You’ve heard “Take Five”, whether you know it or not. One the most famous melodies in all of jazz, it has been used to sell cars, appeared on movie soundtracks, and has been covered more times than one can count. All of this still doesn’t stop Dave Brubeck (pictured right), who did not write the tune (that accolade goes to altoist Paul Desmond), from using it to close every one of his performances. One would…

The first ever Duke Ellington Jazz Festival kicked off last night, and the District is all a buzz with what’s in store for the weekend after what we’ve heard was a thrilling performance by the Dave Brubeck Quartet at the Lincoln Theatre. The rest of the schedule, put together by Dizzy Gillespie’s former producer and manager Charles Fishman, looks to be equally goosebump inducing. We can’t tell you how many e-mails and comments we’ve already…

(Interview by DCist contributor Justin Kielsgard) In the late 70s, through forces still unknown, six different mothers on the East coast gave birth to six different babies, all somehow imbued in the womb with the influences of Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, the Beatles, and Dave Brubeck. The children, all boys, were raised on Voodoo Economics, Marvel Comics, RUN DMC records, and the public school system of the 1980s. Later on in their lives, they somehow…