Swell piece by Marc Myers on Dave Brubeck in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal.

Lede:

Shortly after I arrived at Dave Brubeck’s home here last week, the jazz pianist insisted we move to a glass- enclosed deck with a view of pine trees and a rushing brook. “See that rock?” Mr. Brubeck said, pointing to an elephant-sized granite boulder below. “I love how it forces the stream to make a sharp right turn.”

Mr. Brubeck stood bathed in sunlight as he watched the water race by. Asked if he viewed himself as the rock or the stream, Mr. Brubeck flashed his famous smile. “The rock,” he said, thrusting his right fist upward, adding a growly “Yeah.”

Yeah.

(Special bonus: Our friend Ken Fallin‘s illustration.)

As the piece points out, Brubeck “has been forcing jazz to change direction for seven decades.” Which is an excellent reason to tune into Turner Classic Movie’s “Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way,” a new documentary produced by Clint Eastwood that will debut on Monday.

In the meantime, the hardworking staff will try to dig up the audio cassette of an interview we did with Brubeck in a hotel lobby (The Colonnade?) in the late ’70s, when we were writing for every B-level music magazine in Boston.

Here’s hoping . . .