Reassessment …

… Reconsidering the Piano Legacy of Dave Brubeck, in a Deep Dive Centennial Special | WBGO. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Brubeck was a swing player who overlaid classical music and modern jazz onto his swing style, not a classical player who got into jazz. The critics got it exactly wrong. And because his style was well established by 1942, his swing feel was an older approach, not fully compatible with the modern bebop feel — and, one could argue, not fully compatible with his rhythm sections, which were in the modern vein (even though they were not at all in the modern vanguard).

I was unaware that Brubeck has been disparaged by self-appointed jazz purists. It was certainly hip to like him if you were young in the ‘50s.