VALDOSTA – At the age of 7, Chris Brubeck dreamed of playing baseball.

What else would one expect from the son of legendary jazz musician Dave Brubeck?

“Willie Mays was my hero and I fantasized about becoming a baseball player,” Chris Brubeck said. “But it was evident to my parents that I was blessed with an abundance of musical talent and it was gently nurtured in our musical household. Not in any demanding way but me and my siblings saw some of the greatest jazz musicians in the world rehearse and hang out at our house. It seemed like a joyful way to live your life. Four out of six of us ‘kids’ became musicians with pretty big careers. Must have been something in the water in the hills above San Francisco.”

Chris Brubeck brings that abundance of talent and musical legacy to South Georgia this weekend to perform with the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra.

“The VSO is so excited to perform with Chris Brubeck,” said Howard Hsu, orchestra conductor and music director. “Chris often performs his music arrangements with a trio – his group Triple Play – or quartet – Brubeck Brothers Quartet. His arrangements of the same music for orchestra are excellent because they give the orchestra a lot to do but also help the orchestra to sound great, even when you have musicians like me who don’t perform jazz or the blues. 

“Now we’re part of the band. I never thought I’d have the chance to perform ‘Take Five’ but soon we’ll be out there with Triple Play.”

Triple Play has a double meaning, Brubeck said.

For one thing, the group Triple Play features Joel Brown on guitar, Peter Madcat Ruth on harmonica and Brubeck. 

Brubeck has been called a triple threat because he plays fretless electric bass, bass trombone and piano. 

OK, maybe he’s more than a triple threat.

“I also compose and arrange almost all the orchestra music we perform. Plus I sing,” Brubeck said in an interview with The Valdosta Daily Times. “So Triple Play does everything from jazz to classical, to acoustic funk and can break into three-part harmonies as well. We’ve often been told that we are lot of fun to watch as well as listen to. We kind of defy categorization. We can’t deny my musical heritage and we love the tunes so we play several Dave Brubeck compositions like ‘Blue Rondo a la Turk,’ ‘Koto Song,’ ‘Polly,’ ‘Take Five,’ ‘Travelin’ Blues’ and ‘Unsquare Dance’ as well as Triple Play originals.”

While he thought about Major League Baseball as a child, Chris Brubeck has never denied his musical talents nor his legendary father. Dave Brubeck, 1920-2012, was a legendary jazz pianist and composer and is considered a leader in the “cool jazz” genre. His works are classic jazz standards. 

But Chris Brubeck planned to be a rock musician and he pursued that genre.

“My original plan was to create a super musical and original rock group,” Brubeck said. “My dad had already hit the top of the jazz world and I thought creative rock was my destiny. So Madcat and I did albums for RCA, Atlantic and Columbia that all got good reviews and great reaction but never busted wide open. 

“We were making recordings with our highly skilled group and then also worked with Luther Vandross, Bob James, Randy Brecker, Steve Cropper, Tower of Power. We were real close but then there was some corporate shenanigans from Columbia and the band, Sky King, broke up.”

Chris accepted an invitation to play bass with his dad’s quartet.

“By osmosis, I learned a great deal while playing with my Dad’s group,” Brubeck said. “In addition to the hundreds of concerts I played in his quartet, I also played in many of the premieres of his big choral and orchestral works. I acquired the skills to orchestrate and arrange and have done many charts for the Cincinnati Pops and the Boston Pops.”

The skill he acquired while working with his father developed into writing concertos for The Canadian Brass, Grammy-winning classical guitarist Sharon Isbin, Time for Three, a double concerto for Jamie Laredo and Sharon Robinson.

In March, the New England Conservatory of Music will premiere “50,” a commission to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the acclaimed wind ensemble. 

“Also I wrote a piece with my father called ‘Ansel Adams: America’ where we project 101 photographs above the orchestra as it plays a tone poem we wrote to specifically go with the legendary photographs,” Brubeck said. “That’s the tip of the iceberg of many orchestral pieces that have kept me busy over the years.”

Performing with the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra, Brubeck and Triple Play will premiere two new orchestral arrangements based on “great songs that were written previously but never orchestrated,” he said.

“One tune, ‘Travelin’ Blues’ was written by my father and my mother, Iola, wrote the lyrics. We recorded it with Dave on piano, me on bass and Joel Brown singing the tune and playing guitar, plus Madcat on our ‘Triple Play Live at Zankle Hall’ recording. This was a live record with great playing by all, in addition to my dad we had Joel’s father, Frank Brown, who is a great clarinet player, join us.  

“As it turned out, this was the last recording Dave Brubeck ever made. We are honored that he played with us; he was very old but in top form. Each piano solo was brimming with wisdom and musicality.”

Triple Play wrote the other song while driving to play a concert in Thomasville. 

“We really wrote it in the afternoon in our rented van and had the audacity to sing the new song same night,” Brubeck said. “‘The Road to Thomasville’ is such a special song that they invited us back to play a few times and gave us the ‘Key to the City’ in appreciation.”

As with most performers during the Age of COVID-19, Brubeck and Triple Play have been on few roads in the past couple of years.

Before the coronavirus, “we had played with the Albany Symphony Orchestra in Georgia. That concert led to this performance in Valdosta because there are people in your orchestra who also play in the Albany Orchestra and thought our concert was so much fun that the Valdosta audience would really enjoy the collaboration, too. 

“But we’ve also played with dozens of orchestras in America and performed twice with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra and made a great record with them, too. It was such a hit with the crowd that they asked us back a couple years later. 

“That foreign audience went more crazy over our American style of music than most Americans do. They just ate it up and we had a ball with their musicians playing all these wild instruments from our point of view. It was a great experience. 

“As a trio without an orchestra we have played all over America including at the Monterey Jazz Festival and also at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.”

And come Saturday, Feb. 12, with an orchestra in Valdosta.

 

Chris Brubeck and Triple Play perform with the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12, Whitehead Auditorium, Valdosta State University Fine Arts Building, corner of Oak and Brookwood. More information: Call VSU College of the Arts Outreach at (229) 333-2150 or visit www.valdostasymphony.org.