CHRIS BRUBECK

trombonist with jazz group the Brubeck Brothers Quartet

“I can’t remember the first album that I bought, but I can remember the first record that I heard that made me think that rock ‘n’ roll wasn’t just really stupid. All the songs had those same three chords back then, but then I heard ‘Surfin’ USA,’ and I thought, ‘A-ha, the vocabulary is widening.’ Now everyone looks back at Brian Wilson as sort of a pop Debussy, and that stuff really holds up. Those early Beach Boys harmonies were very appealing to me.”