Paul Desmond

Paul Desmond is, for me, the soul of cool jazz. As the alto saxophonist of the Dave Brubeck Quartet and the author of "Take Five," he wrote the best-selling jazz single of all time around an oddball five-four pulse that should not work yet utterly does. What I love is his tone, famously likened to a dry martini: clear, restrained, almost shy, never showing off. He proved that understatement can outlast bombast. Losing him at fifty-two feels like a theft from the music. I return to his records the way one returns to an old, trusted friend.

Name (English)

Paul Desmond

Name (Japanese)

ポール・デスモンド

Reading

ぽーる・ですもんど

Born

November 25, 1924 – May 30, 1977

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Rat

Origin

San Francisco, California, United States

Occupation

composer / saxophonist / jazz musician / recording artist / musician

High school

San Francisco Polytechnic High School

University

San Francisco State University

• Official sitehttp://puredesmond.ca
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul%20Desmond
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%83%87%E3%82%B9%E3%83%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q332471

Tags

• California
• composer
• saxophonist
• jazz musician

Last updated

2026-06-21

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.