Skip to content
CapRadio

CapRadio

listen live donate
listen live donate
listen live
donate
  • News
    • News

    • State Government
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • Race and Equity
    • Business
    • Arts and Lifestyle
    • Food and Sustainability
    • PolitiFact California
    News
    • News

    • State Government
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • Race and Equity
    • Business
    • Arts and Lifestyle
    • Food and Sustainability
    • PolitiFact California
  • Music
    • Music

    • Classical
    • Jazz
    • Eclectic

    • Daily Playlist
    Music
    • Music

    • Classical
    • Jazz
    • Eclectic

    • Daily Playlist
  • Podcasts & Shows
  • Schedules
  • Events
  • Support
    • Support
    • Ways to support
    • Evergreen Donation
    • One-Time Donation
    • Corporate Sponsorship
    • Vehicle Donation
    • Stock Giving
    • Legacy Giving
    • Endowment Support
    • Members
    • Member Benefits
    • Member FAQ
    • Member Newsletter

    • Fund drives
    • Drawing Winners
    • Thank You Gifts
    Support
    • Support
    • Ways to support
    • Evergreen Donation
    • One-Time Donation
    • Corporate Sponsorship
    • Vehicle Donation
    • Stock Giving
    • Legacy Giving
    • Endowment Support
    • Members
    • Member Benefits
    • Member FAQ
    • Member Newsletter

    • Fund drives
    • Drawing Winners
    • Thank You Gifts
  • About
  • Close Menu

Speak No Evil Jazz blog

Capital Public Radio's discussion of an art form born in America and celebrated worldwide.

subscribe

 We Get Support From:
Become a Supporter 
 We Get Support From:
Become a Supporter 
  • Arts and Lifestyle
  •  

Falling In Love Supreme: Stockton Educator Roy Childs Recalls Hearing Dave Brubeck The First Time

Thursday, May 7, 2015
Listen
/
Update RequiredTo play audio, update browser or Flash plugin.
  

By Roy Childs

I was raised in San Leandro in the San Francisco Bay Area. My mother was the neighborhood piano teacher, which pretty much insured I would have as little to do with music as possible. When I reached the age of nine or ten I had mastered a tune by the name of “Crunchy Flakes” which doubled as “Jingle Bells” during the holidays. From then on I had nothing to do with music. But when I was sixteen my mother got some tickets to a concert in the amphitheatre in Joaquin Miller Park, up in the hills above Oakland, and with a newly minted drivers license I agreed to give her a ride. 

I remember walking up the ramp from the parking lot to enter the amphitheatre from the rear, high above the stage, and looking across over the stage to see the city lights of Oakland and the Bay Area in the distance. The theatre was filled with an enthusiastic crowd listening to what I thought of at the time as “kind of happy jumpy music” played by a quartet composed of a tall, lanky piano player, and a saxophonist, drummer, and a bass player.  The bass player was black, the other three white, and the saxophonist was leaning back against the grand piano, feet crossed, very relaxed, laid back and cool playing his sax. As I remember I didn’t pay much attention to the music but I was very impressed by the dapper dress of the musicians, all wearing the same dark well tailored suits, especially the laid back saxophonist, and the overall cool style of the musicians and the ambiance of the setting, overlooking the lights of the city as it did. 

I was in fact listening to the music of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, with Paul Desmond on sax, Eugene Wright on bass, and Joe Morello on drums - one of Dave Brubeck’s most famous quartets.  I was also unaware of the significance of a mixed race group in the history of jazz and Dave Brubeck’s contributions to racial integration in jazz music.  In fact, I had never even heard of Dave Brubeck!

But over the following weeks I found myself constantly replaying in my mind, over and over, as much of Brubeck’s music as I could remember.  I began listening to what I had earlier considered an obscure radio station, KJAZ, where I was introduced to “beboppers,” such as Sonny Stitt, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and to others such as the Modern Jazz Quartet with John Lewis and vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.  And I began collecting LPs including music by some big names of the swing era – Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Duke Ellington and Artie Shaw – and of course by Dave Brubeck. Although I have become interested in many other forms of music since, my heart has always stayed in touch with jazz.

As luck would have it I ended up teaching for over forty years at the University of the Pacific, Dave Brubeck’s alma mater.  I have benefited from Dave Brubeck’s legacy in the form of the University’s Brubeck Institute which has established Stockton’s own jazz club, Take Five at the Brew, and brought many well known musicians to the community including Wynton Marsalis, Eddie Palmieri, Darius, Chris and Dan Brubeck, Sacramento’s Joe Gilman and others, and fine local groups headed by Simon Rowe, Patrick Langham, Nick Fryer, Brian Kendrick, and Joe Mazzaferro, all excellent local jazz artists and educators, and the fantastic Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet composed of the very best young jazz musicians from around the US. 

Such good luck that long ago my dear mom needed a ride to a concert! And such good luck that I wound up at the University of the Pacific where I could continue to immerse myself in the best jazz has to offer.

 

    More about Falling In Love Supreme

  • Falling In Love Supreme

    Our music hosts contemplate the performances, songs and artists which sent them into a life time love affair with jazz as part of our series "Falling In Love Supreme." Listener-submission contest finalist essays are now posted.

 Falling In Love Supreme

Sign up for ReCap and never miss the top stories

Delivered to your inbox every Friday.

 

Check out a sample ReCap newsletter.

Thanks for subscribing!

Thank you for signing up for the ReCap newsletter! We'll send you an email each Friday with the top stories from CapRadio.

Browse all newsletters

More From CapRadio Music

Nicholai Hammar/NPR

Lara Downes' season 3 of 'Amplify' launches with a theme of renaissance

February 02, 2023
Photo by Emmanuelle Yang

How June Swoon singer Juli Lydell started swimming in surrender

February 03, 2023
We Get Support From:
Become a Supporter

More From CapRadio Music

Photo by Emmanuelle Yang

How June Swoon singer Juli Lydell started swimming in surrender

February 03, 2023
Nicholai Hammar/NPR

Lara Downes' season 3 of 'Amplify' launches with a theme of renaissance

February 02, 2023

Back to Top

  • CapRadio

    7055 Folsom Boulevard
    Sacramento, CA 95826-2625

    •  
      (916) 278-8900
    •  
      (877) 480-5900
    •  Contact / Feedback
    •  Submit a News Tip
  • About

    • Mission / Vision / Core Values
    • Stations & Coverage Map
    • Careers & Internships
    • Staff Directory
    • Board of Directors
    • Press
  • Listening Options

    • Mobile Apps
    • Smart Speakers
    • Podcasts & Shows
    • On-Air Schedules
    • Daily Playlist
    • Signal Status
  • Connect

    •  Facebook
    •  Twitter
    •  Instagram
    •  YouTube
  • Donate

  • Listen Live

  • Newsletters

CapRadio stations are licensed to California State University, Sacramento. © 2023, Capital Public Radio. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Website Feedback FCC Public Files: KXJZ KKTO KUOP KQNC KXPR KXSR KXJS. For assistance accessing our public files, please call 916-278-8900 or email us.