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I wasn't allowed to play in some universities in the United States and out of twenty-five concerts, twenty-three were canceled unless I would substitute my black bass player for my old white bass player, which I wouldn't do.

Dave Brubeck

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Dave Brubeck
Age: 91 †
Born: 1920
Born: December 6
Died: 2012
Died: December 5
Bandleader
Composer
Jazz Musician
Jazz Pianist
Music Arranger
Musician
Pianist
Recording Artist
Songwriter
Concord
California
David Warren Dave Brubeck
David Warren Brubeck
David Brubeck
David W. Brubeck
Five
Twenties
United
Allowed
Canceled
White
University
Universities
Black
Unless
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Three
Wouldn
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The secret of a great melody is a secret.
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Art may not have the power to change the course of history, but it can provide a perspective on historical events that needs to be heard, even if it's seldom heeded. After all the temporary influences that once directed the course of history have vanished, great art survives and continues to speak to each generation.
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Jazz stands for freedom.
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It's like a whole orchestra, the piano for me. And also it's to me the greatest instrument. I shouldn't say that, but I believe that this is the only instrument I can really feel happy about playing.
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The worst thing about the life of a jazz musician on the road is getting to the gig. Once you're there and playing, it's marvelous.
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Kinship doesn't come from skin color. It's in your soul and your mind.
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There's a way of playing safe, there's a way of using tricks and there's the way I like to play which is dangerously where you're going to take a chance on making mistakes in order to create something you haven't created before.
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If I told you all the people that have secretly told me I've influenced them, you'd never believe it, and you'll never see it in print, either.
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There are a lot of people on the lowest rung of Jacob's Ladder, and we must somehow reach down, give them a hand, and make them want to climb. A little really good music never hurt anyone. And when people are given good music they can grow spiritually and even discover they like it.
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I played a lot of sports and it's the plays in basketball that weren't worked out that are the ones that are just fantastic that you remember. We don't know the power that's within our own bodies.
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Jazz stands for freedom. It's supposed to be the voice of freedom: Get out there and improvise, and take chances, and don't be a perfectionist - leave that to the classical musicians.
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The first choral music I remember hearing was Handel's 'Messiah' when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcast it over the radio.
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I had the first integrated Army band in World War II.
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My dad was the manager at the 45,000-acre ranch, but he owned his own 1,200-acre ranch, and I owned four cattle that he gave to me when I graduated from grammar school, from the eighth grade. And those cows multiplied, and he kept track of them for years for me. And that was my herd.
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Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, and many other great jazz musicians objected to their music being called jazz. While the outside world may want to put a label on it, those who create it think of it just as music, and tend not to classify it.
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You have to be taught to hate.
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I was always very aware of drummers. My oldest brother Henry was a drummer, and he drummed on everything in the house from the kitchen sink to stovepipes. He was the first drummer in the Gil Evans Orchestra, so you've got to know how great he was.
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Every individual should be expressing themselves, whether a politician or a minister or a policeman.
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And there is a time where you can be beyond yourself. You can be better than your technique. You can be better than most of your usual ideas. And this is a whole other category that you can get into.
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You could play probably a span of 50 years of me playing St. Louis Blues, and most of the time it will be different every time.
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