06. Blue Rondo a la Turk

January 26, 2008 - Permalink - No comments

For myself as musician and composer I'm always interested in the roots and background of certain music. Most of the questions can be answered directly or by searching in books or the internet. There however is one question unanswered due today.

To readers who are into Jazz the “Dave Brubeck Quartet” should ring a bell. Ok, it’s probably not the most purest form of Jazz and very mainstream but that is a matter of taste and not worth a discussion.

The band existed with pianist Dave Brubeck, bassplayer Eugene Wright percussionist Joe Morello (technically one of the best drummers ever) and the second frontman Paul Desmond on sax.

During a journey through Europe; Brubeck was very amazed and inspired by Turkish street musicians in Istanbul who could freely play and improvise in 9/8. He took note of this and traveled back to the United States.

After that Blue Rondo a la Turkwas born. It was the B-side of the Jazz classic Take Five and a prominent piece on Time Out. With this the Quartet had a debut as full Jazz album with odd signatures. Brubeck himself even managed to get on the cover of Time magazine for this “break-through”.

Three years ago I spoke with a Turkish fellow musician who lives in the Netherlands. Letting him hear Blue Rondo and he almost instant react with “This intro is part of a Turkish folksong, it’s like two drops of water!” Unfortunately he didn’t know the name of the song nor did he had it somewhere in audio.

It solved just a part of my question. The song was not just some ‘inspiration’ on this odd meter like Brubeck told on the Ken Burns Jazz documentary. the intro could be a duplicate of the original.
The track kept me busy. I’ve searched for years but couldn’t find what piece of music exactly did inspire Brubeck since the source remains unrevealed and is not credited anywhere.

During my stay in Turkey I hope to get the name and a recording of the original. Wich Provides a link between the old and new world as a small part of musical history. Going from folk to jazz, Blue Rondo a la Turk even went to rock; Emerson Lake and Palmer performed there version of it called “Rondo” later in 4/4.

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