Take Five

The year 1959 could easily go down as the one of most important years in the history of recorded jazz. In addition to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue (Columbia), it saw the release of the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s ground-breaking LP, Time Out. Columbia Records got the risky inclination to release the album’s third track, the Paul Desmond-penned title song, as a single and it went on to become the first jazz single to sell one million copies.

Despite the fact that “Take Five” might be one of the top three most-recognized jazz recordings ever, the album’s history shows that it almost wasn’t even released. According to Brubeck (in an interview included on a bonus DVD), Time Out made Columbia executives extremely skeptical on three major counts; First, Brubeck wanted to feature nothing more than an abstract painting on the cover; second, the execs feared the album’s ground-breaking, unconventional time signatures wouldn’t hold up in dance halls; third, all of the tunes were originals, meaning standards like “Stardust” and “Body and Soul” wouldn’t pad the more unfamiliar works. Luckily, company President Goddard Lieberson believed in Brubeck’s vision, resulting in what remains today as one of music’s undisputed masterpieces.