Brubeck ’69 Takes His Jazz Quartet on Tour

(By K Alshanetsky ’17)
Jazz pianist, band leader and composer Darius Brubeck ’69 recently toured in Israel with his renowned Darius Brubeck Quartet as part of the Hot Jazz Series. The quartet performed seven shows across the country from June 3 to 10, presenting compositions written by Brubeck and his late father, a legendary jazz pianist best known for his album Time Out.

Before returning to a career as a touring musician, Brubeck spent many years at the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa, where he founded the Centre for Jazz and Popular Music. Both an artist and an academic, he has toggled between these identities for many years.

An article for the Jerusalem Post mentions some of the experiences in Brubeck’s life that lead to this duality:

Like his stellar dad, Brubeck has always had a penchant for stepping outside the well-trodden road of musical endeavor and seeking to learn from other cultures and weave that into his own root-fed material.

“I didn’t go to a music conservatory,” he notes. “I went to Wesleyan University [in Connecticut], which is a very good American style liberal arts university. That allows for a very broad curriculum.”

Now, Brubeck is back to being a full-time musician and is enjoying performing shows across the world with his band. For the Hot Jazz Series tour, the quartet performed for audiences in Ganei Tikva, Kibbutz Lehavot Haviva, Modi’in, Herzliya, Tel Aviv and Haifa.