tribute to paul

paul desond's purity of sound and his ability to create a memorable melody line with relatively few notes are the most enduring aspects of his style and have led him to be seen as a key figure in cool jazz.
he was to tell brubeck that he was influenced by the swing era jump altoist, pete brown.
one of the key elements of desmond's playing in the '50s was that he steadfastly avoiding adopting the mannerisms of charlie parker.
like lee konitz, this involved developing an entirely different tone with almost no vibrato.
he told gene lees that "i was starting out and every saxophone player , and alto players, especially, and , for that matter, was turned around and stunned by charlie parker, and many of them tried to adapt what he was doing, which meant that they could only become copies with varying degrees of effectiveness. i practically put earmuffs and blinders on to avoid falling into that quicksand, because i knew that it would be the finish for me."
brubeck and desmond shared an affinity for playing ballads and melodies over the original harmonic structure that had a compositional quality of their own.
brubeck made thepoint that in any carefully chosen melodic line, desmond's mind was probably working no less rapidly than parker's, but that he only played 1/16 of the number of otes in order to do so.
brubeck said that there are so few guys that can play with the purity paul had, but when i hear them, people who can develop a theme and not play a million notes, but rather, choice notes, i think we were right.
paul was picking those notes with a great combination of intellect and concern for the purity of the sound, and he wasnt out to dazzle anyone.







desmond said, "i was starting out and every saxophone player