Dave Brubeck | 1920 - 2012

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)

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

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)

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)

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)

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

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)

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

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