Paul Desmond was revered for the pure, gentle tone of his alto saxophone, and the elegant lyricism of his improvisations. For seventeen years he was the lead soloist in the most commercially ...

Paul Desmond, the group's alto saxophonist, ... and fluently melodic sound. Desmond was 43 years old, suddenly with more free time on his hands than he'd had in decades.

At the end of 1967 one of the most popular groups in jazz, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, disbanded. What did its star alto saxophonist Paul Desmond do next? Desmond biographer Doug Ramsey joins us to ...

Desmond, on the other hand, had a much lighter, more lyrical approach that seemed to fit perfectly with Brubeck's suave style as a pianist and bandleader. As he himself famously quipped, "my sound ...