Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Outakes

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Many visitors to these pages are great fans of the Dave Brubeck Quartet and I thought you might want to know about this new recording which will be available on December 4, 2020.

''Time OutTakes'' is Previously Unreleased Takes from the Original 1959 Sessions master tapes. Never before released.

These newly discovered recordings feature wonderful performances that are every bit as compelling as those on the original Time Out. We discovered that during the original 1959 sessions the Quartet also recorded ''I'm In a Dancing Mood'' and an unlisted trio jam with a major drum solo that included snatches of the melody from ''Watusi Drums.'' Two tracks from Time Out, ''Pick Up Sticks'' and ''Everybody's Jumpin,'' were achieved in one take so no alternates exist to include here. These 7 new performances (and bonus track) are fascinating finds.

-Chris Brubeck

We've all heard Dave Brubeck's Time Out - but never quite like this. You'll hear Dave Brubeck's signature pieces afresh and anew. Listening to this album will make you rediscover why you fell in love with The Dave Brubeck Quartet featuring Paul Desmond, Joe Morello and Eugene Wright. This is mesmerizing music.

- Kabir Sehgal, Grammy Award Winning Producer

Once the Dave Brubeck Quartet released Time Out in 1959, the world of jazz was never the same. Every note of the seven original compositions soared with wild originality and trained musical genius. ''Take Five'' became the best-selling jazz single of the twentieth century. I've often wondered how this work of genius came to fruition in the studio? How did Brubeck develop such chemistry with alto-saxophonist Paul Desmond? Now the mysteries are solved with the historic release of Time OutTakes T(alternative takes to the masterpiece that blew the hinges off the doors of jazz). What a high privilege it is to be able to be in the studio with the quartet as they innovate using 9/8, 5/4 and 2 bars of 3/4 alternating with 2 bars of 4/4 on such classics as ''Blue Rondo a la Turk'' and ''Three to Get Ready.'' All listeners of Time OutTakes will experience the Cold War era jazz revolution as it unfolded. What joyous music for the ages!

- Douglas Brinkley, CNN historian and Grammy-winning jazz producer.

Track List:
1 Blue Rondo a la Turk
2 Strange Meadowlark
3 Take Five
4 Three To Get Ready
5 Cathy's Waltz
6 I'm In A Dancing Mood
7 Watusi Jam
8 Band Banter from the 1959 Recording Sessions

Review

“''Take Five,'' a 1959 track by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, was always a musical oddity: a swinging, instantly catchy jazz piece written in the uncommon time signature of 5/4. But it was also a huge hit and the first platinum-selling single in jazz history.

Roughly 61 years after the release of ''Take Five'' on Brubeck's Time Out album, the late pianist s estate will release TimeOutTakes, a new album of previously unreleased alternate versions of pieces from the iconic LP...

On the alternate version, you can hear how the band is still acclimating to the feel of the piece's 5/4 rhythm. They play the tune faster than on the familiar take and drummer Joe Morello hadn't yet settled into the famously relaxed beat that made the five-beat structure feel so natural. You can also hear alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, who composed ''Take Five,'' getting used to improvising on the tune. In his drum solo, Morello sticks close to the rhythm of Brubeck's ''1, 2, 3; 1, 2'' piano vamp, slowly building up density and excitement as he goes. Whereas on the final, Brubeck and bassist Eugene Wright play behind Morello's feature, here the drummer takes the spotlight alone.

''It's fascinating to hear on this track that the iconic drum beat wasn't set yet and Joe Morello was playing a very syncopated Latin beat,'' said multi-instrumentalist Chris Brubeck, one of the pianist's sons and musical collaborators, in a release of the early ''Take Five.'' ''Even alto saxophonist Paul Desmond had not yet settled on a consistent melody,'' he added.

The tapes that make up Time OutTakes originally came to light while author Philip Clark was researching A Life in Time, a biography of Brubeck released this past February in honor of the pianist's centennial year. The record will be released on December 4th, two days before the 100th anniversary of Brubeck's birth.

Along with the alternate ''Take Five,'' Time OutTakes will feature previously unreleased versions of several other pieces from the original Time Out LP, including ''Blue Rondo à la Turk,'' a piece inspired by a rhythm that Brubeck heard a street musician playing in Turkey while on a State Department tour. It also includes two tunes not heard on the original album: ''I m in a Dancing Mood,'' a piece from the Thirties musical This'll Make You Whistle, and ''Watusi Jam,'' a trio performance sans Desmond based on the piece ''Watusi Drums,'' heard on the 1958 live album The Dave Brubeck Quartet in Europe.”

By Hank Shteamer --Rolling Stone, September 23, 2020