Audrey

Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond at Birdland, photo by Marcel Fleiss

At the 26th Annual Academy Awards in March 1954, Audrey Hepburn won the Best Actress Oscar for Roman Holiday (1953). Miss Hepburn had profited from recent exposure as a Time cover subject (9/7/53), as would Dave Brubeck that November. Among her many fans was Paul Desmond, who extemporized this willowy blues in tribute. Desmonds self-described "dry martini" sound derived partly from Lester Young and partly from the opening high-pitched bassoon in Stravinsky's Le Sacr du Printemps. His lyricism, however, was pure Desmond. Paul's biographer Doug Ramsey reports Miss Hepburn played "Audrey" every night before sleep. She must've had sweet dreams.