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Detail from Dave Brubeck concert flyer
Milton Glaser. Detail from concert flyer, c. 1964.
January 05, 2022

Dave Brubeck Quartet

This charming flyer is for undated performances of the Dave Brubeck Quartet at the National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico City. Documentation for these concerts are scant, but it seems that the Brubeck Quartet performed at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes May 12-14, 1964. The flyer says these performances took place in April but 1964 looks right to me for dating this piece. Perhaps there were two sets of performances? Brubeck, the beloved jazz pianist and composer, performed with Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright, and Joe Morello between 1958 and 1968 in what is considered the “classic” configuration of the Brubeck Quartet.
Dave Brubeck Quartet performance flyer

The flyer is a lovely piece. Glaser’s trademark blotchy ink figures are given a more refined treatment here, and as always, he somehow translates the ineffable qualities of music into art.

Glaser first designed an album cover for Dave Brubeck in 1960, early in his Push Pin days. Eighteen years later, in 1978, he would create a real showstopper for the Tomato Records release of The New Brubeck Quartet Live at Montreux.
Dave Brubeck Quartet album cover

This post also appears in PRINT.