Born Paul Emil Brentenfield but changed his name to Desmond because he felt Brentenfield sounded too Irish. He began studying clarinet in 1936 at San Francisco Polytechnic high school and took up the alto saxophone in 1943, the same year that he joined the army. For the next three years he was stationed in San Francisco with the 253 AGF band. "It was a great way to spend the war. We expected to get shipped out every month, but it never happened. Somewhere in Washington our file must still be on the floor under a desk somewhere."

While in the army Desmond was introduced to a piano player fresh off the rack, en route overseas as a rifleman and eager to get in the band. His name was Dave Brubeck. "We had a session in the band room, "Paul recalled. "I remember the first tune we played was "Rosetta". I was really dazzeled by his harmonic approach."

The two didn't see each other again until after the war when Brubeck was working around San Francisco with a group called group called the Three D's at the Geary Cellar. "I went down and sat in," Desmond said, "and the musical rapport was very evident and kind of scary. A lot of the things we did later with the quartet began there."

Desmond's light, dry tone resembled that of Lee Konitz, but Desmond's approach to improvisation was his own. He was extremely economical, very cool, and quite melodic. Desmond was one of the first alto players to to explore the instrument's extreme high regester, the altissimo range. He is probably best known for his composition "Take Five", Time Out Columbia CJ 40585, the Brubeck quartet's biggest hit which sold over a million copies in 1961 and remains popular today.

Sources: "Perils Of Paul: A Protrait of Paul Desmond" By Marian McPartland
down beat September 15th, 1960
"Jazz Styles" By Mark C. Gridley
Access the Paul Desmond Homepage

For more information contact Lee Johnson ljohnson@accesscomm.net