brubeck had died. (For the casual reader, I listen to a fair amount of jazz in my spare time.) Since Geoana doesn't listen to the genuine American form of music I decided to have her listen to a segment of "Blue Rondo A La Turk." She liked it. Now we are on a road trip. I brought along my boxed CD set, "Time Signatures." Yesterday along our journey the little one got to hear the entire tune, she REALLY likes it. Of course, that piece was just one of many I listened to while cruising down the interstate in The Lone Star State. Seemed like a fitting tribute. I first heard Brubeck's name in elementary school music class. The music teacher played a piece of his for all of us, then we broke out into groups to come up with some type of routine to be set to the tune, called "The Unsquare Dance." It's a two-minute-long song but as with most things Brubeck, it's anything but simple. The teacher used this to, among other things, teach us what a "coda" is. My classmates and I came up with a few routines to do to this piece, but obviously nothing matching the skill and technique of these two professional dancers:

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