It begins not with a melody, but with a pulse. A nervous, elegant, slightly lopsided heartbeat that instantly sets it apart. Imagine a late-night street scene, neon bleeding into a rain-slicked pavement. The sound you hear is not the roar of a crowd, but a controlled, almost clandestine rhythm—a beat in $5/4$ time.
The drummer, Joe Morello, establishes the feel instantly. It’s an infectious, looping figure that feels perpetually off-balance, yet completely inevitable. This is the foundation of “Take Five,” a piece of music that changed the economics and the aesthetics of jazz forever.
The Audacity of Time Out
To understand the track is to understand its context. “Take Five” is the cornerstone of The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s 1959 album, Time Out, released on Columbia Records and produced by the legendary Teo Macero. The project, at the time, was an act of quiet, intellectual insurrection.
The prevailing wisdom in mainstream jazz was that audiences demanded $4/4$ time, maybe a $3/4$ waltz on a romantic ballad. Anything else was deemed esoteric, unfit for the radio or the common turntable. But Brubeck, inspired by a State Department-sponsored tour of Eurasia where he encountered complex musical traditions, wanted to explore polyrhythms and unconventional meters.
Time Out was a direct challenge to the genre’s rhythmic boundaries. The record label was initially wary, releasing the collection of eccentric compositions, which included the $9/8$ “Blue Rondo à la Turk,” with low commercial expectations.
A Throwaway Idea that Defined a Career
It is a common misconception that Brubeck himself wrote his biggest hit. The truth is more collaborative, yet the primary credit belongs to alto saxophonist Paul Desmond. The story goes that drummer Joe Morello would often warm up backstage by experimenting with a $5/4$ rhythm, and Brubeck challenged Desmond to write a melody over it. Desmond reportedly considered the resulting work a mere “throwaway.”
Brubeck’s role, however, was crucial in arranging and structuring the composition—taking Desmond’s two disparate melodic themes and creating the ABA ternary form that gives the track its satisfying journey. The final product is a perfect synthesis of cool jazz airiness and rhythmic rigor.
The arrangement itself is a masterclass in minimalism. Gene Wright’s upright bass locks tightly to Morello’s rhythmic vamp, a simple, syncopated two-chord cycle (E$\flat$m-B$\flat$m7). It’s an engine of subtle power, never demanding attention but providing the essential gravity for the other instruments.
The Sonic Architecture of Cool
The sound of “Take Five” is instantly recognizable, and its texture is driven entirely by Paul Desmond’s alto saxophone. His tone is famously light, dry, and airy, often described as sounding like a “dry martini.” There is no grit here, no sweat, only an elegant understatement that floats effortlessly above the insistent rhythm section.
The signature melody is one of jazz’s most memorable motifs. It’s a sequence of economical, unforgettable phrases, delivered with a soft attack and a quick, deliberate decay. Desmond’s solo is a clinic in melodic improvisation. He doesn’t blaze through harmonic changes; he circles them, developing small motifs, playing with space and silence.
Meanwhile, Dave Brubeck’s piano is a steady, almost metronomic presence. He’s the timekeeper and the harmonic anchor, providing a cool, crystalline contrast to the saxophone’s serpentine lines. His playing is restrained, favoring clarity and groove over grand gestures, ensuring the listener never loses the central rhythmic idea.
The true moment of catharsis, however, belongs to Morello. His drum solo is rightly iconic. It begins softly, an intricate dance of accents and cross-rhythms played almost entirely on the snare and toms, before gradually building in intensity.
“It is a track of such sublime, understated architecture that it seems less composed and more discovered—a sound waiting in the ether for four musicians to pull it down to earth.”
The solo provides a dramatic release from the vamp’s hypnotic grip, a controlled explosion of percussive creativity in a time signature that forces the rhythmic language to be concise and purposeful. For anyone delving into jazz drumming or even practicing basic rudiments, seeking out the sheet music for Morello’s transcription remains a foundational exercise. The solo is not a display of brute force, but of sheer intelligence and control, showing how rhythm itself can be the most potent melody.
Cultural Impact and The Unlikely Hit
When the album was released, “Take Five” was not an immediate sensation. It was, after all, a $5$-minute instrumental track in an odd meter. But a dedicated push from radio DJs and, crucially, a single edit that was released nearly two years later in 1961, slowly turned it into a sleeper hit.
It became a genuine crossover success, climbing the pop charts and the Adult Contemporary charts in the U.S., eventually becoming the biggest-selling jazz single of all time. This phenomenal success proved that the public was ready for rhythmic complexity, provided it was packaged with an unforgettable melody and an overall sense of cool. The track’s universal appeal lies in its hypnotic quality; the $5/4$ meter, while structurally complex, is emotionally simple—it just grooves.
Even today, in an era of music streaming subscription services and high-fidelity earbuds, the original recording, with its warm mic placement and natural room sound captured at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio, is a benchmark for sonic clarity. Its enduring presence in films, television, and commercials speaks to its elegant versatility. It’s the sound of intellectual cool, the background music for every scene that requires a touch of sophisticated, mid-century tension.
For listeners who came to the track years later through film scores or in a dimly lit café, it often serves as a gateway. It’s the entry point that proves that jazz is not just head-spinning virtuosity, but also mood, atmosphere, and the kind of unforgettable groove that stays with you long after the final cymbal crash fades into the tape hiss. The fact that Desmond bequeathed his royalties to the American Red Cross adds a final, poignant layer to the song’s legacy—a quiet act of generosity fitting the piece’s humble beginnings.
Listening Recommendations
- Vince Guaraldi Trio – “Cast Your Fate to the Wind”: Shares the same light, melodic, cool jazz piano sensibility and crossover appeal from the same era.
- The Cannonball Adderley Quintet – “African Waltz”: Another successful jazz track from the early 60s that experimented with non-$4/4$ time signatures and featured a driving, exotic feel.
- Miles Davis – “So What”: Essential modal jazz, sharing “Take Five’s” sense of space, minimalism, and reliance on a simple, unforgettable bass/rhythm vamp.
- Gerry Mulligan Quartet – “Walkin’ Shoes”: A core example of the West Coast cool aesthetic, focusing on melodic clarity and interplay, much like Desmond and Brubeck.
- The Dave Brubeck Quartet – “Blue Rondo à la Turk”: The other rhythmically audacious track from Time Out, showcasing Brubeck’s compositional brilliance in $9/8$ time.