David Warren Brubeck was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasting rhythms, meters, and tonalities.
Brubeck at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in 1964
The Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1967. From left to right: Joe Morello, Eugene Wright, Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond
Brubeck in 2004
Brubeck in Ludwigshafen, Germany, in 2005
Cool jazz is a style of modern jazz music inspired by bebop and big band that arose in the United States after World War II. It is characterized by relaxed tempos and a lighter tone than that used in the fast and complex bebop style. Cool jazz often employs formal arrangements and incorporates elements of classical music. Broadly, the genre refers to a number of post-war jazz styles employing a more subdued approach than that of contemporaneous jazz idioms. As Paul Tanner, Maurice Gerow, and David Megill suggest, "the tonal sonorities of these conservative players could be compared to pastel colors, while the solos of [Dizzy] Gillespie and his followers could be compared to fiery red colors."
Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1962
Chet Baker, known as the "Prince of Cool", 1983