Take Five is 65 years old today. The best selling jazz piece of all time.
Interestingly, the first time they tried to record it they gave up after 40 minutes. The musicians stated that it was too weird.
Pieces written in 5/4 and other unequal time signatures are now commonplace. An example is the theme to Mission Impossible
Prog rock often contains such time signatures as well
5/4 is what made it interesting for many.
I’ve told the story here before. When my mom and dad would come over to my house, I’d play lots of records (back when I still had my LPs). Elvis, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, etc… They always enjoyed the entertainment. I’d wind down, toward the end of the night, with Take Five. I owned a great 45rpm copy. After 30 seconds my dad would stand up and tell my mom, “it’s time to go.” I repeated this experiment at least three more times: he always stood up immediately and announced that it was time to go.
Great story!
I do not recall you telling it before, but it is worth retelling in any event.
A cornerstone of any collection and a fine introduction to what jazz can provide to the attentive listener. Take Five as well as Kind of Blue and Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto have been LPs I frequently use to introduce the potential of the music to the uninitiated.
Excellent thinking, great choices
I recently listened to Take 5 on Qobuz and the channels were reversed. Or, at least in comparison to the hi-res cd reissue. Weird.
I’m not at home to see if that is still the case.
Live in Belgium 1964
Paul Desmond (alto sax), Joe Morello (drums), Eugene Wright (bass) and Dave Brubeck (piano).
An OK line-up. 
There is a release where the tracks are indeed reversed. I can’t recall which one, though.
It’s interesting the different reactions that people have to different music. I can understand musicians thinking that the music is weird to play. But weird to listen to? No disrespect to your father.
The first time that I ever even heard about Dave Brubeck and Take Five / Time Out was about a year and a half ago. Being near 57 years old, at that time, and not knowing at all about this album is a topic for another conversation.
My point is this, you know how for some pieces of music you need to hear it a few times to start to like and appreciate it? For Take Five / Time Out, I was hooked with the very first listen. It sounds great and I cannot imagine someone not liking it or being put off by it.
Anyways. Different strokes for different folks.
I had the pleasure of hearing him live in 1999 in Washington DC. While not the original quartet, he and his bandmates still cooked, and hearing them play Take Five sent shivers up my spine. Take Five is one of the albums I always use to test new equipment, and hearing it through my FR10s once they were set up and burned in put a big smile on my face.
Bob
My understanding is Take Five was difficult for both musicians and listeners of the time. The rhythm fell far from what was commonplace.
Now such time signatures are easy for us, to the point as a musician I have trouble accepting 5/4 was ever conidered difficult.
An excellent example of the rewards associated with having an open mind an ears when listening to music. One may just be pleasantly surprised.
Excellent point.
A rewarding approach to new music.
Funny, I always viewed it as a novelty tune. I have a pretty high tolerance for ‘unusual’ jazz, but it really grates on my nerves.
Interesting. At the time, it broke boundaries and pushed past the envelope. Perhaps the piece is now trite, but it does not feel that way to me.
For me, novelty jazz is the soundtracks to the Peanuts specials. Yuck
Me neither. It (Take Five) is simply a great composition, as far as I am concerned.
To each his own.
If the banal draws the uninitiated into the music in a positive way I’m all for it. I can respect it, I can tolerate it, but I don’t necessarily embrace it. The Peanuts “jazz” is a case in point.
Good point.