Paul Desmond
Paul Desmond studied the clarinet at San Francisco State University and played in various local bands before joining the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1951. Because his career has been almost exclusively with this group until its dissolution in 1967, he shared his success, without receiving the recognition it deserves.
Desmond continued to play occasionally with Brubeck in the 1970s, notably in 1975 when the two men have recorded an album of duets. He also appeared at festivals and toured Europe, Australia and Japan for George Wein. He later worked in New York on the half-note with his own group, which included Jim Hall (1974), and in Toronto as a soloist with a rhythm section (1974-5).
Desmond was one of the most capable of “cool” trend alto saxophone jazz, Lee Konitz, who was the main exhibitor, and Lester Young, Benny Carter, and others had announced in the late 1930s . His tone was a luminous quality, consistent throughout the instrument, which was particularly recalls Carter, but his most notable gift for improvisation is its power of melodic invention, supported in part that depends on use unusual sequence of the imagination. Desmond independent recordings, with sidemen Gerry Mulligan (1962) and Hall (1959-65), for example, did more justice to the many people who Brubeck, for whom he composed the famous Take Five 5 / 4 time.