Remembering Paul Desmond, American saxophonist and compopser.

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Paul Emil Breitenfeld (San Francisco, November 25, 1924-New York, May 30, 1977), known as Paul Desmond, was an American jazz saxophonist (alto saxophone). He was a representative figure of mainstream jazz and cool jazz, specializing in ballads and melodic improvisation; It is also characterized by its quotes from classical music and folk songs.

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Born to a German father and an Irish mother, alto sax player Paul Desmond, received his first notions of music from hands of his father, who for some time had been playing the organ in a silent movie theater to accompany movie scenes and later arranged for dance orchestras. Desmond studied at San Francisco Polytechnic and at State College where she obtained a diploma in the clarinet, an instrument that had always fascinated her. It was in 1950 when he decided to adopt the alto sax as his definitive instrument and with which he had his first dabbles with professional music within Jack Fina’s group.

Influenced by the teacher, Johnny Hodges and especially by the sound of Pete Brown’s sax, he responded to the call, ten years later, of the pianist Dave Brubeck, with whom he remained for a whopping seventeen years and whom he had known since 1943. In That group, Paul Desmond was the most talented musician of all and essentially contributed to the combo’s success with his characteristic melodic style, of great purity and full of vigor and sweetness at the same time. His contribution to the great albums of Dave Brubeck, especially in the extraordinary song: “Take Five” for Columbia recorded in 1962 with the album “Time Out” was extraordinary and from then on, Desmond was recognized as the alma mater of the quartet. by Brubeck.

Outside the context of Brubeck’s group, Paul Desmond recorded, not without some displeasure on Brubeck’s part, some extraordinary albums with baritone sax player, Gerry Mulligan, and with guitarist, Jim Hall.

Paul Desmond also recorded several albums under his name, mainly when the quartet dissolved. In the seventies, Paul Desmond almost disappeared from the jazz music scene due to his endemic attacks of laziness, his problems with alcohol and also due to the appearance of the first symptoms of the disease that would take his life: lung cancer. In 1972 he briefly reappeared alongside Dave Brubeck at the Newport Jazz Festival. He decided to write his own autobiography but again laziness prevented him from getting past the first chapter. In 1974 he settled in the famous “Half Note” in New York with his own quartet where night after night he delighted his numerous followers.

An underrated saxophonist until very recently, today critics recognize him what was denied him in life: being one of the great jazz musicians of the entire West Coast of the United States and a master in the art of improvisation, with his sound being recognizable. from the first notes. Equipped with fine humor (Desmond’s pseudonym, he looked it up in a telephone directory), he left all his money to the Red Cross, his Steinway piano to the Bradley’s club and specified in his will that his body be cremated because, literally, I didn’t want to be a monument on the way to the airport.

His main influences were Johnny Hodges and especially the sound of Pete Brown’s sax, also the melodic tone of Lester Young and Art Pepper. Paul Desmond’s playing is fluid and airy, with little vibrato, with a much softer sound than other saxes, which is its charm. His very pure sound, his easy and inspired phrasing and his sense of swing make him one of the most popular musicians of West Coast Jazz.

Paul Desmond produced a light, melodic tone on the alto saxophone. He said he was trying to sound ‘like a dry martini’. With a style similar to that of Lee Konitz, another of his influences, he quickly became one of the best-known jazz saxophonists of his time. Much of the success of Brubeck’s classic quartet was due to the juxtaposition of their fluid style over Brubeck’s sometimes relatively heavy, polytonal piano.

An underrated saxophonist in the eighties, current critics recognize him as one of the great jazz musicians of the West Coast of the United States and a master in the art of improvisation, his sound being recognizable from the first note. His rare facility for improvised counterpoint is perhaps most evident on the two albums he recorded with baritone sax player Gerry Mulligan (Mulligan-Desmond Quartet and Two of a Mind). Desmond’s playing was also notable for his ability to produce extremely high notes on his saxophone.

Desmond played a Selmer Super model alto saxophone fitted with an M. C. Gregory model 4A-18M hard rubber mouthpiece, both from 1951, with a 3 ½ moderate hard Rico reed.

In New York, the highways that lead to the different airports pass in front of several cemeteries.

Discography

1950	The Dave Brubeck Octet	Dave Brubeck	Fantasy Records
1951	Brubeck/Desmond	Dave Brubeck	Fantasy Records
1951	Jazz at Storyville	Dave Brubeck	Fantasy Records
1951	Modern Complex Dialogues	Dave Brubeck	Alto Records
1951	How Long, Baby How Long, Pt. 1&2	Jack Sheedy	Coronet Records
1951	The Man I Love c/w Down in Honkytonk Town	Jack Sheedy	Coronet
1952	Jazz at the Blackhawk	Dave Brubeck	Fantasy
1952	The Dave Brubeck Quartet	Dave Brubeck	Fantasy
1953	Jazz at Oberlin	Dave Brubeck	Fantasy
1953	Jazz at the College of the Pacific	Dave Brubeck	Fantasy
1954	Dave Brubeck at Storyville 1954	Dave Brubeck	Columbia Records
1954	Jazz Goes to College	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1954	Brubeck Time	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1954	Gerry Mulligan/Paul Desmond	Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan	Fantasy
1955	Jazz: Red Hot And Cool	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1955	Chet Baker Quartet Plus: The Newport Years, Vol. 1	Chet Baker	Philology Records
1956	The Paul Desmond Quartet With Don Elliott	Paul Desmond	Fantasy
1956–57	Dave Brubeck Quartet Live in 1956-57 Featuring Paul Desmond	Dave Brubeck	Jazz Band
1956	Live From Basin Street	Dave Brubeck	Jazz Band
1956	Jazz Impressions of U.S.A.	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1957	Reunion	Dave Brubeck w/ Dave Van Kriedt	Fantasy
1957	Jazz Goes to Junior College	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1957	Dave Digs Disney	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1957	Blues in Time	Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan	Verve Records
1958	In Europe	Dave Brubeck Quartet	Columbia
1958	Newport 1958	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1958	Jazz Impressions of Eurasia	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1959	Gone with the Wind	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1959	Time Out	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1959	St. Louis Blues	Dave Brubeck	Moon Records
1959	First Place Again	Paul Desmond	Warner Bros.
1960	Southern Scene	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1960	Brubeck and Rushing	Dave Brubeck w/ Jimmy Rushing	Columbia
1960	Bernstein Plays Brubeck Plays Bernstein	Dave Brubeck w/ Leonard Bernstein	Columbia Records
1960	Tonight Only w/ Carmen McRae	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1961	Time Further Out	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
61, 63, 64	The Complete Recordings of the Paul Desmond Quartet With Jim Hall	Paul Desmond	Mosaic Records
1961	Take Five	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1962	Desmond Blue	Paul Desmond	RCA Victor
1962	Countdown – Time in Outer Space	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1962	Bossa Nova U.S.A.	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1962	Brandenburg Gate: Revisited	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1962	Late Lament	Paul Desmond	RCA/Bluebird Records
1962	Two of a Mind	Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan	RCA Victor
1962	Brubeck in Amsterdam	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1963	At Carnegie Hall	Dave Brubeck Quartet	Columbia
1963	Take Ten	Paul Desmond	RCA Victor
63, 64, 65	Easy Living	Paul Desmond	RCA Victor
1963	Glad to Be Unhappy	Paul Desmond	RCA Victor
1963	Time Changes	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1964	Jazz Impressions of Japan	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1964	Jazz Impressions of New York	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1964	In Concert 1964	Dave Brubeck	Jazz Connoisseur
1964	Bossa Antigua	Paul Desmond	RCA Victor
1964	Dave Brubeck in Berlin	Dave Brubeck	Columbia Records
1965	The Canadian Concert of Dave Brubeck	Dave Brubeck	Can-Am Records
1965	Angel Eyes	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1965	My Favorite Things	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1965	Time In	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1966	Anything Goes!	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1966	The Quartet	Dave Brubeck	Europa Jazz
1966	Jackpot!	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1967	Bravo! Brubeck!	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1967	Buried Treasures	Dave Brubeck	Columbia/Legacy
1967	Take Five Live	Dave Brubeck	Jazz Music Yesterday
1967	The Last Time We Saw Paris	Dave Brubeck	Columbia
1968	Summertime	Paul Desmond	A&M/CTI
1969	From the Hot Afternoon	Paul Desmond	A&M/CTI
1969	Bridge Over Troubled Water	Paul Desmond	A&M/CTI
1971	The Only Recorded Performance of Paul Desmond With the Modern Jazz Quartet	Paul Desmond	Finesse Records
1972	We’re All Together Again for the First Time	Dave Brubeck/Gerry Mulligan/Paul Desmond	Atlantic Records
1973	Skylark	Paul Desmond	CTI Records
1973	Giant Box	Don Sebesky	CTI
1974	She Was Too Good to Me	Chet Baker	CTI
1974	Pure Desmond	Paul Desmond	CTI
1975	Like Someone in Love	Paul Desmond	Telarc Records
1975	Concierto	Jim Hall	CTI
1975	1975: The Duets	Dave Brubeck/Paul Desmond	Horizon Records
1975	The Paul Desmond Quartet Live	Paul Desmond	Horizon
1976	At Bourbon Street, Toronto 10/75	Paul Desmond	Artists House
1976	25th Anniversary Reunion	Dave Brubeck	Horizon
1977	You Can’t Go Home Again	Chet Baker	Horizon
1977	The Best Thing for You	Chet Baker	A&M
1977	Watermark	Art Garfunkel	Columbia

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