Darius Brubeck

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Jazz out of the top drawer, here we hear some of Darius’ more African focused repertoire and styles of jazz. Featuring the likes of Barney Rachabane, Allen Kwela, the late great Lulu Gontsana, Victor Ntoni amongst others- a star studded cast with music equally as impressive…
ABOUT DARIUS BRUBECK:
During the 1970s, Darius Brubeck led his own groups, played with Don McLean, Larry Coryell and toured the world with Two Generations of Brubeck and The New Brubeck Quartet (Dave, Darius, Chris and Dan Brubeck) as an additional pianist and keyboardist. Several albums were recorded along the way. But his focus changed to South Africa in 1983, when he initiated the first degree course in Jazz Studies offered by an African university at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Durban, South Africa and was later appointed Director of the Centre for Jazz and Popular Music, where he remained until 2006.
For 16 years Darius Brubeck and Afro Cool Concept ( a band with South Africa’s premier alto saxophonist, Barney Rachabane, Victor Ntoni on bass and drummer Lulu Gontsana) performed all over Southern Africa and internationally. (Bongani Sokhela replaced Ntoni in 1996.) The band’s last CD, “Still On My Mind” was released in 2003 by Sheer Sound. In 2004 ‘Afro Cool’ gave concerts in Copenhagen, London and Memphis celebrating 10 years of democracy in South Africa.
Brubeck also led other groups - representing his university and South Africa and has given workshops and concerts in Europe and the UK, Turkey, Peru, Thailand and the USA. He has directed student-staff groups at five International Association of Jazz Educators conferences in the USA. “Before It’s Too Late” (with South African musicians he has worked with) was released by Sheer Sound in 2004. That year also saw the Brubeck Brothers (with Chris and Dan Brubeck) headlining at the National Arts “Joy of Jazz Festival” in Grahamstown, South Africa and Darius directing the National Youth Jazz Band (South Africa) at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland.
Using the band name, Gathering Forces for ‘world-music’ oriented concerts, Brubeck has played with virtuoso bansuri player, Deepak Ram and more recently, with sitarist Vivek Ram. Gathering Forces performed music he composed for the “UN World Conference Against Racism” that was broadcast worldwide in September 2001. In 2002 Kofi Annan and Heads of State attending the founding conference of the African Union danced to South African jazz played by a Brubeck led band. Brubeck and Zim Ngqawana’s composition based on speeches given by Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu was premiered by Wynton Marsalis and The Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra in October 2004.
Concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra honoring his father have featured four of Darius’ arrangements and his composition for the 80th birthday celebrations in 2000 can be heard on “Dave Brubeck – Live with the LSO”. In 2005, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded Darius a residency as a composer at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Italy and currently Brubeck is a Fulbright Senior Specialist and the Africa/Middle East Representative on the Executive Board of IAJE.
Performances in 2006 include appearances with the Brubeck Brothers as well as with London, US and South African based musicians. He is leading a ‘rolling reunion’ band at the Cape Town International Jazz festival in March 2007.
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