![]() ![]() In Three to Get Ready, Brubeck alternates between 3/4 and 4/4. Blue Rondo à la Turk - which Brubeck wrote after hearing a group of street musicians playing a traditional Turkish folk song in 9/8 during a tour of Eurasia - starts in 9/8, swings to 4/4, then fluctuates between Turkish and western rhythms. Time Out is all about experiments with time. (Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue is still the top-selling jazz album of all time, surpassing four times platinum.) ![]() In 2011, the RIAA certified it at more than 2 million sales worldwide. It was the first jazz album to sell more than a million copies. Take Five was the centrepiece of Brubeck’s top-selling jazz recording, Time Out. Hours later, in my troubled mind, I still thought I could still be sentenced to jazz prison, charged with “botched time.” We had little understanding that most folks watching at home through those Admiral televisions were more focused on getting a receptive black-and-white picture, not “junior jazz” time. The episode is one Wayne and I talk about to this day. At song’s end, we are clapped off and praised as if we were child prodigies. He looked as if he’d been struck by an oncoming bus. What if viewers catch me fumble or falter? I’m too young to die on live TV. From the corner of an eye, I could see cameras glide about the room and one of them close in on my hands. I then try to cram Paul Desmond’s beautiful melody into four-bar sequences, to no avail. I glance over at the drummer and notice he’s swinging a metre of his choosing - one fit for a perky dance band. Suddenly, the brothers find themselves in the weirdest bandstand crossfire imaginable, trying to squeeze melody and rhythm into a squared beat. Beats one to four drop in sequence, but never beat five. Take it, boys.” I count the tempo in, and the quartet hits the downbeat spot on. “Ladies and gentlemen, all the way from across the Ohio River from Jeffersonville, Indiana, to perform for you the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s hit recording, Take Five… the King brothers. We shuffled our way through rehearsal and then moved on to the main event. Even with its questionable roots, this CD is an essential acquisition for Brubeck's fans.Wayne played alto sax, and I played the piano. ![]() Needless to say, the pianist is in top form throughout the release. The final track was taken from a Cannes concert the following year and also appears on the Live at Middem anthology. This cheerful work celebrating the birth of Brubeck's first grandchild became one of his most cherished works from the '80s. Chris Brubeck switches off from electric bass to bass trombone to show off his considerable chops on "Big Bad Basie" and "(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue?" The obligatory "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo A La Turk" are bridged by a then-new piece not yet recorded, "Benjamin," which later was re-recorded for a Charlie Brown cartoon soundtrack. The evening kicks off with a spirited rendition of "Tritonis," followed by a lengthy exploration of the wonderful oriental blues "Koto Song." The track incompetently labeled "Improvisation" by Jazz Hour is actually "(Open the Gates) Out of the Way of the People," which has since become a regular concert feature for Brubeck's talented drummer Randy Jones, as it is here. He gave the group an entirely new sound in the place his predecessor, tenor saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi his lyricism, occasional shrieks into the upper register and use of digital delay added a new dimension to the quartet. He was also a member of the Brubeck Octet in the '40s). This 1982 concert actually predates clarinetist Bill Smith's first appearance on an official album as a full time member of the Brubeck Quartet (He made his debut on Concord On a Summer Night and had earlier made guest appearances in Paul Desmond's place. Because this recording dates from the middle of Dave Brubeck's exclusive contract with Concord Jazz, it's obviously a bootleg, but both the recording quality and the performances make it a worthwhile investment. ![]()
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