Anyone with open ears growing up in the late 1950s and early 1960s knows the innovative pianist Dave Brubeck.

His LP on Columbia, Time Out, featured two compositions in odd time signatures – Take Five and Blue Rondo à la Turk – that presaged the freedom explosion in music that was to follow. Take Five, written by the lyrical alto saxophoinist Paul Desmond, was in 5/4 time, while most jazz pieces at the time were written in common, or 4/4 time, or in 3/4 or waltz time. Brubeck’s classic quartet, with which he turned Take Five into a pop hit, included Desmond, the drummer Joe Morello and bassist Gene Wright.

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Like many Montrealers, Moz Taylor looks forward to that rite of summer, the Montreal jazz fest, but perhaps with a touch of trepidation.

“It’s the busiest time of the year,” says the host and producer of Jazz Boulevard, a late-night radio-show for night owls, featuring news, interviews with jazz artists from near and far, and mostly, “music, music, music.” The program recently won the Best English Community Radio Show of the Year award at the 2009 SOBA (Sounds of Blackness Awards) Gala and will celebrate its 5th anniversary on Friday, June 12, with local jazz artist Susie Arioli co-hosting the show with Taylor.

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Dr. Ronald Melzack’s interest in studying pain started off as a scientific problem, much like studying vision or hearing. “It was just plain curiosity about pain,” he said about his recent induction into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

It wasn’t until he was a postdoctoral fellow in medical school at the University of Oregon and “met all kinds of people in terrible pain that could not be treated” that the study of chronic pain became his lifelong passion.

Last month during a ceremony in Montreal, Melzack was inducted into this country’s medical hall of fame along with four other individuals recognized for winning their place in Canadian medical history. Located in London, Ont., the hall of fame is dedicated to honouring Canadians who have changed the world’s health care landscape.

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After 52 years of teaching, Greta Hofmann Nemiroff says she still likes everything about it – except maybe marking.

“It’s pretty difficult to think of retiring,” says Nemiroff, a teacher at Dawson College. “I’m not afraid of not having things to do. I’ve spent most of my life with people between the ages of 16 and 25 and I’ll miss them too much. That’s my fear.” Nemiroff is the coordinator of the Creative Arts Literature and Languages program at Dawson College and a New School Teacher. In New School, students have the option to take their humanities or English courses using the principles of humanistic education.

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