- [Announcer] Funding for this program has been provided by the FS Foundation, bringing together adults of all abilities and backgrounds as they pursue passion, prosperity and purpose.

Linda & Alvaro Pascotto.

The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

Additional support provided by these funders.

(lively orchestral music) - We're Back at 100 is going to be a spectacular concert, not only because of the great music of Dave Brubeck, but because two of his sons are here in the Brubeck Quartet playing.

- And so this was really special.

This concert was not only honoring the 100th birthday of Dave Brubeck, but also the 10th anniversary for Classical Tahoe.

- We're very lucky that this weekend we have the Conductor Maestra Gabriela Díaz Alatriste and she is right on it.

- Of course the songs are so famous.

Some of them are just so famous that, of course I knew them, heard them many times in a different arrangement, not for orchestra.

- It's the first orchestral jazz with an ensemble that we have presented.

- I mean, what a wonderful thing to, you know, merge symphonic music with jazz music.

- Such an amazing group of musicians.

These are like, you know, incredibly superior musicians and even more important, they're musicians with the best attitudes I've ever worked with.

You know, like let's get out of New York, it's really hot in the concrete in August, let's go up to a beautiful place and let's make music together.

- I don't think there's a part of the musical world that hasn't been affected by Dave Brubeck's music.

It's such a delight and so fundamental and we are going to experience all of that.

- We're gonna open the program with this very happy tune called "The Basie Band is Back in Town."

And it's kind of strange because there are a lot of musical trademarks that comes from my father's original compositions, you know, things like odd time signatures and some exotic modal things.

And this is the most straight ahead thing.

I mean, Dave really appreciated, you know, older style jazz.

He worshiped Count Basie and Duke Ellington and those guys.

So this piece really sounds like Basie, it's a attribute the Count Basie, so that's what we're opening with is a jolly, happy, swinging piece.

One, a two, a one, two, three.

("The Basie Band is Back in Town") (swinging jazz orchestral music) (swinging jazz orchestral music continues) (piano solo music) (swinging jazz orchestral music) (trombone solo music) (swinging jazz orchestral music) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) "In Your Own Sweet Way," it's actually Dave's most recorded piece by other musicians.

I think there's other maybe like 140 different jazz musicians have recorded this.

And one of the things that makes it very special to our family is that first of all he wrote it, dedicating it to our mother.

He was playing in San Francisco nightclubs in the '50s, but Miles Davis came in and heard Dave play this tune, came back at intermission said, "Man, I really dig that tune.

I wanna play that.

Will you write it out for me?"

So Dave wrote it out quickly at intermission, as you might, and being maybe a little nervous that Miles Davis is asking you to do it, as he kind of wrote a note kind of sloppy, so Miles did record it on his next record, but he also put a note in it that is kind of far out and like a lot of people play it the way Miles did it, you know, because that's the way he accidentally read my dad's kind of sloppy writing and I always laugh 'cause if I play it on trombone, I can slide right through both of those adjacent notes and kind of pleased the Miles Davis fans and Dave fans too.

("In Your Own Sweet Way") (slow methodical music) (violin solo music) (violin solo music continues) (jazzy orchestral music) (audience applauding) (jazzy orchestral music continues) (guitar solo music) (piano solo music) (audience applauding) (bass guitar solo music) (jazzy orchestral music) (audience applauding) (audience applauding) "Cassandra" is a tune that Dave wrote that I always loved and from the second I heard it, I'm just thinking like, "Aw, man, this would be so great for big band or big orchestra.

It's a real pop and burnin' kind of tune and I said to my dad, I said, "I can just hear it, man, give me the green light, let me orchestrate this for you."

So we did and that's all I can say.

It's a great tune with a ton of energy.

It's a lot of fun.

("Cassandra") (big band orchestral music) (big band orchestral music continues) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) - That band is really great.

I love the arrangements.

There's a few that are my favorite like the "Unsquare Dance."

It's a great one.

- "Unsquare Dance" is a really interesting piece in Dave's repertoire because he actually, with his famous quartet with Paul Desmond, Joe Morello and Eugene Wright, they only recorded this piece once in the studio and they never played it live again and if you listened to the original recording of "Unsquare Dance," you can hear them laughing because at the time the idea of playing in seven was so unusual.

A march is in four, a waltz is in three, and 7/4 is divided in this case, one, two, three, four, that's the march part, and then one, two, three, the waltz part, and this piece is one, two, three, four, one, two, three, one, two, three four, one, two, three, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and then it's kind of a blues.

So I used to work with this banjo player named Bill Crawford and Bill Crawford dared me to write lyrics to it too 'cause he sang, so I did and it's kind of funny to write lyrics in seven.

And in fact, I am going to attempt to sing it while playing when we do this.

- So he sings, he plays bass guitar, he plays trombone.

It's like, forget it, I do one thing.

So these guys are really incredible.

- A one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

("Unsqare Dance") (hands clapping) (bluesy jazzy orchestral music) ♪ Try the blues in one, seven, four ♪ ♪ It can drive you crazy ♪ But you're always looking for the eighth beat ♪ ♪ Take one off and you get six, six beat ♪ ♪ And when you get used to it ♪ It starts at your feet ♪ Unsquare dance (bluesy jazzy orchestral music) ♪ Too bad if you fall on the floor ♪ ♪ We're not playing four anymore ♪ ♪ Do-Si-Do and promenade ♪ Now we've got it made in the shade ♪ ♪ Don't be shy, c'mon take a chance ♪ ♪ Unsquare dance (bluesy jazzy orchestral music) ♪ And so magically swing your partner round and round ♪ ♪ Now it's time for you to get down ♪ ♪ Ain't no one's doing country groove ♪ ♪ You've got a find a new way too ♪ ♪ Don't be shy, c'mon take a chance ♪ ♪ Unsquare dance (bluesy jazzy orchestral music continues) (hands clapping) (drum solo music) (bluesy jazzy orchestral music) (bluesy jazzy orchestral music continues) ♪ Too bad if you fall on the floor ♪ ♪ We're not playing four anymore ♪ ♪ Do-Si-Do and promenade ♪ Hoedown till the last part is played ♪ ♪ Don't be shy, c'mon take a chance ♪ ♪ Everybody's chicken ♪ Oh what a big shot, take a chance ♪ ♪ Nobody's doing the unsquare dance ♪ (audience applauding) (audience cheering) We're gonna do just the opening movement of a three-movement piece and the piece is called "The Blues and Beyond."

Sort of the roots of it are blues, but we go way beyond that.

- It's kind of in-between classical and jazz so it sounds jazzy, but there's definitely classical elements and jazz elements all mixed into one and it comes out with this really cool burnin' piece of music that he wrote from the top of his head.

He was like a modern day Ravel, if you will.

He's a master orchestrator.

- I usually will write till like two in the morning and then I'll get up the next day, like, do I like anything I wrote?

And fortunately, usually the answer is like, well, I like 90% of it.

Usually I can't tell if I really like a piece that I've written until like 10 years later I'll hear it and go like, "Wow, that's good.

Did I write that?"

You know, if I admire the piece from a decade afar then I feel like I've done the right thing.

("The Blues and Beyond") (bluesy jazzy orchestral music) (bluesy jazzy orchestral music continues) (bluesy jazzy orchestral music continues) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) We have an older brother named Darius.

He lived in Africa for more than 20 years and he started the first university-level jazz program on the entire continent of Africa and he had a group that became known as the Jazzanians and it was comprised of all the musicians that love jazz, but they were all from these different ethnic and cultural backgrounds that theoretically hated each other, but the kids, the college-aged kids, you know, they didn't take their prejudice into the music.

And when they started playing this great jazz, it suddenly took on this organic life of its own of like, hey, this is the future of South Africa.

All these disparate elements of our society can work together.

So my father wrote this tune the "Jazzanians."

It's got definitely this kind of an African beat feel, but it also has a great drum solo where Dan is playing what we poked cluster sticks.

It's like if you took, you know, 50 chopsticks and tied them together with rubber bands and has a, it's a very cool sound and I like it even more than the stick sound.

It gives it kind of an ethnic grove.

And Dan usually plays a hell of a solo on it so I'm sure everyone's going to enjoy that.

("Jazzanians") (drum solo music) (jazzy orchestral music) (jazzy orchestral music continues) (drum solo music) (drum solo music continues) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) (jazzy orchestral music) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) When my dad was in Istanbul, he heard street musicians.

These street musicians were doing this.

(hands clapping) And he said, "What the hell kind of beat is that?"

So then he figured out how you could count it as a Westerner, so it's like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

("Blue Rondo a la Turk") (quick tempo orchestral music) (quick tempo orchestral music continues) (bluesy jazzy orchestral music) (bluesy jazzy orchestral music continues) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) (Chris singing scat) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) (guitar solo music) (guitar solo music continues) (quick tempo orchestral music continues) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) (audience cheering)