Billboard : 08/24/1959

The Brubeck Quartet has another likely big seller with their latest. Set includes a group of standards and folk tunes. As usual, Paul Desmond on alto and Joe Morello lend first rate backing. Gene Wright is on bass. Tunes include Gone With the Wind, Georgia on my Mind and Shortnin’ Bread. Good cover photo of the group.

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Cashbox : 08/29/1959

Nine songs with a Southern heritage are played by the Quartet. As usual, /Paul Desmond‘s volatile alto provides the session’s most swingingest moments, with Brubeck and the other swinging more here than on recent outings. The tunes are Camptown Races (2 versions), Ol’ Man River, Swanee River, Short’nin’ Bread and the title tune, featuring some beautiful work by Desmond.

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American Record Guide
Joe Goldberg : October, 1959

With each successive release of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, certain things become increasingly more apparent about pianist Brubeck and his featured soloist, altoist Paul Desmond. Elements of Brubeck’s style that once occurred infrequently – bombastic chord sequences, a method of ballad playing that relies on the worst features of nineteenth-century romanticism, a use of jazz cliches – now seem to be his entire battery of effects, rather than the occasional lapses of taste they seemed to be. Paul Desmond, on the other hand, is the trickster, juggler, magician par excellence: he can play anything on his horn that anyone else can, and many things no one else could attempt, but all, apparently, with his mind on something else. His facility and musical knowledge – particularly in the matter of how one song is related to another – is nothing short of amazing. He can quote Petrouchka and a nursery rhyme in the same piece, appear to be playing duets with himself, and carry on a long, perfectly logical line past the point where other musicians would falter. He is also possessed of a rare quality – musical humor. All of this, wonderful as it is, apparently keeps him from searching for what he really has to say; he can get by on the facility. This album is composed of songs about the South and offers, among other delights, two versions of Camptown Races, both of which sound like the group’s earlier Trolley Song, and the spectacle of drummer Joe Morello playing Shortnin’ Bread.

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Audio
Charles A. Robertson : November, 1959

Enjoying a brief respite from concerts, festivals and world tours, the Dave Brubeck Quartet relaxes and wanders footloose through a set of tunes that fit like an old pair of shoes. The leader’s tempos are slow and restful on Georgia On My Mind, and Lonesome Road, while the sound of his piano is deep and full. Joe Morello on drums, with the assistance of bassist Gene Wright, leads the way on two versions of Camptown Races, one being wafted along by breezy West Indian rhythms. He takes over completely on Shortnin’ Bread, compounding a heady mixture from melodic and percussive ingredients. Paul Desmond varies the tone of his alto sax to accommodate either a warm and vital Basin Street Blues, or a magnolia-scented Gone With the Wind. The intimate stereo miking is attentive to each soloist in turn.

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Austin American
John Bustin : 11/05/1959

With the Dave Brubeck Quartet looming large on the local jazz scene, it’s probably a good time to focus some attention on the group’s latest recorded effort, which should offer local fans a pleasant preview of what they might be hearing from the foursome during the “Jazz for Moderns” show in Municipal Auditorium Sunday afternoon.

Entitled Gone With the Wind, this new Columbia LP is composed of eight tunes of Down South-type flavor, and together they represent quite a first rate collection and, for that matter, some of the best recorded moments the Brubeck unit has had on wax lately. A track that has a particularly irresistible appeal for me personally is Basin Street Blues, an appropriately bluesy item of medium tempo spotting a superb Paul Desmond alto solo and some nice, uncluttered Brubeck piano plus an easy little counterpoint-and-fugue collaboration between Desmond and Dave.

Right behind this one, though, would be Georgia on My Mind, which shows Pianist Brubeck in a soulful, lazy mood of considerable taste, and Lonesome Road, which gives him an opportunity to range from some casual single-note stuff to a chorus of big, chunky chords backed up by booting drum fills from Joe Morello and on to a light up-tempo style in a set of “fours” with Desmond, Morello and Bassist Gene Wright.

And you’ll have to say a word as well for Swanee River, a bright little swinger, and Ol’ Man River, a showcase for the round tone and prodigious technique of the group’s able bassist, and, in fact, for every other track on the whole album.

If the disc provides some exceptionally fine fare for the listener, it should also reveal to him the change that has slowly come over the Brubeck quartet during the last couple of years.

As a unit, it has never been better, never had more cohesiveness, more spontaneity, more rapport among its members, than at this time. It has all its old class and style, but it seems to have gained, in short, a marked new sense of swing.

Even Brubeck himself, as a soloist, shows the effects of this airily swinging spirit. Sometimes in the past, his advanced musical knowledge and pianistic prowess led him into complex constructions that, while musically stimulating, frequently seemed bulky and rather rigid in a jazz format. But now he swings in more of a mainstream-jazz kind of fashion and with an acknowledgement of jazz’ blues background as well as of more academic forms.

One of the more apparent reasons behind all of this can also be found on this recording. This would be, of course, Drummer Morello, who has seemingly kindled a new spark in the group with his crisp, tasty drumming and the sort of inventive skill that, on this LP, permits him to make a potentially uninteresting drum solo of Short’nin’ Bread into a witty and altogether musical romp.

But be that as it may, the Brubeck four creates a lot of sparkling jazz on this Gone With the Wind set, and no doubt can be counted on to do as much when it sets up shop in Municipal Auditorium.

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Fresno Bee
Dick Elliston : 11/08/1959

All jazz is divided into schools to which jazzmen show a fierce loyalty. Whether members of the faculty, student body, or alumni, the have a phenomenal attachment to their old and new colleagues, the playing procedures they developed together, and everything, substantial or accidental, in any way associated with their schools.

From the geographical locales of the founding schools of jazz, one or two of the modern schools, and the personalities who developed the other groups of styles have come the impetus and inspiration for the growth of jazz.

At the lowest moments in jazz history, when no future seemed better than dismal, new schools have sprung up with all the resourcefulness which is the birthright of jazz. In the 1930s it was swing, Benny Goodman and big band jazz; in the 40s, Dizzy Gillespie and the bop movement. In the present decade it is men like Dave Brubeck, Gerry Mulligan and the “modern movement.”

With this in mind one can forgive some of the excesses of emotion, the distortions of fact, the errors of fancy with which the jazzmen have expressed loyalty to their schools.

And even if for the rest of us, more or less on the outside, these exaggerations are so easily identifiable as such, they really can be marked up to the credit of the human spirit which is as much a part of jazz as it is any other art.

A good example of the modern school is Dave Brubeck’s latest release, Gone With the Wind. This is the best album the quartet has put out in a long time.

The playing is provocative and the end result is extremely interesting in that every number is a southern classic (for example, Ol’ Man River, Gone With the Wind, and Swanee River). Gene Wright‘s bass playing on Ol’ Man River is good and the group as a whole reflects a cohesiveness reminiscent of the early Brubeck recordings.

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HiFi Stereo Review
Ralph J. Gleason : November, 1959

Musical Interest: Maximum jazz audience
Performance: Better than average
Recording: Top-notch

The Dave Brubeck Quartet is swinging these days. This is common knowledge. Here is an album that has captured this particular aspect of the group very well. There are interesting solos passages, in particular a delightful percussion excursion by Joe Morello on Short’nin’ Bread and a fine long bass solo by Gene Wright on Ol’ Man River. Paul Desmond plays throughout with his usual melodic intensity, shimmering tone and long, swooping lines. There’s more solid jazz content in this LP than is usually granted Brubeck, yet it is still the middle-of-the-road modern jazz that has the strongest appeal to the layman. As an introduction to Brubeck’s work and as a fair sampling of him in his swinging, or recent period, this LP ranks high.

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Indianapolis Star
Lynn Hopper : 10/18/1959

The Dave Brubeck Quartet takes off on familiar, if uncharted, tangents for their latest album of most contemporary jazz, Gone With the Wind on Columbia.

Although anything less reminiscent of plantation life than Brubeck’s brand of music would be hard to imagine, we are treated to a bouquet of old favorite Southern-type songs. There’s nobody strummin’ on the old banjo here, though.

Instead Brubeck and crew – Paul Desmond, Joe Morello and Gene Wright – do indeed take off with the wind, breezing along with a swinging interpretation of each number. The spontaneity of the numbers is unmistakable. The arrangements, as the liner notes admit, often just happened. Among the songs done up are Swanee River, Georgia On My Mind, Short’nin’ Bread and Basin Street Blues.

There are two versions of Camptown Races. The second is the most interesting – Morello on drums takes off with a West Indian beat that hates to let go.

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Portland Oregonian
John A. Armstrong : 10/04/1959

The free-wheeling Brubeck foursome goes south of the Mason-Dixon Line for the tunes in this release. The numbers are heavily laced with the loping rhythm and the familiar chordal build-ups and canonical treatment of the melody lines, heard in Brubeck recordings over the past decade. The album is not one of Brubeck’s best.

However, there are several numbers that stand out in comparison with past efforts. Lonesome Road starts out in an ordinary manner, but grows steadily better as the musicians get farther and farther into it, building to an ending worthy of a classical tone poem – the ostinato bass plodding dispiritedly along on a single note and the piano seeming to wail chords of dejection.

In the title song, GWTW, Brubeck and Paul Desmond reach new heights in counterpoint, grasping at each other’s melodic and rhythmic figures like performers on the swinging trapeze. Another noteworthy contribution is Joe Morello‘s drum soloing on Shortnin’ Bread, as his drums which sound as if they are tuned, pick up most of the basic chord changes and seem to be playing the melody, as your ears fill in the gaps.

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Richmond Times-Dispatch
Rowe : 10/25/1959

Dave Brubeck, of all people, has made a pass at the sort of jazz for which Dixieland is famous. Now this so-called modern jazz is just about as welcome to Dixie as a frost in June. Just the same, the Brubeck Four has a new LP titled Gone With the Wind. It contains such traditional jazz classics as Basin Street Blues, Ol’ Man River and Georgia on My Mind.

Nothing quite so devastating has happened to something quite so Southern – with the exception of that shameful thing that occurred at Appomattox.

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San Francisco Examiner
C.H. Garrigues : 10/18/1959

Though San Francisco now has but one important record company (Fantasy), the number of important jazz records produced in other cities by Bay area musicians continues to grow at a rate which testifies to the importance of Bay area jazz.

Perhaps the most interesting among recent releases is Dave Brubeck‘s new Columbia LP Gone With the Wind – a sort of musical journey through the Old South, brought up to date through the very charming manner of Brubeck, Desmond, Wright and Morello.

This is the set which was given its Bay area preview at an open air concert last summer at Oakland’s Woodminster Amphitheater and it proves as delightful now as it did then. Brubeck has taken such old favorites as Swanee River, Lonesome Road, Camptown Races, Shortnin’ Bread, etc., and transformed them into delightful pieces of musical charm.

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Stillwater News-Press
James C. Stratton : 10/11/1959
Dave Brubeck’s ‘Wind’ Record is Tasteful

After the summer’s quiet, a spate of new recordings is pouring from the varied labels, big and small. For the record and to provide a cue of sorts, I have the temerity to list a few items which may get lost in the shuffle. I have found them most stimulating.

In small group jazz releases, I have been most struck with the new Dave Brubeck Gone With The Wind as a tasteful and highly evocative treatment by the group of Southern ditties of varying vintage, from Swanee River to the Basin Street Blues.

The net impression, pointedly, is a new fact of Brubeck which finds his piano perhaps a bit more mellow. These are affecting treatments if you will allow yourself to forget your preconceptions of Brubeck and use your ears. And you’ll understand why Joe Morello‘s drumming is considered by many to have wrought subtle changes on the Brubeck unit.

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Down Beat : 10/01/1959
Don DeMichael : 5 stars

It has often been noted that since the addition of Morello and Wright, the Brubeck group has swung more; this LP is the best example so far of this freedom and swing. In this collection of southern songs, the quartet achieves a looseness and rapport of greater degree than their previous albums. And how these men listen to each other!

A few words about Brubeck’s playing might be in order at this point. Dave has been severely criticized in the past for his heavy handedness, but little has been said about the man’s harmonic concept, his remarkable sense of time, and his ability to construct solos with a beginning, middle, and end. Some of these heaviness remains, but it is overshadowed now by these positive qualities. All of these facets of the Brubeck talent are very much in evidence in this album, especially on Lonesome Road and Georgia.

Desmond is his usual eloquent self, displaying a virility in some of his work that has been lacking sometimes in the past. Wright provides solid support throughout and does a good job on River, his featured spot. Morello cooks all the way, using brushes most of the time. His wit and humor shine throughout the LP, but they shine the brightest on Bread in which he plays “melody.”

This is a happy, swingin’ LP lacking in pretentiousness and played by a group of men who obviously enjoy their work and each other.

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Liner Notes by Teo Macero

A good deal has been said in print about the merits of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, what it stands for in relation to jazz, what it has contributed to the facade of jazz, etc., and as you listen to the easy flow of melodic lines and the development of each standard composition in this recording, you will know that this is the Quartet at its best. We feel that the music speaks for itself, and that no words need be said here by way of explanation. Therefore, I would only like to tell you of some special incidents which happened during the recording of this album, and include a few comments from Dave himself concerning some of the pieces.

From the very first take, we all knew that this was going to be a swinging session, and it was. I believe it is significant that three-fourths of the compositions contained herein are “first-takers,” if I may coin a word. On listening to the first play-back by Dave and the group, the comment would almost invariably be: “That’s it! Let’s make the next one.” This happened throughout the entire session in the studio, until it was time to leave for Dave’s evening concert at Orange Grove College in Costa Mesa, California, where we also recorded.

Some of the compositions that were used as a basis for improvisation here were played by the group for the first time at the recording studio, and in several cases the arrangements you hear were not previously planned, but worked out spontaneously while recording. This is why, when you listen to Georgia on My Mind, you will hear a low bass note near the beginning and a rather deceptive ending by Dave. There was great speculation in the studio as to how he would end this piece, and we all waited expectantly until the last note was recorded. It is interesting to know that both Georgia on My Mind and Swanee River have been favorites of Dave’s for years, but this was the first opportunity he had to record them.

You will notice, too, that there are two versions of Camptown Races: because each had its own special quality, both were used. The first one was the original take at the session, and the second one we thought would be of interest because of more West Indian rhythm played by Joe Morello. This, by the way, just happened, too. No cues, no plan before hand. Everything at that point just seemed to work out spontaneously.

In Dave’s words, “Look Down That Lonesome Road is a little drama depicting the life story of man. Loneliness in the beginning, then a fuller, expanded life, then gradually back to the loneliness of old age at the end of the road.” The clicks that you hear at the end of this tune are intentional, and are meant to represent footsteps.

Gene Wright volunteered to do a tune that he had long wanted to play – Ol’ Man River and Joe Morello contributed to this album about the South by lengthening a quote from Dave’s last album, Newport 1958, where he quoted Short’nin’ Bread on the drum solo of C Jam Blues. He lengthened that quote into a track for this album – added yeast to the original Short’nin’ Bread, I guess.

Putting together this album, which evokes memories of the South, was an idea which came to Dave following a concert tour of the South. He decided that he would like to do one album of old and familiar tunes in contrast to the album of originals already released (CL 1251), and with the hope of entertaining everyone – North, South, East and West.