Word: desmond
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...rhythm seems to take hold of everybody in the room. Drummer Dodge feels it and starts to bang on his Chinese cymbal (an instrument studded with loose rivets that buzz like a dozen sizzling steaks), and his bass drum whaps out compulsively, unpredictably. Bates hunches closer to his bass. Desmond, his lips without their mouthpiece looking like a nearsighted man's eyes without his spectacles, moves quietly away from the piano. Brubeck seems to cut his ties with the tempo and tears off on a remote pulse of his own. He grabs huge fistfuls of notes, builds them into...
Suddenly the rhythm seems to shift gears. Bits of familiar harmonies reappear. In a few moments, it is all over, and the music relaxes. Desmond returns for a bit of polyphonic banter with the relaxed piano, finally swings into a recapitulation of the introduction, and the audience sits back with a sigh before it applauds...
...music he began playing was ruggedly individual. Even Dave's own sideman and best friend, Saxophonist Desmond, almost walked out when he first played with him. "We decided to play the blues in B flat," says Desmond, "but the first chord Dave played was G major! It almost scared me to death...
Wherever they go, Brubeck and Saxophonist Desmond seem to be enveloped in a kind of electric field in which they can communicate almost without words. Their only "arranged" passages are occasional introductions or endings. Before a recent recording session, the desultory opening dialogue went something like this...
...they communicated through what Brubeck regards as a kind of mental telepathy. They will often get bored with the same idea or decide to make a switch at the same moment. They have many private musical jokes, e.g., Brubeck will play a few bars from a lovesong to kid Desmond about a girl friend, and once Desmond memorized the telephone number of a blonde by keying musical notes to each figure-Seaside...