![]() Louis Blues," played in a breezy manner similar to their earlier recorded versions. The source of these recordings were long forgotten tape reels found in Brubeck’s home by his long time manager Russell Gloyd.īrubeck kicks things off by launching into one of his perennial favorites to open concerts, "St. Crowds turned out to catch the group for a final time, though this is only the fourth issued live recording from the tour, possibly recorded from the front of the concert hall, since the audience seems more prominent than usual, and the sound is in mono and not quite as well-recorded as the earlier releases, though the performances are of high caliber. Makes for a great record.In 1967, Dave Brubeck decided to disband his long-running quartet with Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright, and Joe Morello at the end of the year. The band explores the new boundaries it has set for itself, but shows everyone that they are still new to them too. But on the other hand, Time Out is fresh because behind the revolution, it is still good music. 4/4 is still the standard, it is still what musicians turn to first when writing a song. On the one hand, it’s fresh because it is still revolutionary. I can’t tell whether I am happy or not that this still sounds so fresh. I consider Time Out a perfect example of jazz: it defies tradition, it pushes the boundaries of what we can do with music, yet in the end it still shows four guys having fun together, like all jazz, like all music should. As a result, the songs are a lot less awe-inspiring, but all still solid efforts. He does a majority of the soloing in “Kathy’s Waltz,” “Everybody’s Jumpin’” and “Three to Get Ready,” reminding everyone that this is a jazz band with his more traditional style. His almost classical chording in the bridge is majestic. His musicianship shows throughout the whole album, he does a majority of the soloing, but his performance on “Blue Rondo À la Turk” is one hell of an act to follow. Desmond wrote the big hit of the album (“Take Five”), but Brubeck starts off the album as mentioned before, prepping everyone for the experimental, challenging, and enjoyable music coming ahead. The public seemed to like it too, while critics were slamming the quartet for corrupting jazz with their weird music, the single was a hit.īrubeck takes a commanding position in his quartet, which is certainly welcome. I enjoy the hesitation, I can hear the band trying to feel each other out, as though they’re working together to tackle this unfamiliar time signature. It is clear the band is out of their comfort zone, Morello hesitates wondering what to do while Brubeck carries on his odd piano line. In the middle, Brubeck holds the melody while Morello does one of the most interesting drum solos I’ve ever heard. At the start of the album’s single, “Take Five,” Morello sets the stage with the 5/4 time signature, followed by Brubeck’s nice moody, cool piano section and then Paul Desmond takes over on alto sax. There’s still the controlled yet assured drumming, the walking bass lines. The rhythm section (Eugene Wright and Joe Morello on bass and drums respectively) kept everything jazz, even in the odd time signatures. In Time Out, the Dave Brubeck Quartet plays with equal parts feeling and technicality. But the band makes the songs fun, they're bright, they're moody, they're happy, they're powerful. You hear something in 9/8 and it sounds like crap, it doesn't matter what time signature in, it's bad. I like to think I'm not swayed by gimmicks like turns of musicianship, with Time Out, Brubeck and Desmond made damn sure the songs were there. But the reason the music appealed to me is that it sounds good. ![]() Listening to the music, I could tell something was different. At waltz tempo, the quartet still puts out smooth saxophone solos, soft piano solos.Īs I admitted earlier, I have some trouble recognizing time signatures myself. Dropped jaws abound, even fifty years later (well at least mine did). “Blue Rondo À la Turk” mixes up a wild 9/8 time intro from Brubeck to a swinging 4/4 for the whole band, and then the band switches off between the two flawlessly. But listening to any of these songs, the quartet can swing. Moving into not just 5/4 but 9/8 and 14/4 time signature, this wasn’t jazz anymore (I had to get the time signatures from Wikipedia, my musical theory was never that great). There were cries that Brubeck was tampering with the old jazz formula. But then the Dave Brubeck Quartet took a look at old 4/4 and added one to make it 5/4 and to take the jazz world for a spin. Up until 1959, jazz was dominated by the 4/4 time signature, the standard, the “common” time signature.
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