In his own sweet way

I've ALWAYS thought Dave Brubeck was underrated as a jazz pianist and composer, but it's always been difficult to find any consensus. Until now.

I stumbled-upon this tribute compilation to Brubeck and reading the notes there, it was like a huge weight of obligation -- the obligation to prove to the world that there was a serious injustice being perpetrated here -- had been lifted from my shoulders.

I'd always felt like such a square for liking such a square. And now it's like Dave sidled up to me in a bar wearing an evening gown and sez "Baby you doan haffta feel bad no more... I'm gonna make everything awwright... I'm gonna make it all better" and.. well.. let's leave that there, ok?

The tribute compilation features some of the heaviest of the NYC experimental jazz heavyweights, and then some; Dave Slusser, Uri Caine, Pachora, Bill Frisell, Ruins, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Anthony Coleman, Eyvind Kang, Slowpoke, Erik Friedlander, Sex Mob, Dave Douglas, Joey Baron, and David Krakauer. And it is a wonderful, joyful, eclectic, affectionate thing -- which is a good thing and a relief, as some of these tributes can be tiresome, overwrought wastes of time.

This is what they wrote:

Dave Brubeck is an enigma. Vilified by the underground intelligentsia for his stiff rhythmic feel and high record sales, Brubeck was a daring and distinctive composer whose experiments in expanding the language of jazz never got in the way of his natural melodic sense. Cross cultural influences, exotic scales and rhythms, experiments with odd time signatures, polytonality and unusual bar lengths are common place today in the music of cutting edge young jazzers like Steve Coleman, Dave Douglas and the like, but in the 1950s they raised more than a few eyebrows. Brubeck was the first. This is a tribute to a misunderstood experimentalist who introduced these elements into jazz over forty years ago in his own sweet way.

I could have picked any number of tracks from the album to highlight, but I went with the version of Blue Rondo A La Turk by Japanese experimental spazz-core noise-rockers Ruins. Because.. well.. it's a great tune, originally, and it's a super cover version. (So's the original original by Mozart, Rondo Alla Turka -- 'pon which Brubeck based his composition -- for that matter.)

Ruins - Blue Rondo A La Turk (4.43 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

UPDATE
I couldn't leave it there, could I. Here's Sex Mob's fantastic cover of Jumpin' which turns the dainty delicacy of the original into a full-blown burlesque cabaret number.

Sex Mob - Jumpin' (6.74 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

Sex Mob is a New York jazz band, originally formed as a Knitting Factory vehicle for Steven Bernstein to exercise his slide trumpet.