Joe Morello Said It

Joe Morello, long-time drummer in the Dave Brubeck Quartet, died on March 12. He was 82.

In Doug Ramsey's superb book, Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond, Doug writes of the song Take Five's origin: "Morello said that in concert he used to go into 5/4 time in the drum break of a Brubeck piece called Sounds of the Loop, which the group recorded in 1956 on its album Jazz Impressions of the USA."

Doug then quoted Morello:

"I'd just mess around in 5, go from 5/4 to 7/4, and I guess they hadn't heard that kind of thing before, so I kept saying, 'Come on Dave, why don't you write something in 5/4?' He never did, so Paul said one night, 'I'll write something.' We were rehearsing up at Dave's house one time, and Paul came in with that. So we recorded the thing in the studio at Columbia, and I think it was the first take or the second take, and Dave was playing the vamp. I hear it every day somewhere, so it was a very lucky thing. It was my idea." 

JazzWax note: You'll find Doug Ramsey's Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond here. This coffee-table sized book is loaded with photos and is a must own—especially if you dig Desmond and the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

JazzWax clip: I could offer you countless clips of solos by Morello on Take Five. Instead, check out this clip of Morello working the brushes...

Comments

[Jery Rowan]

When I first met Joe Morello, it was the early '60s and I was a young drum teacher working at Ford Music, the place for percussion in Seattle.

Joe, who was doing clinics for Ludwig drums, flew in to put in an appearance at the store. Being the newest teacher, I was assigned to pick him up at the airport. Other than his regular luggage, the only percussion stuff he carried with him was his cymbal bag.

The moment he stepped off the plane, peering cautiously from behind those coke-bottle glasses, he dumped his cymbal bag on me with a, “Carry this, will ya?”. For the rest of the week I was expected to be at his side, cymbal bag in hand, passing it over at his command. It got to where I really believed he thought my name was "Cymbals".

That's what I remember about Joe Morello. That, and an incredibly fine player who took some time one day to introduce me to the Morello method of 'finger control' -- a new technique in drumming that he helped refine.

Hope your cymbal bag is close by, Joe. 5/4 and out.

[Bruce Lea]

My freshman year at UNC in the mid sixties I went to see the Dave Brubeck quartet on campus, my first live exposure to great jazz. Brubeck and Desmond were great, of course, but Joe Morello was the musician I talked about all night after the show. His playing on the drums is what gave real life and energy to the music. He made music out of percussion as opposed to just keeping the beat as most rock and roll drummers I heard at that time. He pulled me into jazz.