Died on this day: Jazz artist Dave Brubeck was a former cowboy

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Jazz great Dave Brubeck in Wilton, Conn., in 2010. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Dave Brubeck, seated right, joins his fellow 2009 Kennedy Center honorees -- Grace Bumbry, Robert De Niro, Bruce Springsteen and Mel Brooks -- for a group photo. (Kevin Wolf / Associated Press)

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Dave Brubeck celebrates his 85th birthday in 2005 by performing with the London Symphony Orchestra at London’s Barbican Hall. (Alastair Grant / Associated Press)

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Dave Brubeck sits at the piano surrounded by sons Chris, left, Danny and Darius, during an intermission of a concert in New York in 1985. (Richard Drew / Associated Press)

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Dave Brubeck, left, joined fellow jazz legends Herbie Hancock and Lionel Hampton at a luncheon honoring Hancock at New York’s Tavern on the Green in June 1987. (Osamu Honda / Associated Press)

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Dave Brubeck plays piano as Tony Bennett sings “That Old Black Magic” at Carefusion Newport Jazz 55 in Newport, R.I., in 2009. Brubeck and Bennett had last performed the song together decades earlier, for President Kennedy at the White House. (Joe Giblin / Associated Press)

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Dave Brubeck entertains an after-work crowd at the 1990 JVC Jazz Festival in New York. (Mario Suriani / Associated Press)

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Dave Brubeck plays backstage for sons Danny and Darius between acts during his Newport Jazz Festival appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1975. (Richard Drew / Associated Press)

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Dave Brubeck at the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, R.I., in 1981. (Paul Mello / Associated Press)

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Dave Brubeck tours Moscow before performing at a concert in 1987. (Boris Yurehenko / Associated Press)

By Amy Hubbard

Dec. 5, 2013 1:49 PM PT

The wigging cat with the far-out wail, Dave Brubeck, died a year ago today.

Brubeck was the man behind the first million-selling jazz record, “Time Out,” in 1959. He created buzz on the jazz circuit (thus Time’s “wigging cat” description) and left a lasting legacy in the genre. But before he wailed, he rode.

Brubeck, born Dec. 6, 1920, in Concord, Calif., was the son of a cattle rancher and pianist mom, and he grew up milking cows, hauling wood and herding cattle. His father wanted Dave to follow him in his cowboy bootsteps, as biographer Fred Hall documented.

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Hall wrote that, at 16, Brubeck daydreamed that Benny Goodman’s band would be heading past the family ranch to a nearby ballroom, and he would intercept them. “I wouldn’t let ‘em through the cattle. I had herded hundreds of cattle on the road. Then I’d get on the bus and ... I’d be discovered!”

Brubeck, known for his horn-rimmed glasses, was born cross-eyed. Instead of sight reading, he first learned to play by ear. With the eyesight problems and the cowboy leanings, music wasn’t an obvious career path for Brubeck. When he started college, he reportedly had plans to be a veterinarian. After his first year, he switched to music.

Next came four years in the Army, serving in World War II, when Brubeck formed the band Wolfpack. In the years following the war, he and Paul Desmond created the Dave Brubeck Quartet, and the jazz artist cemented his popularity and his legacy.

Read more about Brubeck’s musical achievements.

Learn more about wigging cats. Follow me @AmyTheHub