Joe Morello, RIP

I just heard that Joe Morello, drummer in the classic line-up of The Dave Brubeck Quartet, died on Saturday at the age of 82. Morello, Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, and Eugene Wright crystallized the greatest expression of cool , controlled, West Coast jazz. Brubeck was a tremendous, tight pianist, perhaps equal to Bill Evans; Desmond was a revelation on the alto sax; Wright was the fluid backbone to their every composition. But Morello was their rock. Watch as Brubeck gives him a nod at 2:45 in the following clip, and opens "Take Five" up to Morello kicking it, which he does...but without ever one departing even a single step out of the beat of the whole composition:



Hope he got to swing again wherever he ended up this weekend. RIP.