![]() ![]() ![]() (Paul Desmond, the quartet’s sax player, explained Brubeck’s experiments in hedonism this way: “Every five years or so, Dave makes a major breakthrough, like discovering room service.”) Brubeck once proudly declared, of his quartet, “We’re the worst-dressed group in America!” In his playing, he displays patience and fortitude. Brubeck liked to save money, didn’t smoke, and limited himself to one martini before dinner. He grew up on a ranch, and spent most of his youth wanting to be a cowboy (that accounts, Rice thinks, for the way he moves at the piano, “rid the piano stool hell for leather, as if it were a cow pony”). In June of 1961, Robert Rice profiled Dave Brubeck for The New Yorker, in an article called “ The Cleanup Man.” Brubeck, Rice wrote, was a decidedly uncool cool jazz musician. On the single’s b-side was “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” a song written in 9/8 time, like the music Brubeck had heard in Istanbul. “Take Five,” which is written in 5/4 time, was the breakout hit single. Later, back in the States, the group recorded “Time Out”-an album of songs with unusual time signatures. ![]() It was a traditional Turkish folk song, widely known-in Turkey.Īs the tour continued, Brubeck kept listening for interesting rhythms, and he kept asking his quartet to experiment with them. He hummed the tune, and several of the musicians started playing it, adding flourishes and counterpoint, even improvising on it. He told some of them about the rhythm that he’d heard on the streets and asked if anyone knew what it was. When Brubeck arrived, the musicians were taking a break from a rehearsal. Like many broadcasters at the time, the station had its own symphony orchestra. Later that day, Brubeck had an interview scheduled at a local radio station. It was in 9/8 time-nine eighth notes per measure-a very unusual meter for Western music…. So here, from “Time Out,” is the classic “Take Five.” See if you can count along and really feel the five-beat rhythm.Walking around Istanbul one morning, Brubeck heard a group of street musicians playing an exotic rhythm, fast and syncopated. Players like him helped develop what became known as “cool jazz” or the “West Coast sound.” While other saxophone players were playing fast and brash, Desmond chose to lay back and play sweetly. Much of it was due to Desmond and his smooth, dry sound on the sax. The Dave Brubeck Quartet stayed together for decades and really developed a signature group sound. This gives the tunes a very different rhythmic feel, as you’ll hear in today’s song, called “Take Five.” Written by Brubeck’s longtime collaborator and alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, the song has five beats per measure and went on to become a Top 40 hit single - something that rarely happens to a jazz tune. Brubeck experimented with songs that had five, six, nine, 13 beats per measure. Most of the songs we listen to have four beats per measure. The album was based on Brubeck’s search for the new, with all of the songs being in different time signatures. He released an album called “Time Out” in 1959 with his quartet that was the first jazz album to be certified platinum (1,000,000 copies sold). Loved by many, he is one of the few jazz artists to cross over to a non-jazz audience. Welcome to Day 2 of Jazz Appreciation Month! Today we turn our ears to Dave Brubeck, another one of the towering figures in jazz.īrubeck had a 60-year career and played into his 80s before he passed away last year. ![]()
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