Brubeck, Dave (David Warren Brubeck) [key], 1920–2012, American pianist and composer, b. Concord, Calif. Brubeck began studying piano at the age of four and later studied composition with Darius Milhaud and Arnold Schoenberg. In 1951 he organized a jazz quartet with alto saxaphonist Paul Desmond. His quartet broadened the jazz audience, touring college campuses and undertaking several State Department sponsored tours abroad. After ending his original quartet in 1972, Brubeck formed a group with his three sons, Chris, Dan, and Darius, to play more contemporary-flavored jazz. He continued to tour through the rest of his life, sometimes with a revived quartet with various personnel. His music, influenced by modern classical composers, was distinguished by complex harmony and the use of meters not typical in jazz. Among his most famous compositions are "Time Out" and "Blue Rondo à la Turk." Brubeck was a Kennedy Center honoree (2009) as well as being awarded many honorary doctorate of music degrees.
See biographies by F. M. Hall (1996), D. Ramsey (2013), P. Clark (2020); study by S.A. Crist, Dave Brubeck's Time Out (2019); Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way (2010, documentary film).
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