(2001, 57min)

Initially aired on PBS, Rediscovering Dave Brubeck offers a warm retrospective of Dave Brubeck’s influential and groundbreaking career as one of jazz music’s most popular pianists and composers. From Brubeck’s early dreams of being a cowboy to the classical music education that led him to pioneer innovative rhythms in his compositions, this film summarizes Brubeck’s extraordinary career through archival footage, photographs, and home movies, while simultaneously maintaining a clear focus on Brubeck’s later activities as an actively admired jazz musician. Having just turned octogenarian at the time of filming, Brubeck is revealed as a lastingly vibrant, funny, and insightful artist in a series of thoughtful interviews (many filmed at Brubeck’s home with his wife and sometimes collaborator, Iola Brubeck, by his side). As this is the first feature-length documentary on Brubeck, his fans, and all fans of jazz, are hereby called to take five and settle in with this rewarding portrayal of a true living (and playing) legend of jazz music. — Karl Wachter