Dave Brubeck Quartet's Concert Sold Out

Do not abandon hope, ye who cannot enter Finney.

Although the Dave Brubeck Quartet's 50th anniversary Jazz at Oberlin concert, set for Saturday, October 4, 2003, in Finney Chapel, has sold out, fans without tickets have two listening options. Cleveland radio stations WCLV 104.9 FM and WRMR 1420 AM will air a live broadcast of the concert with simulcasts at www.wclv.com. In addition, the Conservatory is making available a free, live audio feed of the event in Warner Concert Hall.

The Finney concert, broadcast, simulcast, and live audio feed all begin promptly at 8 p.m. Seating in Finney and in Warner Concert Hall is general admission. For more information, please call the Central Ticket Service box office at 440-775-8169.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet, whose program will be announced from the stage, appears under the auspices of Oberlin's Artist Recital Series, which marks its 125th anniversary this season. After 830 subscriptions to the series had been sold, individual tickets for all nine concerts in the series were made available to the public on September 6. The Brubeck event sold out in minutes.

"The subscription sales had been going so well that I was amazed we even had single tickets left for the Brubeck concert," says Barbara Kessler, Central Ticket Service manager. "We sold the remaining tickets in 17 minutes. In nearly 20 years working at the box office, I've never seen an event sell out so quickly and efficiently. I have to commend my student workers; they were a big help to me that day."

Jazz at Oberlin, recorded live by the Dave Brubeck Quartet during a 1953 Finney Chapel performance, earned a place in the annals of jazz history as a significant album not only for Mr. Brubeck, whose reputation as an innovative and original musician it secured, but also for the genre itself, extending its boundaries from the nightclub to the college campus.

"I always considered Jazz at Oberlin a breakthrough album for the Quartet," says Brubeck, "because it caught [Paul] Desmond and me in the early days when we were beginning the concept of 'jazz goes to college' as a concert performance."

The distinctive harmonic approach that pianist Brubeck employed with his 1953 quartet — Desmond on alto sax, Lloyd Davis on drums, and Ron Crotty on bass — plus their daring improvised contrapuntal choruses, caused a stir in the jazz world, launching what later became known as "West Coast" or "cool" jazz. The group performed "These Foolish Things," "Perdido," "Stardust," "The Way You Look Tonight," and "How High the Moon" for an ecstatic and appreciative Oberlin audience whose cheers are well documented on the recording. Jazz critic Gary Giddins later wrote that Jazz at Oberlin would "make many short lists of the decade's outstanding albums."

In recognition of his ongoing contribution to jazz, Brubeck received a Jazz Master's Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1999. He has also received the National Medal of the Arts from the NEA in a White House ceremony. He has been honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his musical contributions over the past half-century, both as pianist and composer.

The current quartet includes Bobby Militello on sax and flute, Randy Jones on drums, and Michael Moore on bass. Additional information about Dave Brubeck is available at www.brubeckinstitute.org.

Subscription and individual tickets are still available for the remaining concerts in the series. For more information, please call the CTS box office at 440-775-8169 or visit www.oberlin.edu/arseries/. Box office hours are Monday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. and select Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m.

The Artist Recital Series is sponsored by the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College with additional support from the Friends of the Artist Recital Series. Media sponsorship for the Artist Recital Series is provided by WCLV 104.9-FM, Cleveland's classical music radio station, WVIZ and 90.3-WCPN ideastream, and Northern Ohio Live magazine.