Customer Reviews

Time Out

5 star:		(204)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When I heard that Sony remastered this CD, I immediately grabbed myself a copy. Dave Brubeck's "Time Out" isn't just a great album; it also gives me fond childhood memories from when I first listened to this recording as a toddler. At the risk of recycling a cliche, it's one of those vital albums that transcends musical boundaries, and it's accessible to the masses while also remaining cutting edge. Producer Teo Macero, who is also responsible for some of Miles Davis' most essential recordings, brings out the very best in each of the players on this record. In my opinion, the very heart of this 1959 release is the exceptional "Take Five." The dynamic interaction between Brubeck's piano and Paul Desmond's expressive saxophone makes this one of the most unforgettable and powerful pieces of jazz ever played on a vinyl record. Other album cuts like "Three to Get Ready" and "Blue Rondo a la Turk" are timeless pieces that are so effortlessly graceful they seem to walk on water. Along with Miles' "Kind of Blue" and Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," Brubeck's "Time Out" is one of THE essential jazz recordings to own. It's a 100% risk-free purchase; even more so with the newly repackaged and remastered edition. But don't just take my word for it. "Time Out" is an experience that has to be heard to be believed.

"Time Out" is by far my favorite jazz album of all time. I never get tired of hearing it. It would definitely make my list of desert island discs. I also dig the painting which serves as the album cover. The superb pianist Dave Brubeck is the nominal leader of the group, frantically kicking off the opening classic track "Blue Rondo A La Turk." Drummer Joe Morello amazingly keeps perfect time during all of the tempo shifts. He particularly shines on the appropriately named tune "Pick Up Sticks." Saxophonist Paul Desmond takes center stage on the most famous track of all, "Take Five." This song has rightfully taken its place among the greatest instrumentals of all time. Rounding out the quartet, Eugene Wright's bass deftly anchors the beat on the melodic "Kathy's Waltz." The song "Everybody's Jumpin'" would be right at home on an album of sophisticated swing music. I'm no jazz expert who can expound on exotic time signatures, but I know what I like. I love "Time Out" by the Dave Brubeck Quartet!

I work in the seafood business. We have a saying in the indrustry that states: " Shrimp is the seafood for people who don't like fish." Dave Brubeck's "Time Out" is the shrimp of jazz. From the booming intensity of "Blue Rondo A La Turk" to the melodic sweetness of "Strange Meadow Lark," one cannot even tell that the album is an exercise in unusual time signatures. But it is. Most jazz is in "common" or 4/4 time, which means four beats to a measure. "Time Out" explores alternative time signatures such as 5/4, "Take Five", 9/8, "Blue Rondo A La Turk", and 6/4, "Pick Up Sticks". I was exposed to this album by my father, who played it more than any other album he had; he had a collection of more than 1000 records,including Garner, Getz, Waller, Goodman, Kenton, Jamal, and of course, every Brubeck "album" (we don't call them those anymore, do we?) available at the time. For a first time jazz listener, I would recommend this recording highly. The piano, bass, saxophone, and drums work together in a way that only Brubeck has been able to orchestrate. Joe Morello's drum solo in "Take Five" is the best since Gene Krupa in Benny Goodman's "Sing, Sing, Sing". Morello tunes his drums to approximate the notes of the melody. Paul Desmond's sax is at its playful best. His work on "Strange Meadow Lark" is both wistful and sexy. "Take Five", his own composition, was the first jazz record ever to sell a million copies. Listen carefully to Gene Wright's bass lines. Like a compass, they guide us through the treacherous terrains of Brubeck's bombastic blasts and Desmond's delightful designs. All in all, the best, most accessible jazz album ever. '

When the inimitable Dave Brubeck Quartet went into the studio in the summer of 1959, they created a timeless, monumental message in jazz. Nearly everyone, jazz fan or not, has heard the classic "Take Five", the only Paul Desmond composition on the album. It feautures teriffic solos from Desmond on his dreamy, wistful alto. Brubeck takes a backseat on this piece to allow drummer Joe Morello to play a stunning, brilliant solo. The remaining tracks on the album are equally strong. The driving, insistent rythym of "Blue Rondo A La Turk" nearly knocked me out of my chair at first listen. The magnificent "Strange Meadow Lark" is both Brubeck and Desmond at their definiitive best. The rest of the album is a sheer delight, untouched by the fourty years that have passed. DBQ didn't expect their seminal foray into exotic and rare time signatures to be a success. However, one note of one song on this album will tell you why that happened.

"it was never supposed to be a hit" says Paul Desmond of "Take five", the number penned by himself on this album. His statement was perhaps representative of this album.

Recorded by the Dave Brubeck quartet in 1959, consisting of Dave Brubeck (piano), Paul Desmond (alto sax), Eugene Wright (bass) and Joe Morello (drums), this aptly titled album explores the use of odd time signatures not commonly used in jazz, much less western music. Influenced by music from their travels in the Middle East and India, the quartet attempts to incorporate much of the rhythms into this album. Their effort resulted in this landmark work.

"Blue Rondo a la Turk", with its 9/8 transitioning to 4/4 straight ahead blues in block chords and back again to 9/8 starts off with the frenzied feel of a whirling dervish with a rather odd bridge into a laid back blues and back again.

"Take Five" by Paul Desmond swings with such ease that the 5/4 feel is barely felt. Witness people tapping their fingers to the odd time signature as though they have been hearing it all their lives. Joe Morello throws down some virtusotic solos in this challenging 5/4 time.

Unfortunately, the popularity of these two songs eclipses the beauty of the experimental feel of the rest of the album. "Kathy's waltz" in 4/4 transitioning to 6/4, while not odd time signatures by jazz standards certainly is unusual for its transition in those days.

The album has stood the test of time and curiously enough, it is the 2 songs which were stylistically the most adventurous which are remembered.

The body of work seems somewhat constrained to the swing jazz idiom. Perhaps this is understandable with the emergence of west coast cool and the era of Miles Davis, and Stan Kenton et al. It is only with the advent of electric instruments and the Mahavishnu Orchestra which were able to further push the envelope of the odd time signature a notch further.

All in all, a Jazz album must have.

In 1960, the Dave Brubeck Quartet (Dave Brubeck on piano, Paul Desmond on alto sax, Eugene Wright on bass, and Joe Morello on drums) released the classic "Time Out" album. This album consists of experimentations with odd time signatures, and it results in one of the best and most unique jazz albums ever made. The whole album is amazing, but I think the first three tracks are the best.
"Blue Rondo A La Turk" kicks off the album with a pulsating 9/8 melody. It builds in intensity and then all of a sudden explodes into a 4/4 F blues as Paul Desmond solos with his cool alto tone. Following Desmond, Brubeck adds his own highly memorable solo. It's bluesy and cool at first, then he adds his trademark block chords to end the solo.
"Strange Meadow Lark" is a beautiful track. Brubeck plays the melody solo on piano, and his playing of this song is like a dream. The rest of the band kicks in for Desmond's solo which seems to breeze by; it compliments the beauty of this song well. Brubeck follows and adds his own memorable solo as the song returns to Brubeck playing solo piano.
"Take Five", the third track, is the Quartet's most famous song, as it was the first jazz instrumental to reach number one. It is in 5/4 time, and Brubeck strictly plays a constant vamp so the rest of the band doesn't lose their place while soloing. Desmond plays the cool, soothing melody and solos well, but the standout solo here is drummer Joe Morello's. I believe Morello is one of the best jazz drummers of all time, and while he does better solos than the one on "Take Five", his "Take Five" solo is awesome, as he manages to keep in 5/4 time and still deliver a superb drum solo.
The rest of the album seems to go downhill from these three tracks, but still remains a superb album. "Three To Get Ready" is one of the most interesting songs Brubeck ever made. Its metric pattern is: 2 meters of 3/4, 2 meters of 4/4. Brubeck and Desmond alternate playing the melody while the other one solos, and it is very interesting to see the two interact with each other.
Both "Kathy's Waltz" and "Everybody's Jumpin'" feature impressive solos and catchy melodies, but "Pick Up Sticks" is an awesome melody and a Hell of a way to finish off one of the best jazz albums I have heard. Brubeck plays a rivetting solo after Desmond's cool floating alto sax solo.
This album is an experimentation with odd time signatures, and the results were superb. And the amazing thing is that the Dave Brubeck Quartet swingings just as naturally with 3/4 or 5/4 or 9/8 as jazz musicians do with 4/4 or 6/8. The experimentation and originality of this album make it essential for all jazz fans. It seal Brubeck's place in jazz history and laid the groundwork that the Quartet would use to develop even more amazing solos. Indeed, the Quartet was just beginning to entertain.

There's 131 reviews here as I write this and I'm sure many of them are from Jazz-lovers who can tell you all about this record's challenging time signatures and it's place in the history of jazz and things like that.

As an ignorant rocker who just knows what I like and that's all when it comes to Jazz, I just want to say that this is a stone cold classic from start to finish. "Take Five" is one of the coolest songs ever written, and "Blue Rondo" isn't far behind.

When I was a teenager back in the 70's, listening to Pink Floyd and Genesis and the Who, I used to raid my Dad's jazz collection when I got bored with my own records, which is how I came to be aquainted with this great record and many, many more. I've loved Time Out ever since.

I think that just about everyone would love "Time Out," it's just one of those timeless classics like Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" that transcends jazz boundries. A true work of art, yet wildly entertaining. Five stars +++

Rather than being a commercial pop-jazz masterpiece (which is what it eventually became), "Time Out" was conceived as another experiment in odd time signatures. The album's title speaks to that. Opening track 'Blue Rondo A La Turk' exemplifies this. It's title points to the fact that Brubeck was trying to emulate the 9/8 rhythms he heard played by Turkish street musicians. Jumping back and froth from that to standard 4/4 can be quite jarring at first for the lay-listener, but repeated listens make it seem almost natural. It is the most successful and extreme example in an album full of odd time nuggets that, even though they don't jump out at you, are quite lovely.

'Take Five' tries to follow the same path. Its main themes were originally supposed to be the bread in a sandwich showcasing Joe Morrello's 5/4 drum solo. However, history has a way of disregarding our intentions. 'Take Five' became a monster jazz hit. It seems like I've heard it on the soundtrack to every Woody Allen movie, not to mention countless commercials. I still find the tune viscerally exciting. Paul Desmond, who wrote the song, plays his alto saxophone with a gentle touch (reminding me of the tone John Coltrane achieved on my favourite of his songs, 'Central Park West'), flying breezily over the effortless rhythm section of Morrello, Brubeck on piano, and Gene Wright on bass. He does true justice to the strong melody. Its five-plus minutes are worth buying the album for. Fortunately, the rest of the album isn't too shabby.

While I'm definitely a newbie to the jazz genre, I know greatness when I hear it, and The Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out definitely fits that description. Released in 1959, a pivotal year for jazz, alongside gems like Giant Steps, Kind Of Blue, and Mingus Ah Um, Time Out rids jazz of fixed 4/4 and 3/4 time and incorporates exotic rhythms used in a totally accessible and catchy way. Both students of musical theory and casual listeners can get into this West Coast jazz album with equal enjoyment.

The opening track Blue Rondo A La Turk clearly shows this. Its in 9/8, in the style of Turkish folk music. Upbeat and catchy, this is a classic composition that's been covered and reintrepreted eight ways till Sunday. Ditto Take Five, a number done in 5/4 and featuring both a wonderfully slinky sax line and a Joe Morello drum solo. Other tracks do not fail to enchant either--Strange Meadowlark is an elegant slow composition driven by Dave's fine piano playing, Kalthy's Waltz is a complex yet compulsively listenable piece done in quick waltz time, while Everybody's Jumpin' and Pick Up Sticks are 6/8 compositions that close the album on a high note.

The band, while not being ultra-talented, definitely works great as a cohesive unit. Dave Brubeck's piano gives the music its backbone, drummer Joe Morello and bassist Eugene Wright supply the swingin' rhythms, and Paul Desmond does a fine job on alto sax.

All in all, I'd say Time Out is the ideal place for the jazz newbie, not Miles' Kind Of Blue (which is beyond doubt a great album but not the greatest choice for a novice, contrary to popular belief). It swings, it grooves, and it appeals to both the diehard jazz musician and the uninitiated. Highest recommendation.

If I said to get this album for "Take Five" only, it'd be a huge disservice to one of the best jazz albums I've ever heard. This is a classic and deserves to be in everyone's music collection.

Brubeck is on fire on the piano and Desmond is silky and smooth on the saxophone. Wright works the bass to excellence and Morello shines on the drums.

From the beginning notes of "Blue Rondo A La Turk", to the last cut "Pick Up Sticks", it's a mesmerizing experience. "Strange Meadow Lark" is beautiful. Then there is "Take Five", heard countless times everwhere, but still sounds as fresh as ever.

A timeless album that will give years of listening pleasure. Enjoy.