Darius Brubeck

Darius Brubeck leads the London-based Darius Brubeck Quartet which has five albums on Ubuntu Music. Their Live in Poland album made Downbeat magazine’s ‘Best of 2020’ list. He also plays with his brothers Chris and Dan in Brubecks Play Brubeck. Darius is an American jazz pianist, composer, author, and retired professor. Darius and his wife Catherine’s book Playing the Changes, a memoir about their 23 years in South Africa was published in 2023. A documentary film by that name will soon follow. During the 70s and 80s, Darius played with his father Dave Brubeck in Two Generations of Brubeck and The New Brubeck Quartet and led the Darius Brubeck Ensemble. In 1983 Darius and Catherine moved to South Africa, initiating the first Jazz Studies degree in Africa at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban where he founded the Centre for Jazz and Popular Music and taught as Professor of Jazz Studies until 2006. Darius’ group during this time, Afro-Cool Concept, featuring some of South Africa’s premier musicians toured internationally. Brubeck and bansuri player, Deepak Ram combined jazz and Indian music in Gathering Forces. He also created special groups such as The Jazzanians and NU Jazz Connection to represent his university and South Africa at international events at home and abroad. Darius and Catherine now reside in England.