Dave Brubeck - Dave Digs Disney (Spain Import) [Orange]

The Dave Brubeck Quartet found real jazz in the Magic Kingdom on Dave Digs Disney, reissued here as a limited 180-gram coloured vinyl import from Spain with two bonus tracks.

Recorded in 1957 for Columbia with producer George Avakian, the album features Paul Desmond on alto saxophone, Joe Morello on drums and Norman Bates on bass. Taking songs from Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs might have sounded like a novelty, but the band treated the melodies with the same seriousness they brought to any standard.

Alice in Wonderland opens the set as a graceful waltz, giving Desmond room for some of his most lyrical improvising, while Give a Little Whistle swings with an easy bounce. Someday My Prince Will Come went on to become a jazz standard in its own right, and When You Wish Upon a Star is handled with a tenderness that never tips into sentimentality.

This edition adds two bonus performances, one drawn from Alice in Wonderland and one from Cinderella, rounding out the programme without disturbing its gentle flow.

Brubeck's block chords and Desmond's dry, airy tone make an irresistible pairing, and the result is one of the warmest records in the quartet's catalogue, as charming for jazz devotees as for anyone who grew up on the films.