Most of us are familiar with only one of the two Dave Brubecks. The most familiar is the jazz legend, the father and icon of West Coast ‘cool jazz’, and founder of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Less well known, however, is the Dave Brubeck who studied with Darius Milhaud (1892-1974), one of the founders of Les Six, who taught at Mills College after fleeing Nazi-occupied France. ‘Milhaud was a genius beyond genius’, says Brubeck, ‘he had an open house every Thursday night, and he’d want us to come and jam. . .’. Milhaud, with his La Création du monde (1923) was one of the first composers to bridge the gap between jazz and concert music. It was natural that Dave Brubeck follow suit, only along the way Brubeck’s monumental jazz career overshadowed the other aspect of his musical output.

From the jazz classic Strange Meadowlark to the twelve-tone inspired settings of Langston Hughes’ Hold Fast to Dreams, to the pop sound of Onc