Jazz Hit or Shit: Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five

[fange]

Arguably one of the most famous and popular jazz songs of all time - what do you think of 'Take Five'?

This is the single version...



The LP version...

[loveless]

Oh, it's magnificent!

Paul Desmond's tone, Joe Morello's solo, and...the overall pace, timbre, and minor key motif with a lilting departure into the relief of the more expansive bridge.

["BING E BONG"]

Yes! I love everything about it. Sheer class.

[osgood]

Totally hit, it deserves its popularity.

[fange]

"Morello said that in concert he used to go into 5/4 time in the drum break of a Brubeck piece called “Sounds of the Loop,” which the group re­corded in 1956 in its album Jazz Impressions Of The USA.”I’d just mess around in 5, go from 5/4 to 7/4, and I guess they hadn’t heard that kind of thing be­fore, so I kept saying, “Come on, Dave, why don’t you write something in 5/4? He never did, so Paul said one night, ‘Oh, shit, I’ll write something.’

We were rehearsing up at Dave’s house one time, and Paul came in with that. So, we recorded the thing in the studio at Columbia, and I think it was the first take or the second take, and Dave was playing the vamp. I got more comments on that darn drum solo. I hear it every day somewhere, so it was a very lucky thing. It was my idea. Everybody made a lot of money but me.

“I still think, basically, it was a dubious idea at best,” Desmond said, “but at that point we had three or four albums a year to get done, and we’d done all our tunes that we’d put together, and standards and originals of Dave’s and he said, ‘Why don’t we do this album and do all different time signatures?’ And I said, ‘Okay.’ I was always argumentative. And, for some reason, I lucked out. I really did. It was sort of like Keno.

‘Okay, we’ve got 2/4, 3/4, 5/4, 6/4, 7/4, 8/4, whatever. Why don’t you take 5/4?’ And I wrote Take Five and I realize now, that was a genius move on my part. At the time, I thought it was kind of a throwaway. I was ready to trade in the entire rights of ‘Take Five’ for a used Ronson electric razor. And the thing that makes Take Five’ work is the bridge, which we almost didn’t use—I shudder to think how close we came to not using that. I said, ‘Well, I’ve got this theme we could use for a middle part, and Dave said, ‘Well, let’s run it through,’ and that” — Des­mond whistled the first four bars of the bridge section — “is what made Take Five.’”

(Paul Desmond, Radio Canada, probably June, 1976)



It's true, isn't it. As beautiful as the main theme is, that bridge section creates an incredible but perfectly complementary change in the mood and feel of the song, and gives the song a sense of completeness.

[Stacy Heydon]

Nothing to add, other than I agree with all the comments so far. A MEGA hit.

[fange]

I can't wait for Jimmy to explain how much he LOVES it too!

[adamcoan]

Well fuck you mate........




I have always liked it !

[Stacy Heydon]

This is a great documentary that covers, along with Miles, Mingus and Ornette Coleman, Brubeck and Take 5.

[fange]

Aug 15, 2024 12:31:23 GMT adamcoan said:

Well fuck you mate........




I have always liked it !

Ok, my apologies, i saw someone voted shit so i ASSumed it was you.

So why do you like this one when most jazz makes you want to hurl?

[fearlessfreap]

Hit
I'm way more of a Desmond fan than a Brubeck one, however - a little of him goes a long way.

[Charlie O.]

Hit hit hit.

[Charlie O.]

Hit hit.

[toomanyhatz]

Well someone voted 'shit'.

Me, I love it. Only thing I'll add to what's said before is, I think part of its secret is how easily it turns something supposedly obscure and exotic by its very nature into something that sounds so instinctive and natural.

It's got hit written all over it. I'm honestly amazed anyone here would think otherwise. But it takes all kinds...

[Sneelock]

Churlish Jazzbo wrote:

He's an artist, a pioneer. We've got to have some music on the New Frontier.