West Coast Swing: Dave Brubeck Quartet @ Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco - 10/22

At 87, attending a Dave Brubeck concert is more a "catch him while you can" event then anything else. Or at least those were the expectations going in. And while every one of those years were borne out in his voice and gait, he readily dismissed any notion that his fingers had forgotten their place. Fanciful devices and romantic swagger could be employed, but this was simply:

WOW!

The quartet:
Mr. Brubeck - piano
Bobby Militello - alto sax, flute
Michael Moore - bass
Randy Jones - drums

Mr. Brubeck set about the piano with fingers of bawdy melancholy, adding classical elements to color bopish jazz styling.
Mr. Moore and Mr. Jones swung like great apes on grand chandeliers (on what turned out to be borrowed bass & drums...their own instruments having turned up missing). Mr. Jones' solo on "Take Five" was worth the price of admission alone.
Mr. Militello, whose red face could be seen from my vantage point in the upper tier, was a beast all night. His tone was just that...his and his alone.

After every couple compositions Mr. Brubeck gingerly stood and took to the microphone to regale the crowd with random thoughts and a possible tall tale or two (go ahead prove him wrong):

• in wondering how it was, all those years ago, that Paul Desmond (his long time collaborator and alto-sax player) was able to arrive moments before a gig and find parking nearby Mr. Desmond provided, "You see that? Where it says S.F.P.D. Only? It stands for Saved For Paul Desmond."
• Mr. Brubeck is responsible for starting the Monterey Jazz Festival
• something about the NOLA Jazz Fest...
  a foot of mud...
  planks of wood...
  a 6PM curfew...
  a conga line led by the Wild Tchoupitoula Indians...
  and "that" New Orleans beat employed to get people to leave in an orderly fashion

Noting that it was the night of the first game of the World Series Mr. Brubeck modestly exclaimed that he thought no one would show up. After the audience laughs at and off this notion the Quartet breaks out the finest...THE FINEST...version of that old Tin Pan Alley classic "Take Me Out to The Ball Game".
First the flute takes the vocal line...wistful Americana floating through space. Then the sax is employed...all churn and swing...providing emotional heft to the final:
One
Two
Three, strikes your out.
At the old ball game!

And just like baseball, the game may be old, but Dave Brubeck is forever young at heart.