Brubeck was a national treasure, his is music that will live forever.
When I enlisted, fresh off the farm, in 1957 I’d never even HEARD of Progressive Jazz. When I took the all day battery of tests at Ft. Jackson, SC I scored very high. So after Basic I was put into an outfit of nearly all college guys, and we all had Top Secret Security Clearances.
Some of those guys became friends and introduced me Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, Ella Fitzgerald, Dakota Staton, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, et al.....in addition to some crooners, like Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole, June Christy, and groups, like The Four Freshmen, et al. It was rather enriching. And great duty in Japan, I hasten to add.