Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond -- Stardust

College of the Pacific, December 14, 1953. Paul Desmond began playing this tune professionally when he was with the Jack Fina band in 1949. It later became a staple of the early Brubeck quartets as Paul and Dave found many ways to improvise on it. There are at least 9 separate recordings of Desmond playing this tune and they are all different from each other; each has its own unique melodic variations and character. This one sat in Fantasy’s tape vault for nearly 50 years. Taken at a slower tempo than the others, it may be the most complex and unusual of all of them. With Ron Crotty on bass and Joe Dodge on drums.