Time Out - The Dave Brubeck Quartet

Rating: 7.5/10
Sound Quality: 320 kb/s
Format: Mp3
Record Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year Released: 1997 (Reissue), 1959 (Original)
Album Covers: Included
Pass: radiodada
Links: rapidshare
Post Number: #00022

About the Album
Time Out that were unusual for is a 1959 album by The Dave Brubeck Quartet, based upon the use of time signaturesjazz (mainly waltz or double-waltz time, but also 9/8, and most famously 5/4). Although the album was intended as an experiment (Columbia president Goddard Lieberson was willing to chance releasing it) and received negative reviews by critics upon its release, it became one of the best-known and biggest-selling jazz albums, reaching number two in the U.S. Billboard "Pop Albums" chart, and produced one single — Paul Desmond's "Take Five" — that reached number five in the Billboard "Adult Contemporary" chart. In 2005 it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.Although the theme (and the title) of Time Out is non-common-time signatures, things are not quite so simple. "Blue Rondo à la Turk" starts in 9/8 (the rhythm of the Turkish zeybek, equivalent of the Greek zeibekiko), but alternates with 4/4, while "Strange Meadow Lark" is too flexible to be pinned down to a particular time signature, though there are hints of waltz time. "Take Five" ("supposed to be a Joe Morello drum solo", according to Desmond) is in 5/4 throughout. "Three to Get Ready" begins in waltz-time, after which it begins to alternate between two measures of 3/4 (the waltz-time), and two of 4/4. "Kathy's Waltz" (misspelt after Brubeck's daughter, Cathy) starts in 4/4, and only later switches to double-waltz time, before merging the two. "Everybody's Jumpin' " is mainly in a very flexible 6/4, while "Pick Up Sticks" firms that up into a clear and steady 6/4. Aside from all this, Desmond has a habit of smoothing the time into something nearer 4/4 as he plays. Partly because of this, but mainly because of the skill and jazz sensibilities of the musicians, the complex and non-jazz rhythms do not stop the music from swinging.

About The Dave Brubeck Quartet
The Dave Brubeck Quartet was a jazz quartet, founded in 1951 by Dave Brubeck; featuring Paul Desmond on saxophone, and Brubeck on piano. They took up a long residency at San Francisco's Blackhawk nightclub and gained great popularity touring college campuses, releasing a series of albums with such titles as Jazz at Oberlin, Jazz Goes to College, and Jazz Goes to Junior College.

By 1958, after a handful of different drummers and bassists, the "Classic Quartet" — so-called because it remained as such virtually consistently until the group dissolved — had been assembled; consisting of Brubeck, Desmond, Joe Morello on drums, and Eugene Wright on bass. In 1959, the Dave Brubeck Quartet released Time Out, an album their label was enthusiastic about but nonetheless hesitant to release. The album contained all original compositions, almost none of which were in common time. Nonetheless, on the strength of these unusual time signatures (the album included "Take Five", "Blue Rondo à la Turk", and "Pick Up Sticks"), it quickly went platinum. The quartet followed up its success with several more albums in the same vein, including Time Further Out (1961), Countdown: Time in Outer Space, and Time Changes. These albums were also known for using contemporary paintings as cover art, featuring the work of Neil Fujita on Time Out, Joan Miró on Time Further Out, Franz Kline on Time in Outer Space, and Sam Francis on Time Changes. A high point for the group was their classic 1963 live album At Carnegie Hall, described by critic Richard Palmer as "arguably Dave Brubeck's greatest concert".The Dave Brubeck Quartet broke up in 1967, except for a 25th anniversary reunion in 1976.