We stop today to remember those who left the world of music in 2012, from Dave Brubeck and Dick Clark to Levon Helm and Ronnie Montrose.

Dave Brubeck, convention-defying jazz pianist and author of the standards “In Your Own Sweet Way” and “The Duke,” among others, has died — just one day shy of his 92nd birthday.

The bonds of family glide into place on LifeTimes, a splendid tribute to the music of Dave Brubeck presented by the Brubeck Brothers Quartet.

by Mark Saleski I’m not one to quote Wikipedia, but this time around it makes perfect sense: “Smooth jazz is a sub-genre of jazz which is heavily influenced by R&B, funk, rock, and pop music styles (separately, or, in any combination).” This is an interesting definition because it highlights the point of contention: Is smooth jazz actually jazz? For the [...]

  by S. Victor Aaron For a lot of us, our first exposure to jazz was those Charlie Brown TV specials featuring the piano trio music of Vince Guaraldi. Then again, some Disney films like 101 Dalmations, Lady And The Tramp and especially The Aristocats contained jazz or jazz-y tunes. In any case, songs first introduced in Disney films from [...]

by S. Victor Aaron Even early on, from the time I first began to explore jazz, I sensed there was something different about the Dave Brebeck Quartet’s drummer, Joe Morello. When I began to spin my Dad’s scratchy old Brubeck records, I’ll never forget hearing weird time signatures for the first time — sometimes with more than one occuring simultaneously — [...]

by Nick DeRiso Masterpieces seem to come at us all at once, like epiphanies and summer storms. But the making of such things is more a journey than a lightning bolt, with ideas and elements to mix and match along the way. That’s the case with Dave Brubeck’s superlative 1959 effort “Time Out,” a load-bearing wall in the West Coast [...]

“Trio Brubeck,” though not the first time that Dad Dave had collaborated with the kids, had the randy feel of a whole new direction for the legendary pianist. Following the 1970s recording “Two Generations of Brubeck,” and the more recent “Quiet as the Moon” with son Darius (also on MusicMasters), Brubeck sat down with other sons Chris and Dan for [...]

We already did piano men, but they were all by underrecognized artists. Now, it’s time to look at albums by the big names that didn’t get the kudos of their better known companions, but should have: