Quotes by Dave Brubeck

About Dave Brubeck:

David Warren "Dave" Brubeck is known for employing unusual time signatures, and superimposing contrasting rhythms, meters, and tonalities.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I knew even if I'm a cowboy, I'm going to be involved in jazz in some way.

Dave Brubeck

When I was 20, Shostakovich was my favorite composer. I still find his Fifth Symphony wonderful, with its outstanding themes and rhythms. That's the piece that made me want to be a classical composer.

Dave Brubeck

I started growing up in a hurry and taking a lot of the philosophy I'd heard from church as a kid a lot more seriously - especially the Ten Commandments - and wondering how 'Thou shalt not kill' could be so absolutely ignored. It took me until I was ...

Dave Brubeck

If I told you all the people that have secretly told me I've influenced them, you'd never believe it, and you'll never see it in print, either.

Dave Brubeck

It's like a whole orchestra, the piano for me. And also it's to me the greatest instrument. I shouldn't say that, but I believe that this is the only instrument I can really feel happy about playing.

Dave Brubeck

My mother Elizabeth Ivey Brubeck was a pianist who studied with Dame Myra Hess and Tobias Matthey. As a child in California I used to listen to her play Chopin.

Dave Brubeck

When you start out with goals - mine were to play polytonally and polyrhythmically - you never exhaust that. I started doing that in the 1940s. It's still a challenge to discover what can be done with just those two elements.

Dave Brubeck

I have more energy at the end than I do at the beginning. You can be so beat up that you can scarcely walk on stage but when you get to the piano the excitement kicks in, you forget about being tired.

Dave Brubeck

Once when asked how I would like to be remembered, I answered, "As someone who opened doors.

Dave Brubeck

And there is a time where you can be beyond yourself. You can be better than your technique. You can be better than most of your usual ideas. And this is a whole other category that you can get into.

Dave Brubeck

What I want to happen is to be really creative, and to play something new in the improvisations, every time.

Dave Brubeck

The first choral music I remember hearing was Handel's 'Messiah' when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcast it over the radio.

Dave Brubeck

When I was first aware that I couldn't read music I didn't know I couldn't read because I could play the music that was in front of me.

Dave Brubeck

Do you think Duke Ellington didn't listen to Debussy? Louis Armstrong loved opera, did you know that? Name me a jazz pianist who wasn't influenced by European music!

Dave Brubeck

Jazz isn't dead yet. It's the underpinning of everything in this country. Whether it's a Broadway show, or fusion, or right on through classical music, if it's coming out of the U.S., it's not going to survive unless it's got some jazz influence.

Dave Brubeck

If there's a deadline, I work late. If not, I like to have normal hours, and get up early and work. When things are going well, I hate to quit. And then I'll work 'till exhausted.

Dave Brubeck

I had the first integrated Army band in World War II.

Dave Brubeck

After the Second World War, I returned to California to study composition with Darius Milhaud, who wrote wonderful works like 'Le Boeuf sur le Toit' and 'La Cretion du Monde.' I especially enjoy his work for two pianos, 'Scaramouche.'

Dave Brubeck

Author Bio

  • NameDave Brubeck
  • DescriptionAmerican Jazz pianist and composer
  • AliasesDavid Warren "Dave" Brubeck; David Warren Brubeck
  • BornDecember 6, 1920
  • DiedDecember 5, 2012
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPianist; Composer; Songwriter; Bandleader; Jazz Musician
  • AwardsNational Medal Of Arts; Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award