Last night, at the Apple Store in SoHo, I experienced what can only be described as a “wonderful treat.” About a week ago I had been perusing the SoHo store’s website, looking for information on dropping off a broken MacBook. Eventually I found what I was looking for, but towards the bottom of the page I also noticed a very recognizable image. It was the album art of one of my all time favorite albums, Time Out, by Dave Brubeck.

Reading on, I realized that the Apple Store in SoHo would be hosting a special event in which Dave Brubeck himself, along with the members of his current quartet would be making an appearance. I first thought, well this is cool… even if he doesn’t perform; it would be great to see him. So I did my homework and decided to cover the event for MacCreate.com.

Upon my arrival at the Apple store, I began an evening of surprises and win-falls that I like to describe as “everything’s coming up Micah.” It had turned out that my MacBook was ready on the same evening, so I would only have to make the one trip back to the store (yeah right, I’ll probably be back again next week). Not only was the laptop ready, but also Apple decided to pay for the parts, and so instead of my repair bill coming to $180 it was only $15. Thanks Apple!

It only gets better. Once I picked up the laptop, I made my way over to the stage area in the store. On stage I noticed that they had set up instruments for the full quartet, including a beautiful Steinway piano, a full drum set, double bass and saxophone. I could hardly contain myself.

Dave Brubeck has always been one of my favorite jazz musicians. His book of piano music still sits on the family piano at my parent’s house. His most notable song, Take Five, is the only song I can even attempt to play on the piano.

To be honest, I had no idea that Dave Brubeck was still performing. He recorded Time Out fifty years ago in 1959. This was the same year that some of the most groundbreaking jazz recordings were made by artists such as Charlie Mingus, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, and John Coltrane. Since the beginning of Brubeck’s career he has recorded over 160 albums. During the three years leading up to Time Out he recorded 12 albums. Lets face it, Brubeck, now 88 years old, is one prolific cat!

At around 6:30pm last night, Brubeck made his way to the stage. As soon as he walked on, the gentleman sitting next to me stood up and walked over to shake his hand. They were obviously friends. The two spent about five minutes looking at some photographs on a large Apple Cinema Display. It was then that I realized that the guy sitting next to me was a photographer himself.

He wasn’t carrying a camera, but I could just sort of tell. As it turned out, he was Don Hunstein, the photographer responsible for documenting Brubeck’s recording sessions in 1959, as well as the covers of Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue and Bob Dylan’s Freewheelin.

So now I was sitting there, in the presence of a living legend jazz musician, and a famous photojournalist. Could it get much better than this? Of course!

After a short introduction, the Dave Brubeck Quartet took the stage. Brubeck warmed up right away as the quartet played a few tracks from Time Out. It was really something to see, and hear.

After four amazing songs, they took a break and Brubeck sat down for an on stage interview. He told some of the most amazing stories, which revealed so much I hadn’t known about the making of Time Out and it’s eventual success. Brubeck had traveled all over the world to find out about what we now call “world beat music.” Take Five, written by his saxophone player, Paul Desmond, took off and became a hit while the band was touring Europe. They didn’t find out how big the song had become until they returned to America—what a surprise that must have been.

One of the most interesting things Brubeck talked about was how even though Time Out was created as sort of an experiment with different musical timings, and even though it was so complex and musically a mathematical problem, for some reason it was incredibly accessible and wonderful to listen to. I couldn’t agree more. I have always loved the way he was able to layer each song on the album into such a crafted, calculated masterpiece, while in the end, it was just music that anyone could listen to and enjoy.

Following Brubeck’s talk, the band hit the stage for one last song. This time it was a 10-minute version of Take Five. Each band member had an amazing solo, including one of the best drum solos I have seen performed live in a really long time.

During the entire show, I couldn’t help but think about how incredibly artistic Brubeck was as a musician and composer. His life’s work was just monumental on so many different levels. Can you image, traveling with a jazz quartet to places like Afghanistan and Iraq in 1959 for the sole purpose of “finding new sounds?”

If you have never heard Time Out before, and you even like jazz the tiniest bit, I highly recommend downloading the album. There is nothing like it.

Download Time Out in iTunes