About Darius Brubeck
Darius Brubeck is an American jazz pianist, composer, author, and retired university professor residing in England with his wife, Catherine. Darius introduced the first university jazz course in Africa in 1984 and established the internationally famous Centre for Jazz & Popular Music on the Durban campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 1989 and was its Director until 2005. Throughout this time he toured internationally leading professional and student groups and playing with some of South Africa’s top musicians. Playing the Changes, Darius and Catherine’s co-written memoir about their 23 years in South Africa, was launched in Durban by UKZN Press in 2023. The University of Illinois Press published an international edition of Playing the Changes in 2024. He is the the subject of a documentary film by indepenent filmmaker Michiel ten Kleij titled Playing the Changes: Tracking Darius Brubeck thtal premiered in Paris in April, 2024 and is now on the international festival circuit.
In the 70’s and early 80’s, Darius led his own groups, played with Don McLean, Larry Coryell, and was ushered into the international jazz scene as a member of Two Generations of Brubeck and The New Brubeck Quartet (Dave, Darius, Chris, and Dan Brubeck) under his father’s leadership. He moved to South Africa in 1983, where he initiated the first degree course in Jazz Studies offered by an African university and founded the Centre for Jazz and Popular Music at the University of KwaZulu-Natal where, as Professor of Jazz Studies, he taught until 2005. He has also served as a Fulbright visiting professor in Romania and Turkey. Two of his pieces, ‘For Lydia’ and ‘Tugela Rail” were selected by the Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music for its jazz syllabus.
Darius Brubeck and Afro Cool Concept, which featured some of South Africa’s premier musicians, played throughout southern Africa, Europe, and the USA. Brubeck also led groups representing his university and South Africa in Europe, Turkey, Peru, Thailand, and the USA. Using the band name, Gathering Forces for ‘world-music’ concerts, Brubeck has collaborated with virtuoso bansuri player, Deepak Ram.
Darius now leads the internationally successful London-based Darius Brubeck Quartet, which has been together for 20 years. He also plays wirth his brothers Chris and Dan in Brubeck’s Play Brubeck. The Darius Brubeck Quartet: Live in Poland was on Downbeat magazine’s best of 2020 list.
Read the Wikipedia page for Darius Brubeck
“Darius, the eldest [of Dave Brubeck’s sons] and most visually like his father, plays stylish piano and knows the score.” Jack Massarik, Evening Standard
DARIUS BRUBECK DISCOGRAPHY
DARIUS BRUBECK:
CHAPLIN’S BACK (Gathering Forces)
TUGELA RAIL AND OTHER TRACKS (Sheer Sound)
BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE (Sheer Sound)
THE DARIUS BRUBECK QUARTET:
FOR LYDIA AND THE LION (Gathering Forces)
TWO AND FOUR/TO AND FRO (Gathering Forces)
CATHY’S SUMMER (Ubuntu Music)
YEARS AGO (Ubuntu Music)
LIVE IN POLAND (Ubuntu Music)
DARIUS BRUBECK AND AFRO COOL CONCEPT
LIVE IN NEW ORLEANS (B & W Music)
STILL ON MY MIND (Sheer Sound)
DARIUS BRUBECK AND DEEPAK RAM
GATHERING FORCES II (B & W Music)
DARIUS AND DAN BRUBECK
GATHERING FORCES 1 (B & W Music)
DARIUS, CHRIS, DAN BRUBECK AND DAVE O’HIGGINS
BRUBECKS PLAY BRUBECK (Gathering Forces)
Let Freedom Swing album release – April 2026
On Let Freedom Swing, the latest release from Blue Engine Records, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis celebrates the charismatic leaders who gave voice to the struggle for freedom. Originally recorded live during a 2004 concert, the album features six stunning, sprawling musical commissions that paint a backdrop for inspirational oratory on liberty by Václav Havel, Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Desmond Tutu.
Delivering these leaders’ inspirational words are modern icons including Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, Patricia Clarkson, Glenn Close, Keith David, Morgan Freeman, Mario Van Peebles, and Alfre Woodard. The original commissions themselves were composed by a masterful array of jazz composers: Toshiko Akiyoshi, Darin Atwater, Darius Brubeck, Billy Childs, Jimmy Heath, Zim Ngqawana, and Emil Viklicky.
Let Freedom Swing is a stirring statement of purpose on behalf of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s ongoing JazzCall for Freedom campaign, which also includes the JLCO’s recently released record We the People. Both albums encourage listeners to stand up for unity and civil liberties during this crucial moment in our nation’s history. So, answer the call and immerse yourself in Let Freedom Swing, a record that will restore your faith in democracy and remind you of jazz’s power to reanimate our nobler sentiments.