Pioneering jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck&#8217;s &quot;Take Five&quot; was a musical milestone, a deceptively complex jazz composition that
Pioneering jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" was a musical milestone, a deceptively complex jazz composition that cracked the singles charts and introduced a new, adventurous sound to millions of listeners. (David Redfern, Redferns file)

NORWALK, Conn. — In his seven-decade career, Dave Brubeck was both an artistic and a commercial success, a pianist and composer who expanded the musical landscape and who crossed other borders as one of the world's foremost ambassadors of jazz.

He had an inventive style that brought international music into the jazz mainstream, but he was more than a musical innovator: He was an American original.

Brubeck died Wednesday at a hospital, one day before his 92nd birthday. His manager, Russell Gloyd, said Brubeck was on his way to a regular medical checkup when his heart gave out.

Considered one of the greatest figures of a distinctively American art form, Brubeck was a modest man who left a monumental legacy. His 1959 recording "Time Out," with its infectious hit "Take Five," became the first jazz album to sell 1 million copies. He toured once-forbidden countries in the Middle East and in the old Soviet empire and was honored by presidents and foreign dignitaries.

He wrote hundreds of tunes, including the oft-recorded "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke." His quartet, featuring alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, was one of the most popular jazz groups in history, and he kept up a busy performing schedule into his 90th year.

He also composed ambitious classical and choral works, released nearly 100 albums and remained a charismatic and indefatigable performer into old age. In December 2010, the month Brubeck turned 90, his quartet won the readers' poll of DownBeat magazine as the best group in jazz — 57 years after he first won the poll.

Unlikely beginnings

A bespectacled cowboy who grew up on a remote California ranch, Brubeck was known for his complex rhythmic patterns, which he said were inspired by riding his horse and listening to its syncopated hoofbeats striking the ground.

Brubeck was among the first jazz musicians to make wide use of polytonality, or playing in more than one musical key at a time. He was also an early advocate of "world music," adopting exotic sounds that he heard in his worldwide travels.

After forming his quartet in California in the early 1950s, Brubeck sought to branch out from the nightclubs of San Francisco and Los Angeles. His wife, Iola, suggested that the quartet perform on college campuses, which produced a nationwide sensation, with record sales to match.

"We reached them musically," he told The New York Times in 1967. "We had no singers, no beards, no jokes. All we presented was music."

With their curly hair and horn-rimmed glasses, Desmond and Brubeck looked like professorial brothers and were unlikely jazz stars. The two had an instant musical bond and could anticipate each other's bandstand improvisations, as Desmond's ethereal, upper-register saxophone soared above Brubeck's driving keyboard attack.

Pioneering album

"Time Out" in 1959 was the first jazz album to sell more than 1 million copies. It reached No. 2 on the pop charts, and its eternally catchy signature "Take Five" became a surprise hit.

The tune, written by Desmond but heavily arranged by Brubeck, built a memorable melody over a complex rhythm in the unusual time signature of 5/4. "Take Five" became a staple of his concerts and helped make the Dave Brubeck Quartet the most popular jazz group of the 1950s and '60s.

"Every once in a while," jazz historian and critic Ted Gioia wrote in an e-mail exchange with The Washington Post, "jazz is blessed by one of those great figures who can do it all. They give us a body of work that is full of musical riches ... but the music also can appeal to the average listener. Dave Brubeck is one of those figures."

After early struggles, Brubeck was reportedly earning more than $100,000 a year by 1954, the year he became the second jazz musician to be featured on the cover of Time magazine (after Louis Armstrong in 1949).

Some musicians and critics openly resented his success, and others questioned his prominence in a form of music that was created primarily by black musicians.

But Brubeck was an outspoken advocate of racial harmony and often used his music as a platform for cross-cultural understanding. He once canceled 23 of 25 concerts in the South when local officials would not allow his African-American bass player, Eugene Wright, to appear with the rest of the group.

David Warren Brubeck was born Dec. 6, 1920, in Concord, Calif. He and his family lived on a 45,000-acre ranch near Ione, Calif.

Because of early eyesight problems, Brubeck always had difficulty reading musical notation. He compensated by learning to improvise and to play by ear, which served him well in jazz.

At the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., Brubeck had planned to study veterinary medicine. But a zoology professor saw how much time he spent in the music department and suggested that the young Brubeck change majors.

In college, Brubeck proposed on his first date with Iola Whitlock, and the two were married in 1942. She sometimes wrote lyrics for his music and managed their growing household.

During World War II, Brubeck was pulled from the ranks of an infantry unit by an Army colonel, who asked him to start a jazz band to entertain troops on the front lines. The group he formed was perhaps the only integrated musical unit in the military during the war.

Besides his wife, of Wilton, Conn., survivors include his four sons and a daughter.