One of the world’s premier jazz archives, The Dave Brubeck Collection at Wilton Library (Wilton, CT), announced the launch of its enhanced and interactive digital archive, making the 22,000+ item collection catalog easily searchable and browsable online for the first time to everyone worldwide.
This new digital archive includes a thousand digitized photos, recordings, scores, and documents. For more than 128 years, Wilton Library has served as the cultural and intellectual center of Wilton, CT with the mission to inform, enrich, connect, and inspire the community.
This robust collection, established by Dave Brubeck and his wife features unreleased music, interactive tour maps, photos, correspondence, concert programs, posters, and song timelines from the biggest–selling jazz single of all time “Take Five” – which Dave Brubeck Quartet member Paul Desmond composed 65 years ago – to Brubeck’s achievements in the classical world with his prolific compositions.
Made available on International Jazz Day, this rich resource shares Brubeck’s legacy with musicians, students, researchers, jazz aficionados, and anyone curious about the artist’s broad cultural impact and many dimensions: from his music and family life to his involvement in the 1950s and 60s Civil Rights Movement and beyond.
Creating an online digital archive for The Brubeck Collection was an essential step in making its broad scope of materials accessible worldwide. Dave Brubeck was an internationally renowned musical pioneer and we have been honored to steward his legacy, at Wilton Library and now everywhere. We hope people will enjoy visiting us online as well as in person, where the full range of this large and important collection can be experienced.
The Brubeck Collection Curator Michael Bellacosa.
Dave Brubeck (1920-2012), pianist and composer whose legendary career spanned more than six decades, was one of the most popular and innovative musicians in the jazz world. The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s acclaimed 1959 Time Out album was the first jazz album to sell a million copies, and the album’s track “Take Five” remains the biggest–selling jazz single of all time. Other well-known Brubeck works that have become jazz classics include “Blue Rondo à la Turk,” “In Your Own Sweet Way,” “Unsquare Dance,” and “The Duke.”
In addition to his decades of success in jazz, Brubeck had a lifelong interest in interweaving jazz and classical music. His compositions include the popular Christmas choral pageant “La Fiesta de la Posada,” ground-breaking collaborations with Leonard Bernstein, “Upon this Rock”—written for Pope John Paul II’s U.S. visit, and “Elemental Brubeck,” choreographed by Lar Lubovitch and part of the San Francisco Ballet’s repertoire.
He was a revered performer at international jazz festivals and concert halls and performed at the White House many times. Throughout his career, he received numerous honors and awards including the National Medal of Arts from President Clinton, the GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a 1954 TIME magazine cover as the leader of a new jazz age. Brubeck was designated a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress and on his 89th birthday in 2009, he received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors Award.
Active in the 1950s & 60s Civil Rights Movement, Brubeck refused to play anywhere audiences were segregated, saying “jazz would always represent the music of freedom.” While serving in World War II, Brubeck’s Wolf Pack Band was the first integrated military band.
After amassing the archival collection, Dave and Iola Brubeck sent the materials to their alma mater in 2000. After Dave and Iola passed, the Brubeck family decided to place the Collection at Wilton Library located in the family’s hometown for more than 60 years.
For more information and to explore the Brubeck Collection, visit here.
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