Dave Digs Disney  (Audio CD) 
by Dave Brubeck

Dave Brubeck's ensemble playing is lit with contradictions, many of them best caught by the particular quartet lineup that included alto saxophonist Paul Desmond and drummer Joe Morello (and, as on Time Out, bassist Eugene Wright, who may well have rounded out the best rendition of the quartet). For this set of Disney tunes, Brubeck and Desmond play craftily off the contradicting sounds each made. Brubeck's stiff phrasing, so consistent that its very stoicalness was core to the art, and Desmond's lithe execution and breathy tone get jostled swingingly by Morello's baby's-breath touch on the snare--a perfect mix of terseness, economy, bent phrases, and so much more. Many of the tunes are all familiar to anyone with an ear on 20th-century culture, from "Give a Little Whistle" to "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "Some Day My Prince Will Come." The familiarity of the material allows an extended level of rapport, giving Digs Disney a shine that many Brubeck recordings just can't match. --Andrew Bartlett