THE THREE WORLDS OF CHRIS BRUBECK Growing up in the shadow of a famous musician could have a detrimental effect on any youngster's decisions about the directions they want their life to take, but that seems not to be the case with performer, composer and arranger Chris Brubeck. His father, Dave, has been a household name to million upon million of jazz lovers for the past half-century, and growing up in such a household, where music is so much fun, allows only one choice for any child to make. John Woodford reports. Photos: Alex von Kleydorff (right); Kvon (below) Page 2: Fran Collins; Page 3: Mike Robinson

"In a sense I've always been a composer," said Chris Brubeck at the time of our conversation, "I've been writing popular songs for groups since I was about eleven or twelve years old, something which was very much a part of my environment when I was growing up." That's hardly surprising; the name Brubeck might have already given away that Chris is one of jazz icon Dave Brubeck's six children, and, with a lyricist mother, song-writing seemed to be as natural as anything else for a child of such parentage. "Four of us are professional musicians", he explained, "the environment was there and I'm certain that, had I grown up in a blacksmith's family, I'd be shoeing horses by now. When I was very small, after some terrible years of poverty, my dad was just beginning to become successful. My older brothers remember times when the whole family would go on the road, staying in motels that literally had a dirt floor – which included me, as a baby, being put in an improvised crib, usually a drawer with blankets in it! But on the flip side, I also remember 'Uncle Paul' Desmond, Eugene Wright, Joe Morello or Gerry Mulligan coming over to our house to play music with my father. When Dave started having some success, I thought: 'this looks kind of fun…you're playing music that you write, no-one tells you what to do and thousands of people come to hear you!' What could be a better introduction to professional music than that?"

But wanting to be a musician came at a price: obediently, he had to learn the piano to get the foundations of reading and writing the treble and bass clefs. "I couldn't study with my dad, since he was away all the time and, although I took lessons for some years, I never really concentrated on the instrument. Instead, I felt drawn to the trombone…it could be either comical or sad, but what I really liked was the way it could imitate the human voice so closely. So when I was around nine years old I started having lessons." His older brother, Darius, who played the trumpet and guitar began to get work in the local neighbourhood performing at parties, and, needing a bass player, persuaded Chris to start playing. "My younger brother Dan was also a musician and was learning drums, so the three of us formed a trio, something I enjoyed doing so much that I asked my parents to send me to a special school, the Interlochen Arts Academy in northern Michigan. It was just what I needed because I would no longer be a misunderstood geek who played a musical instrument, because my peer group would consist only of musicians." They agreed and he was to spend the rest of his school days at Interlochen, where he formed a rock group, New Heavenly Blue, from which he received what he refers to as a 'modicum' of success…namely cutting a record for RCA.