The dancers are Bill McGrath, and Carlu Carter. Originally from Canada (Royal Winnipeg Ballet), but migrated to Australia in the early 60's. They were regulars on Barry Crocker's show - also working with the likes of Don Lane, and Johnny O'Keefe. Bill died a few years ago, but Carlu is still going strong! She still walks her dog in Queen's park every day.
Carlue feels quite alone these days... first time ever that she is without a beloved dog.... I still visit her time to time but she is very fragile and ready to be reunited with Bill
Thank you! I wasn’t happy about the fact that these wonderful dancers weren’t credited at all. I am so happy that you rectified this and gave them the recognition that they deserved!
I've spent 81 years on this earth and never seen anybody dance in 7/4 time before. I bought this album when it came out and haven't heard it for years! Many thanks for upload.
Oh my goodness, I have been looking for this song for over 40 years. It was the day before Opening Day 1969, and here in Pittsburgh, the local TV station that carried the Pirates games did a piece on a bunch of the young players who were expected to be contributors that season....Manny Sanguillen, Richie Hebner, Al Oliver and a couple others. Anyhow, this was the music that was playing behind the action footage of these guys playing in Spring Training. I was a 13 year old trombone player who played in my Jr. High concert and jazz bands, and I fell in love with the song, but never knew the title. I asked our band director the next day, but he wasn't a baseball fan, so he didn't see the story. So time passed, and I never did know what the title of the song was. Until now, by the sheerest of accidents. I clicked over to this video after watching a performance of "Blue Rondo a la Turk." Better late than never, I suppose.
Yeah thats why i love youtube, you find all sorts of stuff from your past, feels so good finding something you've lost. Im glad you finally found your song again
I love this. My seven year old heard it and got up to dance. After a minute, she turned to me with a giant smile on her face and said "this is hard!" Thank you for bringing such wonderful music into the world.
I remember hearing this song as a kid on the Captain Kangaroo Show, and loving it. Little did I know, I was being exposed to the greatness of jazz. This clip is another expression of the greatness that is the Dave Brubeck Quartet.
MY POINT, EXACTLY! Baby Boomers were so blessed with such a wealth of eclectic music styles, courtesy of that amazing medium, television. The demand for artistic creativity to fill those hours of local and network programming could be likened to a new California gold rush!
@@5610winston As I sit her remembering that I saw Paul Desmond fall completely hard on his butt at the rear entrance to the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Fort Wayne, Indiana as he went in to perform that evening from my parking spot across the snowy road. Great concert ... I feel privileged to have been able to see them live.
‘Unsquare Dance’ was released in 1961 as part of the Dave Brubeck’s “Time Further Out” album. This record enjoyed high sales, reaching #8 in the Billboard charts, the de facto measure of popularity used by the record industry at the time. Regarding the elements of music, the piece most compelling attractiveness lies in its unusual rhythmic structure: a fast, “un-square” metre (three-time with a longer final beat) is accentuated throughout the track by the plucked double-bass with a recurring three-note interval. The second foundation brick in the rhythm is a syncopated pattern of hand-clapping. This rhythmic base, albeit rather thin in texture, manages to sound rich, instantly appealing and memorable. The ABA architecture of Unsquare Dance begins, after the rhythmic intro, with a melodic motif in the piano (0’11’’-0’32’’) that reappears, with further development (1’38’’-1’58’’) after a deceptively simple drum’s rim solo (0’33”-1’37”). The casual timbral character of the percussive use of the drum’s rim give the piece a tap-on-the-table joviality and magnetism. The piano carries the majority of the melodic weight (the double bass also has melodic significance), but it has also an important rhythmic role, one that enriches even further the zippy nature of this piece. The ending contains one of the most widely used melodic motifs in popular music, the 7-note “shave and a haircut, two bits” (1’55’’). This ending, and a final laughter (1’59’’), confirm the casual, lively mood of the piece and its light-hearted mass appeal. ‘Unsquare Dance’ unusual metre might be a component of its “popularity” as it makes the piece immediately puzzling, requiring many hearings in order to unravel and “square” the dance.
I'm nearly 83 yrs of age. Remember being introduced to B's music long before marriage in 1961, but, which boyfriend? This plus the choreography is Ab. Fab! Hope it's appreciated by my grandchildren & others with whom I'll share!
Hi deeplyflawed, the dancers are Bill McGrath and Carlu Carter. Originally from Cananda - moved to Australia in the early sixties. Bill did most of their choreography. He died a number of years ago, but Carlu is still alive and well.
I'm not sure what you mean about everyone going on about the dancers being square, but if you mean the the title, it means, I think, that it's not a Square Dance (traditional American country dance style) and that it's also not 'square' as in not boring or un-hip.
I love the choreography and the execution by the dancers almost as much as I do Brubeck's music and its lovely, nifty 7/4 time signature. this is simply super fun to watch. thanks for sharing!
Thank you!! music like this brings smiles to many old people. They might have lose their memory or they suffer from Alzheimer but I still have my father (80)and we enjoy this music!!
Everything here is incredible. I really wish the quality was better, the video encoding quality i mean, that's the only quality that could improve, everything else is incredible. This piece is genius, and to have made an actual unsquare dance is a feat in itself - somewhat literally even!
Welcome to TV land. This is what TV looked like until solid state came along in the early 60's.If someone " cleaned it up" it would just look A I fake. A very early video tape format. Video tech was vacuum tubes, not the best detail. PS Vacuum tube audio is another story, hear a good tube system and you will never listen to solid state again. PPS Lucy and Desi filmed all of their shows, this is why we have their work .And it looks great. Understand that high quality video did not happen until about 1956. Most of early TV is lost, it was aired but not taped.
Hi Brian. The dancers are Carlu Carter and Bill McGrath, both Canadians, who moved to Australia. This routine was filmed in Sydney on Digby Wolfe's Variety Show, Revue '61.Wolfe, an English actor eventually moved to the U.S.A where he made appearances on The Monkees, The Munsters and I Dream Of Jeannie. He also had something to do with Rowan & Martin's Laugh In though I don't know in what capacity. Cheers.
@@Mrc172 Wow, thanks for that info! I just googled the names, and apparently Bill died, but I can't tell if Carlu is still around or not. She'd have to be right around 90 now, so if she's still going, then good for her. This video of them was amazing. I've watched it many times and still can't figure out how they kept that 7/4 time in their heads as they were dancing.
Wow! I love the stage set and costumes, music, and the dancing. I can't imagine having the stamina and skill to dance like that. Wonderful, thanks for posting.
When my Mom played this album (in the '60s) , I remember eagerly awaiting this particular track - which I wanted to be repeated until Mom had heard enough .... haha
Agreed. Some very simple and minimalist paintings and props, and you immediately know where the action is set. Clearly everyone involved in this production was at the top of their game.
as a drummer, I eschew 2 syllable counting points. For me it is |one, two, three, four, one, two, three| I would also think of it as |ONE, two, THREE, four, ONE, two, three| Musically, the bass line is more important than the hand claps and earn the accent.
Probably this pair is the Hugh Lambert Dancers, who performed Unsquare Dance twice in 1962 for the Ed Sullivan TV show. Since the Dave Brubeck quartet isn't shown, this is probably the 11 November 1962 show (the band was on stage during the June 17 1962 performance). FWIW, Hugh ended up marrying Frank Sinatra's daughter, Nancy.
+tandmark Many thanks for taking the time to post this info. I'm 60+ but haven't seen this before - it's a real period piece. Great to have such accuracy about the 'where and when.' Saw Dave B and the band onstage in London when he was around 77 - unforgettable.
No it's not. The dancers are Carlu Carter and Bill McGrath. The dance was filmed in the Channel 7 studios in Sydney Australia back in 1962. Here's a video. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fOFdK6zKOOA.html
One of the absolute best - if not THE best - thought-out pieces of music of all time. An impressive example of less is more and is in 7/4 time, as so many mentioned before. A pure stroke of genius!
I heard this song about a month ago the clapping along with the bass was truly hypnotic. While listening to it all I could think of was African percussion.
This is from back when talent, artistry, creativity, instead of heavy production and image, actually meant something in the worlds of music and dance. Bye, Dave. Your genius was unique.
Did a modern dance to this in college many years ago. The teacher was very like the woman in the video. She and the man do a great job on their dance here, and the music is catchy!
I have loved this, ever since I first heared it in the mid 1970s ... in the late 1980s "the not so famouse then" Emma Thompson used it as the intro to her comedy sketch show on the B.B.C.
Professional entertainers from back in the day, always impress me, beyond words. Such professionalism in every performance. It's astonishing what we have today passes for entertainment.
I've never seen this footage before, I didn't know the title and it's been decades since I last heard this song yet, as I hovered over the thumbnail and saw the clapping, with no audio, this started playing in my head instantly. I recognized a song I haven't heard in decades just from seeing a few seconds of clapping hands! Thanks for uploading... great tune!
the dancers are excellent! being able to keep the unusual beat and dancing at the same time... amazing! btw this dance is a 7/4 dance. it's a 4/4 combined with a 3/4.... and it's called unsquare dance because it reffers to the square dance (folklore dance in 4/4)... but it's modified in 7/4 so they called it unsquare dance!
It's worth noting, that one of the unsung stars of this video is whoever did the wardrobe tailoring- I wonder if this dance would have been as effective without the skinny, Praying Mantis look of the outfits.
Oh brother, "Praying Mantis" look? You are probably the type of person who drinks wine and instead of it tasting like fermented grape juice, you find floral and citrus overtones with a slight wisp of dark chocolate and hazelnut with just a kiss of nutmeg...
Apparently, their Latin name is "mantis religiosa", which seems to make it clear that "praying mantis" is the original name, although "preying" is an understandable way to hear it.
uncommon for occidental ears, I'm a western european musician and I can tell you it's not easy at all to understand that sort of time signature, although I love it !
+Gilles Bourgeois Me too. My father was a jazz pianist, besides, in childhood i lived with grandmother, who turned on "Radio of freedom" station, that was prohibited in USSR... Nevertheless, it was possible to tune... There were breaks between "atomic world" news and then... there was old jazz, which i was listening often before getting asleep :)
The Video recording came from an Australian TV Show "Digby Wolf Show" - I stand corrected. These were the regular Dancers from the Light Entertainment Show and I was lucky to see the Quartet in Adelaide in the early 1960s at Centennial Hall. Mike
Interesting Mike❕The Digby Wolf Show❕Rings a bell 🔔 I was born in 53 but remember DW … very cool info there 😎 & always encouraging to see white people who can dance 💃 Never mind the Time Sig … Cheers 🥂
One of the lesser known aspects of Unsquare Dance is that at the very end Brubeck is off half a bar with Morello. That's why he has to do the 'Shave-and-a -haircut' twice at the very end. Brilliantly included by the choreographer (?) by having the dancers pause and look at each other for half a bar and then they too, are back in sync.
Well I have never been a fan of the jazz, but after I heard " Take Five". and Unsquare Dance" by Dave Brubeck, I must have more?!!!! More more more, baby. Next up is Dr. John's "Right Place Wrong Time" I am finally getting what the fuss is all about. Thank you Allah/God/Goddess for the blessing of music. 🙏🙏🙏
Loved the dancing - corny choreography but fun to watch and she has all the hallmarks of a classical ballet dancer - ya just can't hide that level of skill. Oh, and he's no slouch either.
No, Silver Linings Playbook did not bring me here. This has been my favorite Brubeck song for years. Can't help but clap along whenever it comes on my iPod.
This tune reminds me of when I was an under aged kid in a dirty taxi going down some steep hill in San Francisco in the 70's. I had a fake id and we would go into these dingy old bars to listen to this type of music. I miss those days.
@Sun Dancer You often need to provide a reference or catch item to get attention. You will also notice I did comment on the video's dancing. I also noted the lack of something not opposition in the original comment. I and many people don't like and find twerking disgusting so we express this. Just as much as you express your opinion and didn't withhold your comment out of politeness.
If it were not for the applause at the end, you would have heard a laugh at the end of recording. It was Joe Morello giving out a laugh of amazement having gotten through that tricky rhythm.
After seeing this dance today, of cource through Google, I tried it with a firend. Its SO fun..especially when you do it in the University's library :D
Awesome! Please don't ever change and "grow up". Too many grumpy people in this world have forgotten how to play. Someone laughed at me for exuberantly dancing down the aisle of our local grocery store last week. I told them, "You play Donna Summer's music, you're going to have dancing." OOOoooooooo I feel love, I feel love I feeeeeeel LOOOOOOVE!!!!
