Ella Fitzgerald: Live at the Concertgebouw 1961 (LP, The Lost Recordings)

At the time of one of their last concerts in 1967, the Dave Brubeck Quartet had already been in existence for 16 years, in more or less the same formation. That’s how well the four of them know each other! It was at the Black Hawk night club in San Francisco that Dave and Paul made their debut. Their trademark: to break down racial barriers against which they will fight without restraint, even in the most extreme period of McCarthyism, and to make jazz accessible to the greatest number of people, by revisiting ballads, popular songs or great themes of classical music. But above all, they developed an almost infinite variety of complex rhythms. In Scheveningen, on the evening of 24 October 1967, the Dave Brubeck Quartet was more than just a jazz band. They were the ambassador of American music in Europe.