Walking in Dave’s Footsteps
Chris Brubeck brings his band Triple Play to Blowing Rock

By Jeff Eason

In days of yore, it was not uncommon for sons to follow their father’s footsteps when it came to choosing a profession. These days it is not as common, but there an exception might be made for the occupation of professional musician. Julian Lennon, Jakob Dylan and Simon Townsend are but a handful of musicians out there following dear old dad.

Chris Brubeck, son of renowned jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, is one of five Brubeck sons that have decided to follow pops into the music business. Chris Brubeck will bring his talented trio, Triple Play, to Blowing Rock for a concert at the Hayes Performing Arts Center on Sunday, November 9th at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now.

A versatile musician, Chris Brubeck performs with his two bands, Triple Play and the Brubeck Brothers Quartet, composes and arranges orchestral music, and lends a hand to his father’s band several times a year.

“The music of Triple Play is so wonderfully eclectic that it’s very hard to categorize,” said Brubeck. “The Brubeck Brothers Quartet is unquestionably a jazz group. It’s interesting because that makes Triple Play more accessible to more people. If you like the blues, you’ll probably like Triple Play. And if you like folk music, you’ll probably like Triple Play.”

Joining Brubeck in Triple Play are Peter Madcat Ruth and Joel Brown. During the course of one concert, the trio will sing and play a fantastic array of instruments including bass, piano, harmonica, trombone, piano, guitar, jaw harp, cymbals and tambourine.

“We’re a quiet group because we don’t have drums,” said Brubeck. “My brother Dan is sort of the star of the Brubeck Brothers Quartet because he’s such a great drummer. In Triple Play everyone swings so hard that we don’t miss having a drummer. Peter plays hi-hat with his foot, so between the rhythm guitar and the hi-hat a lot of people will hear our records and think we have a drummer.”

According to Brubeck one of the big differences between his two bands is that Triple Play appeals to a wider spectrum of audiences while the Brubeck Brothers appeals to jazz fans.

“Triple Play is the kind of thing where you could bring a six year-old kid to and he would think it was really fun,” said Brubeck. “And the music is timeless enough that you could be 80 years old and a grandpa and you’d have a great time too.”

Triple Play plays a mix of instrumental and vocal pieces, some original, some written by Dave Brubeck and some from the great cannon of American songwriters. Cover tunes include “Take Five,” written by Dave’s musical partner Paul Desmond, “Brother Can You Spare a Dime” and “St. Louis Blues.”

“Yeah, we’ve been known to play blues songs that have lyrics like, ‘I feel like a ballgame on a rainy day,’” said Brubeck.

Triple Play currently has two albums out: Triple Play Live and Watching the World. “We have a third record that will be coming out in the near future that was recorded two summers ago,” said Brubeck. “We performed with the Singapore’s Chinese Orchestra. We collaborated with all these different instruments that you’ve never seen before and it was like East meets West and it went over fabulously well. It was just an amazing interaction between musicians and all those instruments. Oddly enough, blues works as a concept with the Asian pentatonic scale.”

When not touring with his father or one of his bands, Chris Brubeck stays busy composing and arranging for classical music groups such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra.

“I’ve written a lot of commission work over the past dozen years or so,” said Brubeck. “I’m very fortunate to stay busy which beats the hell out of being unemployed, but it gets you crazy after a while.”

Tickets

Tickets for Chris Brubeck’s Triple Play are $20 for adults and $15 for students and are available now by calling the Hayes Center Box Office at (828) 295-9627.