Perfect Timing

Dave Brubeck played piano. He became the most famous jazz piano master in the second half of the twentieth century.

He got started in 1942. He played until he died in 2012. That was a 70-year career.

He studied music at the College of the Pacific. Only toward the end did one of his professors discover that he could not sight-read music. He was allowed to graduate only by promising never to teach piano. That was in 1942.

He was immediately inducted into the Army. He got started with jazz when...