Take Five
Ministerial Meandering
Take Five
In the summer holidays of 1959, there was a an attempted recording by Dave Brubeck’s Quartet of a song that became known as ‘Take Five’. I say ‘attempted’, because it took the band 20 failed attempts in 40 minutes before the producer, Teo Macero, told the band to take a rest. One or other of them was always losing the rhythm. That was on the 25th June. They changed the speed and the emphasis a few times before settling with what we know now as this timeless jazz classic, and recorded it successfully in two takes at their next session on July 1st.
The piece came about as a result of the drummer, Joe Morello, challenging Brubeck to compose a piece in 5/4 time, as he, Joe, liked to solo in 5/4 time and wanted a piece to showcase his ability. Brubeck tossed the ball to Paul Desmond, the alto saxophonist, and tasked him with creating the melody. The resulting mellifluous, silky tones of Desmond’s alto have never been matched - in my view.
The piece remains the best-selling jazz song of all time. Sadly, due to chain-smoking, Paul Desmond succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 52 in 1977.
Listening to the piece - or even better - watching it played live in Belgium in 1964 is quite an experience, particularly for those who don’t think they can ever appreciate jazz.
Of course, jazz comes in many different forms, and a lot of those pieces on Brubeck’s third album, ‘Time Out,’ were penned as a result of his tour of Eurasia in 1958, where he was inspired by many of the new rhythms that he had heard. It is a far cry from the traditional New Orleans style of jazz.
Nevertheless, it rewards the listener’s effort by taking him or her on a journey into what can be described as a stumbling, giddy, merry-go-round of fluid drama in Eb, accentuated by the sometime heavy, sometime subtle two chord vamp on the piano, underpinned by Eugene Wright on string bass, and Joe Morello skating effortlessly over his skins and cymbals at astonishing speed with ne’er a bead of sweat breaking the cool of his brow. All of them in suits and ties.
The AABBAA format with two or three mid-section solos from sax, (piano), and drums, is repeated at the end, followed by the coolest of understated endings, which seems at first to be almost an apology, until you realize that it is the subtlest of triumphs – a triplet rim shot, to which the bass tom and foot pedal add the full stop, overlaid by a shimmering, faint echo of a barely stroked cymbal.
Why a description of a jazz piece for this week? Because it’s hard. Brubeck’s jazz is hard; description of it is hard - and life is hard.
Sometimes (perhaps often) I seem to live life in 5/4 time, stumbling along with the beat on the first and the fourth. People watching would say I need a cane or stick for support. I would like to blame the rockiness of the path - but it is smooth; I would like to blame the stone in my shoe - but I’m not wearing any. What is stumbling is me - in search of my soul.
If you find that your journey is easy, then you probably took the wrong path.
Remember Gethsemane.
Philip+