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Tue, 01 Mar 2005

Brubeck, The Gates of Justice

Dave Brubeck
The Gates of Justice
Dave Brubeck Trio
Kevin Deas
Cantor Alberto Mizrahi
Baltimore Choral Arts Society
Russell Gloyd
LP, Naxos American Classics

This is interesting for a couple of reasons. The first is that most people think of Dave Brubeck in connection with West Coast Cool, a jazz style. This style was branded by revolutionary Blacks in the sixties as white bread music and a lot of other things besides. At the same time, Dave Brubeck was writing this work: a work that celebrates the idea of human justice and the release from oppression. It is a cantata based on Jewish texts. It is a serious work but then, in my book, so is Take Five.

The other interesting thing is that this comes from the Milken Archive. You might possibly not recall that Michael Milken was head trader at an investment bank in the yuppie eighties. He put together zero-deposit finance deals based on junk bonds which enabled a coterie of cronies to make a metric ton of money, and a lot of workers to lose their jobs for no particular reason. The oppressed becomes the oppressor. (Count K)

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