Brubeck is within Earshot

   Many do not realize the effect jazz has had on all genres and the history that surround this complex music. Jazz is unique being that it is one of the few types of music that can combine traditional symphonic instrumentation with funky percussion to create anything from smooth ballads to odd, offbeat, bossa nova grooves.  It continues to be the classiest music around, an outlet for the conformist in all of us. However one describes it, it's just plain cool.

The Jazz Age is now and fortunately Seattle has a front row seat. Students at the University of Washington have the privilege of living in a city permeated in jazz culture. Seattle is not exactly New Orleans, but downtown Seattle reeks of the very music created through a mysterious combination of African rhythms and smooth woodwind melodies. And now another October has passed and the annual Earshot Jazz Festival has once again come out to saturate the Emerald City with "groove."

This year's headliner, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, is expected to draw a particularly large crowd. Everyone from the true jazz fanatic to the random KPLU listener is familiar with classic Dave Brubeck chart toppers like "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo A La Turk." However, what may have escaped today's hip jazz scene is that Seattle, and more specifically the University of Washington, is home to its own little piece of the Dave Brubeck Quartet: Mr. Bill Smith.

William O. Smith is a former professor of theory and composition in the School of Music at the University of Washington. He is also a living legend and is more than willing to discuss his life, his music, and his long-time friendship with Dave Brubeck. Fresh from a seminar at the University of Syracuse, dressed in elegant black with a silver cross hanging from his neck the 75 year old jazz master spoke about the experiences that have filled almost six decades:

"When I was ten years old, living in California, a door-to-door salesman came to the door and said to my mother 'No household can afford to be without a musician. You should give your son clarinet lessons.' " Smith, his voice filled with the moment, captures the pleading of his boyhood self. "I begged her [to buy the clarinet]" said Smith.

If you think of Bill Smith as a shadow of his larger than life colleague Dave Brubeck, don't. This man has a wondrous career all his own, not to mention the kind of cultural experiences most can only dream about. Bill Smith immersed himself in prestigious academic settings like the Julliard School of Music, Mills College, University of California, Berkley, and the Paris Conservatory through the early forties and fifties. Throughout the next decade, Smith taught at the University of California, the San Francisco Conservatory, and the University of Southern California. Though Smith has trodden his own path, there is no doubt about the sense of friendship he shares with his colleague Dave Brubeck.

According to Smith, Dave Brubeck came from a very simple background. His father was a rancher and Dave spent his childhood on a ranch. His mother was a concert pianist; she gave lessons to Brubeck. When Brubeck went to college, he was studying to be a veterinarian but he couldn't stand the idea of being away from music. Smith met Dave Brubeck at Mills College, where Brubeck had just returned from the war. Brubeck's jazz band was on the German front. Smith remembers Brubeck telling him how members would rehearse their band; the members would go out and fight and would come back all shot up and unable to play. Dave Brubeck came back with a strong desire to promote peace.

"Dave and I met in a composition class of Darius Milhaud, a French composer who was teaching at Mills College in 1946. In our student days, we were just starving students. We were both studying 'non-jazz' composition. We were just college buddies and we had a group called the Octet which we had for two or three years and then out of that group we took the Rhythm section which then became the famous Quartet. The Octet was sort of a rehearsal band. We did concerts, but we weren't trying to make a profit we just wanted to play our music together."

After living abroad in Rome for several years, Smith and Brubeck were reacquainted and once again began playing in the Octet they had formed in college. By the early 1960s, Smith was composing yearly albums for the Dave Brubeck Quartet, and sharing the playing time with the Quartet's famous saxophonist Paul Dresmond. Smith would record the album; Desmond would tour with the Quartet.

"In the sixties, [Dave Brubeck] had so many recording obligations, he was glad to have me take responsibility for writing and playing on those albums. He still writes most of his own music. I would play as a guest with Dave from time to time, but Paul Desmond was the regular player in the Quartet."

While traveling in India and Turkey, the complex meter Brubeck is known for began to emerge.

"In India they hear all these complex rhythms and meters. When they got back to the US, Dave suggested they each write a song not in a normal meter."

Paul Dresmond wrote a little tune in 5/4 time. "Take Five" was born and the Brubeck Quartet had launched itself with its most popular record of all: Time Out.

In the meantime, Smith was in Rome touring with his own jazz group, the American Jazz Ensemble. By 1966, Bill Smith was lured from his life in California and abroad by the University of Washington's School of Music.

"The director of the School of Music had heard about me from mutual friends in California. He wanted someone to start up a contemporary music group and hopefully get a Rockefeller Grant. We did that Rockefeller Grant, which in turn enabled us to cultivate professionals in the business."

After the death of Paul Desmond in 1977, Smith started touring regularly in the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

"During the eighties I had a double job of carrying on my university activities but also performing with Dave so it meant a lot of flying to the East Coast and Europe. The Quartet played in Europe, Asia, and most memorably in Moscow before and after the Iron Curtain fell. Those were good times."

Smith retired from the University of Washington in 1997 and participates in residencies with several universities, including workshops and classical concerts. He still performers several times a year with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, mostly while the group tours California, the state Smith grew up and lived in for so many years. His friendship with Dave Brubeck has survived decades of separation, sweet reunions and classic music. Smith now resides near the UW, spending several months of the year in Rome with his current jazz ensemble, the Bill Smith Quartet, and playing classical music along the way. Smith will join his friend Dave Brubeck for several charts on Sunday night.

"[Dave Brubeck] is laid-back. For all his fame, he is pretty much a regular fella'. He is not stuffy, pretentious or arrogant, but rather modest, friendly and helpful to other musicians. He is sympathetic to the plights of the music world. He's a good guy."

The Dave Brubeck Quartet, with Bill Smith, plays The Earshot Jazz Festival Sunday, November 4 at 8pm at the Paramount Theater. Tickets run $24.50-$37.50; 206-547-9787. For more information about other festival events, visit www.earshot.org