Report from Buxton Jazz Weekender 2026
Phil Johnson reviews The Darius Brubeck Quartet’s performance Buxton for UK Jazz News. Read the full review which starts with the sets that preceded The DBQ, or read on below.
Johnson writes:
The evening’s third and final show was a triumphant performance by the Darius Brubeck Quartet, playing their familiar repertoire of Dave Brubeck classics and Darius’s own compositions. I have seen and even booked the band many times before, and I stayed for a very enjoyable hour before – apology – ducking out to watch the second half of the football. What sometimes gets lost in assessing the Darius Brubeck legacy, which is sizeable in itself, and the legacy of his father, which is massive, and foundational to modern jazz, is just what an incredible quartet of musicians this has become. There’s a longevity very unusual in any jazz band, with the same personnel for what must be fifteen years or so, since I first saw them perform.
Dave O’Higgins has always been one of the best saxophonists around, and he was masterful tonight, excelling on his essential solos in the Paul Desmond role (adapted for tenor sax), as well as in a featured spot of material from his own new recordings. Matt Ridley on double bass and Wesley Gibbens on drums are no longer the young tyros from of their early years in the band, but their roles have expanded considerably, and there’s now great freedom in what they choose to contribute. As the frontman, Darius Brubeck continues to combine incisive and heavily percussive pianism with charming introductions to each song. At one point he recalled his one previous visit to Buxton in the winter of 2010 when a mid-gig blizzard left both band and meagre Opera House audience stranded for the night in an adjacent hotel.
The group opened with the classic ‘Blue Rondo a la Turk’, followed by the beautiful Dave Brubeck standard ‘In Your Own Sweet Way’. They then progressed through a number of Darius originals including a dedication to his new great-granddaughter, and a lovely Township Jazz-style number composed by the great South African saxophonist Zim Ngqawana, who Darius had taught. There was also what Darius described as “a mash-up” of Stevie Wonder and J.S. Bach, before the Dave O’Higgins solo feature and my anxious exit, which meant I missed ‘Take Five’.
