“In Your Own Sweet Way” | Stories of Standards

Tune in to First Take with Lando and Chavis – weekdays from 6-9 am MT – for Stories of Standards to hear our favorite versions of this song all week long!

In 1952 or 1953 the Dave Brubeck Trio had been performing standards, when Paul Desmond suggested that they needed to find someone to write original music. Brubeck responded “You got to be kidding. I’m a composer. I can write two originals in a half hour.” He then sat down and wrote “In Your Own Sweet Way” and “The Waltz” in thirty minutes. While they didn’t particularly like “The Waltz”, Desmond came up with the title for “In Your Own Sweet Way” and Iola Brubeck (1923-2014) wrote richly ironic lyrics, which were first recorded by Carmen McRae and Dave Brubeck in 1961.

Dave Brubeck (1920-2012) would have been a rancher, but was drawn away by his love of the piano. After graduating from the College of the Pacific (where he met and married Iola Whitlock) he served in the Army, then studied music at Mills University with the GI Bill. By 1951 the Dave Brubeck Quartet (Brubeck, Paul Desmond on alto saxophone, Joe Dodge on drums and Bob Bates on bass). Iola organized the band’s tours of college campuses, taking the process from one of performing before small groups of students, mostly fraternities, to campus-wide. She then set up an agreement with Oberlin College in Ohio that exchanged broadcast rights for ownership of the master recording and set off a college/jazz trend that has endured for decades.

In 1956 drummer Joe Morello and bassist Gene Wright replaced Dodge and Bates respectively, forming the lineup which became the “classic” quartet. Their recording of Desmond’s 1959 composition “Take Five” became the first jazz instrumental to sell a million copies as a single. Among Brubeck’s many richly-deserved honors were NEA Jazz Master, National Medal of Arts, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Kennedy Center Honors and the Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Diplomacy.