Dave Brubeck Time Out CD

Dave Brubeck Quartet: Dave Brubeck (piano); Paul Desmond (alto saxophone); Eugene Wright (bass); Joe Morello (drums).
Recorded at Columbia 30th Street Studios, New York, New York on June 25, July 1 & August 18, 1959. Includes liner notes by Dave Brubeck and Steve Race.
Dave Brubeck's TIME OUT ranks alongside Miles Davis' KIND OF BLUE as one of the few advanced jazz masterpieces to achieve great commercial success. In fact, the widespread popularity of TIME OUT, with its cool-toned ambience, smooth style, and elements borrowed from classical music, helped make modern jazz a mainstream phenomenon.
The ubiquitous "Take Five" may be overplayed, but that doesn't diminish the joy of its complex melodic hooks, its perfectly executed solos, or the swinging slink of its 5/4 signature. "Blue Rondo a la Turk" collages Mozart, cool swing, and Brubeck's own classically oriented piano style, and the airy, delicate "Everybody's Jumpin'" showcases the lyrical splendor of saxophonist Paul Desmond. With bassist Gene Wright and drummer Joe Morello keeping the tricky rhythms agile and swift, the Dave Brubeck Quartet blended complexity and accessibility for pure jazz pleasure on TIME OUT, an album everyone should own.
Dave Brubeck's defining masterpiece, Time Out is one of the most rhythmically innovative albums in jazz history, the first to consciously explore time signatures outside of the standard 4/4 beat or 3/4 waltz time. It was a risky move -- Brubeck's record company wasn't keen on releasing such an arty project, and many critics initially roasted him for tampering with jazz's rhythmic foundation. But for once, public taste was more advanced than that of the critics. Buoyed by a hit single in altoist Paul Desmond's ubiquitous "Take Five," Time Out became an unexpectedly huge success, and still ranks as one of the most popular jazz albums ever. That's a testament to Brubeck and Desmond's abilities as composers, because Time Out is full of challenges both subtle and overt -- it's just that they're not jarring. Brubeck's classic "Blue Rondo à la Turk" blends jazz with classical form and Turkish folk rhythms, while "Take Five," despite its overexposure, really is a masterpiece; listen to how well Desmond's solo phrasing fits the 5/4 meter, and how much Joe Morello's drum solo bends time without getting lost. The other selections are richly melodic as well, and even when the meters are even, the group sets up shifting polyrhythmic counterpoints that nod to African and Eastern musics. Some have come to disdain Time Out as it's become increasingly synonymous with upscale coffeehouse ambience, but as someone once said of Shakespeare, it's really very good in spite of the people who like it. It doesn't just sound sophisticated -- it really is sophisticated music, which lends itself to cerebral appreciation, yet never stops swinging. Countless other musicians built on its pioneering experiments, yet it's amazingly accessible for all its advanced thinking, a rare feat in any art form. This belongs in even the most rudimentary jazz collection. ~ Steve HueyQ (3/95, p.112) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...Whilst other jazz innovators mapped out new harmonic and melodic realms, Brubeck and his band were forging time signatures anew, giving the music the wonky grace of a gazelle running the 200 metre hurdles..."
Down Beat (p.61) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Both 'Kathy's Waltz' and 'Strange Meadow Lark' contain melodies and moods that keep one hearing new things time and again..."
Mojo (Publisher) (12/99, p.131) - "...superb remastering puts you in the room and brings out all the shimmer of Joe Morello's drums. Jazz-lite it may be, but jazz-lite has seldom been bettered."
Record Collector (magazine) (p.83) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "Brubeck's music employed unorthodox time signatures that owed more to western classical music, perhaps, than jazz....TIME OUT sounds as fresh and vibrant as it must have done back in 1959."