Time Out (album)

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Time Out is a jazz album by The Dave Brubeck Quartet,

released in 1959 on Columbia Records, catalogue CL
1397. Recorded at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New
York City, it is based upon the use of time signatures that
were unusual for jazz such as 9/8 and 5/4.[6] The album is
a subtle blend of cool and West Coast jazz.[7][8] It
peaked at #2 on the Billboard pop albums chart, and has
been certified platinum by the RIAA, the first jazz album
to ever achieve that status.[9]

Time Out

Contents
1 Background
2 Legacy
3 Track listing
3.1 Side one

Studio album by The Dave Brubeck Quartet

Released

Recorded June 25, 1959 (4-6)

July 1, 1959 (2,3)
August 18, 1959 (1,7)

3.2 Side two

4 Personnel

Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York

Genre

Cool jazz

4.1 The Dave Brubeck Quartet

Length

38:21

4.2 Production

Label

Columbia

Producer

Teo Macero

5 Charts
5.1 Sales and certifications
6 References
7 External links

Background
The album was intended as an experiment using musical
styles Brubeck discovered abroad while on a United
States Department of State sponsored tour of Eurasia,
such as when he observed in Turkey a group of street
musicians performing a traditional Turkish folk song that
was played in 9/8 time, a rare meter for Western
music.[10]

December 14, 1959

Dave Brubeck chronology

Gone with the
Wind
(1959)

Time Out
(1959)

The Riddle
(1959)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source

Rating

Allmusic

[1]

Robert Christgau

B+[2]

Mojo

favorable[3]

[4]

Yahoo! Music
favorable[5]
On the condition that Brubeck's group first record a
conventional album of traditional songs of the American
South, Gone with the Wind,[11] Columbia president Goddard Lieberson took a chance to underwrite and
release Time Out. It received negative reviews by critics upon its release.[12] Despite this, it became one of the

best-known and biggest-selling jazz albums, charting highly on the popular albums chart when 50,000 units sold
for a jazz album was impressive. It produced a Top 40 hit single in "Take Five", composed by Paul Desmond,
and the one track not written by Dave Brubeck.
Although the theme of Time Out is non-common-time signatures, things are not quite so simple. "Blue Rondo
la Turk" starts in 9/8, with a typically Balkan 2+2+2+3 subdivision into short and long beats (the rhythm of the
Turkish zeybek, equivalent of the Greek zeibekiko) as opposed to the more Western 3+3+3 pattern, but the
saxophone and piano solos are in 4/4. The title is a play on Mozart's "Rondo alla Turca" from his Piano Sonata
No. 11, and reflects the fact that the band heard the rhythm while traveling in Turkey.[8][13] Contrary to popular
belief, Brubeck did not base the piece on the Mozart sonata musically; he stated in a 2003 interview, "I
should've just called it 'Blue Rondo', because the title just seemed to confuse people."
"Strange Meadow Lark" begins with a piano solo that exhibits no clear time signature, but then settles into a
fairly ordinary 4/4 swing once the rest of the group joins. "Take Five" is in 5/4 throughout. According to
Desmond, "It was never supposed to be a hit. It was supposed to be a Joe Morello drum solo."[12] "Three to
Get Ready" begins in waltz-time, after which it begins to alternate between two measures of 3/4 and two of 4/4.
"Kathy's Waltz", named after Brubeck's daughter Cathy but misspelled, starts in 4/4, and only later switches to
double-waltz time before merging the two. "Everybody's Jumpin'" is mainly in a very flexible 6/4, while "Pick Up
Sticks" firms that up into a clear and steady 6/4.
It has been speculated that "Kathy's Waltz" inspired the song "All My Loving", written by Paul McCartney and
performed by The Beatles, as they share similar rhythmic endings to the last phrases of their melodies.[14]

Legacy
In 1997, the album was remastered for compact disc by Legacy Records. In 2005, it was one of 50 recordings
chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. It was also listed
in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
In 2009 Legacy Recordings released a special three-disc 50th Anniversary Edition of Time Out. This edition
offers a much higher dynamic range than the 1997 remaster. In addition to the complete album, the Legacy
Edition includes a bonus disc featuring previously unreleased concert recordings of the same Brubeck Quartet
from the 1961, 1963, and 1964 gatherings of Newport Jazz Festival. The Legacy Edition's third disc is a DVD
featuring a 30-minute interview with Brubeck in 2003, and an interactive "piano lesson" where the viewer can
toggle through four different camera angles of Brubeck performing a solo version of "Three to Get Ready".[15]
Time Out was included among a group of 15 DualDisc releases that were test marketed in two cities: Boston
and Seattle. Due to "rights issues", the DualDisc issue was recalled within days of being shipped to just a handful
of stores in these two cities. As a result, fewer than 50 copies of this album are known to exist in DualDisc
format, and it is one of the rarest commercially released CDs of all time. A handful of copies of the DualDisc
version of this album have traded hands in the collectors' market since its release, some for several hundred
dollars.

Track listing
All compositions by Dave Brubeck, except "Take Five" by Paul Desmond.[16]

Side one

No.
1.
2.
3.

Title
"Blue Rondo la Turk"
"Strange Meadow Lark"
"Take Five"

Length
6:44
7:22
5:24

Side two
No.
1.
2.
3.
4.

Title
"Three to Get Ready"
"Kathy's Waltz"
"Everybody's Jumpin' "
"Pick Up Sticks"

Personnel
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
Dave Brubeck piano
Paul Desmond alto saxophone
Eugene Wright bass
Joe Morello drums

Production
Teo Macero producer
Fred Plaut engineer
S. Neil Fujita cover artwork
Seth Rothstein project director
Russell Gloyd reissue producer
Mark Wilder reissue remastering
Cozbi Sanchez-Cabrera reissue art direction

Charts
Album
Billboard (North America)
Year

Chart

Position

1961 Pop Albums 2

Singles
Billboard (North America)

Length
5:24
4:48
4:23
4:16

Year

Single

Chart

Position

1961 "Take Five" Adult Contemporary 5

1961 "Take Five" Pop Singles

25

Sales and certifications

Time Out was the first jazz album to sell more than a million copies. The single "Take Five" also sold more than
a million.[9]
Country

Certification

Sales

United States Platinum [17] 1,000,000+

References
1. ^ Huey, Steve. Time Out (http://www.allmusic.com/album/r136015/review) at AllMusic. Retrieved December
14, 2011.
2. ^ Christgau, Robert (December 7, 2012). "Dave Brubeck"
(http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/expert-witness-blogpost.aspx?post=073321a4-a3cb-465ebcca-a623a23e023b). MSN Music. Microsoft. Retrieved December 7, 2012.
3. ^ Brown, Geoff. Review: Time Out (http://www.webcitation.org/5pvSAeETW). Mojo. Retrieved May 22,
2010.
4. ^ "Review: Time Out". Q (London): 112. March 1995.
5. ^ Walls, Richard C. "Time Out" (http://music.ca.launch.yahoo.com/read/review/12030850). Yahoo! Music.
Yahoo!. Archived (http://www.webcitation.org/6CkCA12vC) from the original on December 7, 2012. Retrieved
December 7, 2012.
6. ^ Race, Steve (1959), Time Out (LP sleeve notes), Columbia Records
7. ^ Sutro, Dirk (2011). "Los Angeles and West Coast cool" (http://books.google.com/books?
id=tqkRibY3RHoC&lpg=PT147&pg=PT147#v=onepage&q&f=false). Jazz For Dummies (2nd ed.). John Wiley
& Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-06852-6. Retrieved December 26, 2011.
8. ^ a b McCurdy, Ronald C. (2004). "The Story of Dave Brubeck" (http://books.google.com/books?
id=mM2AwUtwnT8C&pg=PA48#v=onepage&q=%22Time%20Out%22%20%22Blue%20Rondo%20a%20la%
20Turk%22&f=false). Meet the Great Jazz Legends. Alfred Music Publishing. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-7390-3094-3.
Retrieved December 26, 2011.
9. ^ a b Chilton, Martin (December 5, 2012). "Dave Brubeck, Take Five jazz star, dies 91"
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/9724992/Dave-Brubeck-Take-Five-jazz-star-dies91.html). telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved December 5, 2012.
10. ^ Kaplan, Fred (2009). 1959: The Year that Changed Everything. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 130131.
ISBN 978-0-470-38781-8.
11. ^ Kaplan. 1959. p. 131.
12. ^ a b Brubeck, Dave (November 1996), Time Out is still in (CD notes for Time Out), Sony Music
Entertainment
13. ^ Smith, Hedrick (December 16, 2001). "Rediscovering Dave Brubeck The Music"
(http://www.pbs.org/brubeck/theMusic/davesStyle.htm). PBS. Retrieved December 26, 2011.

14. ^ Leigh, Spencer (July 8, 2010). "When it comes to songwriting, there's a fine line between inspiration and
plagiarism" (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/when-it-comes-to-songwritingtheres-a-fine-line-between-inspiration-and-plagiarism-2021199.html). The Independent. Retrieved December 26,
2011.
15. ^ Flanagan, Graham L. (June 2, 2009). "Dave Brubeck: Time Out (50th Anniversary Legacy Edition)"
(http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=33050). All About Jazz. Retrieved December 26, 2011.
16. ^ Time Out (CD notes), Sony Music Entertainment, 1997
17. ^ "Gold & Platinum Searchable Database" (http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?
content_selector=gold-platinum-searchable-database). Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved
December 14, 2011. (Search for "Brubeck, Dave".)

External links
The Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4556514)
by A.B. Spellman and Murray Horwitz; part of NPR's Basic Jazz Record Library
Exclusive video: Dave Brubeck discusses "Time Out"
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m2PA8CTZ0YZTFA) A short video at Amazon.com of
Dave Brubeck discussing the rhythms used on Time Out
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Time_Out_(album)&oldid=593192263"
Categories: 1959 albums Albums produced by Teo Macero Albums recorded at CBS 30th Street Studio
Columbia Records albums Concept albums Cool jazz albums Dave Brubeck albums
United States National Recording Registry recordings
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