Taking five with Dave Brubeck

Dave Brubeck is one of the most popular and original artists in jazz history. Ever since he took college campuses by storm in the 1950s, Brubeck has been renowned for compositions that mix jazz with modern Euroclassical influences and deploy advanced harmonies and unique time signatures. His spare, distinctive piano style meshes perfectly with dulcet saxophonists, most notably Paul Desmond on classics such as "Take Five."

His legacy is such that he'll be honored with a Kennedy Center Honors lifetime achievement award Dec. 6, alongside actor Robert De Niro, filmmaker Mel Brooks, rocker Bruce Springsteen and opera singer Grace Bumbry. Still going strong at 89, Brubeck typically plays large auditoriums, but for three nights this week, this quartet will play intimate dates at the Dakota Jazz Club. We grabbed 15 minutes out of his hectic schedule just before he was to get a massage for a chronic back ailment.

Q How are you feeling?

A I've been on the road lately, and one day I had to ride 400 miles. It put my back out. It's bothered me since a swimming accident in 1951.

Q You rarely perform in small clubs, so it feels like a coup to get you into the Dakota. What made you decide to do it?

A Well, I do the Blue Note in New York every year at Thanksgiving, but that was the only thing I was doing in clubs for a while. I like to play in different situations. One of my favorite ones is a dance, which I don't get to do anymore. They used to be the main thing that we did. But I enjoy playing in clubs.

Q Have you been composing new material lately?

A You bet. Just last night there was a performance of a piece I wrote ["Ansel Adams: America"] by the symphony in Monterey, Calif. They are doing three performances of it. My son Chris is out there. I wrote the piano part all the way through, and he orchestrated it. And then there is the opera I did on John Steinback two years ago ["Cannery Row Suite"], so there is always something going on.

Q At this point in your life, do you find yourself looking back on your life with some reflection, or looking ahead?

A Recently [the record label] Telarc asked me to do an album called "Indian Summer." And at this time in my life it is an Indian summer, you know?

Q So are thoughts of your own mortality finding their way into your work?

A Oh, I'm working on a wonderful piece that is being recorded with the [a cappella group] Pacific Mozart Ensemble in Berkeley, Calif., that is sacred music. I took three Gregorian chants and one of them is about "at the hour of my death." It is the choir singing to Mary: "At the hour of my death bring eternal life to me." So that's what you are talking about. And that's what I just wrote about.

Q What will be on the set list at the Dakota?

A Well, there is a list of probably about 150 tunes I could play. I call them as I think they are appropriate.

Q You have kept the members of your quartet together for what seems like decades. What are the advantages of playing with people you know that well?

A Michael Moore [the bassist] has been with me about nine years, [alto saxophonist] Bobby Militello has been with me 28 years and [drummer] Randy Jones I think about 30. I consider each one of the guys to be the greatest on their instruments, and we all happen to like to play together.

Q Is it still fun to throw in some wrinkles and see how they react?

A They seem to be able to do almost anything I ask them to do. We just played with a symphony orchestra from Brazil and they had to do some Bach-like things I had written, like "Brandenburg Gate." During the night I may call out some tunes, like this one, "Elegy," recently, that for some reason really gets to the audience, maybe because of the world we are living in now.