Artist: Dave Brubeck
Album: Indian Summer
Label: Telarc
Year Of Release: 2007
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Tracklist:
01. You’ll Never Know
02. I’m Alone
03. Autumn In Our Town
04. So Lonely
05. I’m Afraid The Masquerade Is Over
06. I Don’t Stand A Ghost Of A Chance With You
07. Pacific Hail
08. September Song
09. Summer Song
10. Thank You
11. Georgia On My Mind
12. Spring Is Here
13. Sweet Lorraine
14. Memories Of You
15. This Love Of Mine
16. Indian Summer
It’s not uncommon for anyone to turn toward nostalgia as the years wear on, and at age 86, with nearly 60 years of recording behind him and nearly 50 since he shook up the jazz world with his landmark Time Out album, Dave Brubeck is certainly entitled to look back and take stock of his life. Indian Summer the phrase itself suggests an acknowledgement of a waning in progress is something of a companion piece to 2004’s Private Brubeck Remembers. Like that gem, Indian Summer is a solo piano work comprised of Brubeck’s ruminations on standards of the mid-20th century, the period when he was just coming up as an artist and blossoming as a young man. These are reflective, meditative ballads, softly but skillfully played and hinting at melancholy. On time-worn Americana such as “Georgia on My Mind,” “September Song,” “Sweet Lorraine,” and “Spring Is Here,” Brubeck is restrained but soulful, out to prove nothing. It’s not that age has dulled him; Brubeck’s performance is uniformly exquisite, imaginative, and elegant; it’s just not edgy. A small handful of original material nicely complements the standards, adding up to one of the more intimate entries in Brubeck’s enormous discography.