Seton Hall University - Galleon Yearbook (South Orange, NJ)

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thing for Louis Armstrong which was striking out at racial prejudice. I ' ve done my own thing, but not in the context of my own groups. GALLEON: You mean something such as your album, Truth is Fallen? BRUBECK: Yes, those are social comment. It ' s too bad we didn ' t lis- ten to it. I think truth is fallen, I thought it fell pretty hard about two years ago, now the whole country knows it, but people didn ' t run out and buy my records because it isn ' t entertaining, it wasn ' t played on the radio stations. But it ' s trying to say, man, we ' re in big trouble. And it ' s I that knows we ' re in big trouble. And I ' m trying to tell you, but no- body listens. But I know that I ' ve done my best. I ' m trying to get a message across, and maybe if I would have said it in a more col- loquial sense the kids might have listened instead of the biblical text. What kid is going to listen to me when I quote Isaiah 59, Truth is fallen in the streets, and equity can- not enter . But if they listen after Watergate happens they ' re going to say, what was he talking about? And then I say to myself how ad- vanced the old testament is because it ' s a parallel situation. GALLEON: Then it appears that people realize all too late that the truth was told long ago, left for them to listen to. And this is not only to be taken in a theological sense. BRUBECK: If you ' re really search- ing for the truth, if you ' re really in- to religion you ' ll see that Christ was given the three temptations: one was all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. This is completely ignored what he was given. One was a miracle. To jump off the fire and God would save him . He said, no that won ' t work. We have all the mir- acles in the world now and none of them are working. The atomic bomb and everything we can do; none of it is working. The other one was, feed man, and change his stone to bread. And he said, man cannot live by bread alone. We can feed the world right now but that doesn ' t work. We do feed the world, we are one of the most generous countries in the world, but it doesn ' t help us. Because we don ' t give love, we give food. So he said, bread won ' t work and power won ' t work. A miracle won ' t work. So what ' s left? Love. And we really don ' t try. There ' s a war department, is there a peace department? Will we give a few I’m trying to tell you, but nobody listens. But I know that I’ve done my best.” nickels for peace? The politicians woud vote for peace, for cultural exchange which would bring peace to the world more than anything else we ' re doing. Last year all we spent was five hundred thousand dollars. That ' s like the money need- ed for one gas tank on a jet plane, one fighter. Is that peace? With the culmination of this in- terview, Dave Brubeck and sons as- cended onto the stage, approached their instruments as musicians in- stead of pacifiers and went on to display the brilliance and dynamism which have become trademarks of the Brubeck name. 11

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continued BRUBECK Do you like it, dislike it, and do you have any favorite groups? BRUBECK: Well, I like the groups that use the jazz idiom. GALLEON: Like John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra? And Larry Corryel? BRUBECK: Yes, Corryel is great, and Chick Corea is a fantastic pian- ist. And Weather Report is an ex- cellent group. Then there are some good players in a lot of groups that are just wasting themselves. I wouldn ' t say who they are but I know that they can play a lot better than they ' re doing. They ' re playing too loud, for instance, and the pub- lic likes to have their ears blown out, and they are not playing their instruments right. But they are great. Someday they ' re going to wise up, and some day the public is going to allow them to be great and play something that shows off their great technique instead of a lot of over amplified music. But they are still great and there are a lot of great players that aren ' t playing great. But the public won ' t allow them to. They want to make their bread. GALLEON: And they ' re attempt- ing to find the easiest way? BRUBECK: Well, sure, and they ' re doing what doesn ' t come naturally. GALLEON: Then you believe that there is a lot of wasted talent around. BRUBECK: In my opinion, but they ' re getting wiser and wiser. They ' re listening to Segovia; rock guitar players are listening to class- ical and jazz guitar players that approach the instrument as an in- strument. And they want to do this, but they ' re waiting for the public to recognize it and they ' re leading the public to this recognition, they are honest and sincere. They will lead the public back where you can play your instrument. GALLEON: How do you feel about amplification in music. Is it appropriate? BRUBECK: Just look at the prob- lems we ' re going through now. I ' ve played for 20 years where I just walked into a hall and sat down and played. Now you ' ve got to take all this time with balance because the whole thing is just unnatural. Electronic instruments make every- thing unnatural. I know some great rock pianists that have switched to electric piano to be heard. So as a pianist I ' m drugged with the idea that everything is overamplified, be- cause my fingers are sore when the night is over because everybody also is amplified. And I hate amplifi- cation and to try to be heard on the piano over amplified instruments is almost impossible. GALLEON: How were the acous- tics at the Newport Jazz Festival? BRUBECK: Well, they were ade- quate. They had great equipment. But this whole idea of great equip- ment, so what, you know? It should be that a guy can be heard playing his instrument in a natural way. And when it goes back to that we ' ll have better music. GALLEON: Are you opposed to such instruments as the electric piano? BRUBECK: No, I ' m not, but there is a way to use this so that the audi- ence isn ' t deafened. GALLEON: How do you feel about groups such as the Mothers of Invention, with Frank Zappa, whose concern is social comment. And do you feel that social comment has a place in music. BRUBECK: Absolutely. I approve of trying to improve things. If social comment is what you have to do then you do it. I don ' t feel that at a jazz concert you should have some- body give speeches or go around singing songs, but I ' ve written a lot of religious music. I wrote a little 10

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it M ’ Graham Nash is no great musician. He plays simple rhythm piano, strums the guitar, and is still discovering the harmonica. His accompaniments, though, are like the framing of a fine painting — the real beauty is in the composition, and his songs are works of art. The music is Graham Nash ' s September 30 concert in Walsh Audi- torium was a varied selection of his best material. There were the standards, Pre-Road Downs , Our House , and Teach Your Children. There were songs from his new album, and there were surprises. Musically, parts of the concert were weak. He hit flat piano chords in Immigration Man , missed the beat in Southbound Train , and flubbed the middle eight of James Taylor ' s Close Your Eyes. But what melodies. Graham Nash writes beautiful, flowing progressions, and sings them with incredible perfection. He has a clear, power- ful voice and an extra- ordinary range. His singing, in fact, first united him with David Crosby and Stephen Stills, who needed a high third for their tight three-part harmonies. The three new songs in the concert showed a growing attention to melodic fluidity and lyrical precision. The themes were his usual — love, self, and politics. The new album will have a lot of rock V roll, romantic songs, and some other things, says Nash, who has also been recently recording with Crosby, Stills, and Neil Young. We have already cut four or five tracks for an album, he said, but they ' re not as good as we wanted them to be. When you ' re out of touch for so long you don ' t know if people still dig you or if they think you ' re old hat. It ' s been five years (since the group began), he said. We ' re ready to do the whole thing again with a tour, Nash said. Graham Nash ' s first solo tour ended with the Seton Hall concert. We could ' ve gone on a big 12