Dave Brubeck, jazz composer and pianist, dies aged 91

Dave Brubeck Jazz Festival in Antibes-Juan-les-Pins in 1999. © Vanina Lucchesi / AFP

Dave Brubeck, whose more cerebral approach as a pianist and composer helped elevate jazz in the 1950s and made him one of the music’s best-known figures, died Wednesday in Norwalk, Conn. He was one day shy of turning 92.

 Californian-born, Brubeck had a career that spanned almost all of American jazz since the second world war. He formed the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1951, and his hypnotically catchy Take Five – written by his gifted saxophonist Paul Desmond in 1959 – was the first jazz instrumental to sell one million copies.


Mr. Brubeck’s 1960 recording “Time Out” became the first million-selling jazz album. Its most celebrated track, “Take Five,” was the first jazz single to attain gold-record status. It almost immediately became Mr. Brubeck’s signature tune, one of the most recognizable pieces in jazz.

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