The youngest of three musical brothers, Dave Brubeck was born in Concord, California on December 6, 1920.  His father was a cattle rancher, and his mother a pianist and music teacher.  Although Dave began playing professionally by his early teens, he enrolled in college as a pre-med student with the idea of becoming a veterinarian and returning to the ranch.  He worked his way through school as a jazz pianist in local clubs, and eventually decided to forsake the cattle business and changed his college major to music.

Brubeck recorded with his first trio in San Francisco in 1949, and won Best Small Combo Awards in both the Critics Poll and Readers Poll in Down Beat Magazine. When the Dave Brubeck Quartet with Paul Desmond was first formed in 1951, it caused quite a stir in the jazz world, launching what later became known as “West Coast Jazz” or “Cool” Jazz.  The Quartet’s recordings and concert appearances on college campuses probably introduced more new fans to jazz than any other group in jazz history. 

Throughout his career, Brubeck’s joy in performing has continued to excite multiple generations.  An early jazz “experimenter,” Brubeck’s courage and talent led the Chicago Tribune to call him “a musician who always has delighted in crossing musical boundaries that lesser artists fear.”