they were going out of their way
Foreword
Why was Take Five such a hit? There are a lot of theories on this one, and this is just my take on the matter, so it's not the definitive answer. Still, I think there are some sane ideas here. However, it's a good thing to be critical, so if you have a different opinion, do not hesitate to mail me. I'd love to hear from you.
The basic idea is to first put the things I want to say online, and afterwards, I'll worry more about the layout, pictures, possilbe soundbytes, etc. etc.
Take Five
First I want to offer a short introduction to the the piece of music known as Take Five. In 1959, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, which was a popular jazz quartet of that time, recorded an album called Time Out. Now, the Dave Brubeck Quartet was releasing a lot of albums around that time, but this one stood out from the rest. The reason for this was that most of the music on there was written in, for that time at least, 'strange' time-signatures. This is a term we use to, simply put, indicate the way how the rhythm of a song is constructed, how we can count along to a song. The dictionary at Ansme.com says it's "a musical notation indicating the number of beats to a measure and kind of note that takes a beat".
Most songs are written in the 4/4 time-signature. This means that one measure has 4 beats, and the quarter note represents one beat. In english, this means that you can count along to these songs as "one-two-three-four, one-two-three-four" etc. Take John Lennon's Imagine. You can calmly count along to this the way I just mentioned. Dave Brubeck and his quartet played jazz, but he felt that the music was too tame, that there was more to jazz than the usual 4/4 time and the occasional 3/4, or waltz, time. With Time Out, he managed to break away from the usual time signatures. The first track throws you into the deep immediately with a stunning 9/8 rhythm, grouped as 2-2-2-3, a rhythm that Brubeck picked up in Istanbul, as he heard street musicians play music in this rhythm. Then there was a track in 6/4 time, another track which time-signature constantly vacillates between 3/4 and 4/4, and then..! Then, there was a track in 5/4 time. So, there were 5 beats in one measure, and the quarter note represented one beat. The drums and piano make the song swing lightly, the syncopations made the 5/4 time sound strangely familiar, the saxophone sounded beautiful, the bass and the piano made sure you wouldn't lose count, the bridge of the song was great. In other words, it was a damn fine song.
Still, there are a lot of damn fine songs which don't turn out to be hits. And making a hit was probably the last thing on the minds of Dave Brubeck (piano), Paul Desmond (alto sax), Joe Morello (drums) and Eugene Wright (bass) when they were recording the songs for Time Out.
Joint Effort
The compositional credits for Take Five were given to Paul Desmond, the alto saxophonist, but according to Dave Brubeck, the song saw the light because of the joint efforts of the band-members. During rehearsals, Joe Morello would play a 5/4 rhythm on his drums, and Paul Desmond would start to play on that rhythm. Because Dave Brubeck knew he was going to make Time Out, he asked Desmond to write a song in 5/4, because this would be perfect for the upcoming album. On the next rehearsal, Desmond had written two themes, which wouldn't fit together, and he told Brubeck that he just couldn't write anything in 5/4 time. Brubeck took a look at the themes, and he did see a song in it. By combining the themes in an A-B-A manner, using B as a bridge, he made a song out of the two themes. Then, they decided to base the improvised part of the song on one simple chord change, so after Desmond did his improvising, they would have a perfect vehicle for a Joe Morello drum-solo. After that, they would play the A-B-A thing again, and there you had it, Take Five was constructed.
Brubeck, the band leader, played a constant vamp-figure on his piano. This was necessary, because if he wouldn't do that, Morello would lose track of time during his solo. This also helped the listener not to get lost in the unfamiliar world of 5/4 time. A similar role was put away for Wright, who played a note on the first, fourth and fifth count of a measure, this also to keep things stable. The quartet was lucky with Wright, who was rock-steady, even in those strange time-signatures. Morello played some fine drums on the song, also to keep things steady while Desmond was playing the sax. His drum-solo was something else though. In it, he moves away from the steadiness and the 5 beats, creating a beautiful and well-timed drum-solo. Desmond, who, as mentioned before, thought of the melody, did magical things with his alto again. The gentle sound and the very natural-sounding solo are great, and overall, the song was beautifully crafted, recorded in a mere two takes.
Not Happy
Still, people were not very enthusiastic about the result. Most surprisingly, Paul Desmond didn't like it. He once joked that he would buy a new electrical shaver for the royalties he would receive from Take Five. Moreover though, at Columbia Records, where the Dave Brubeck Quartet was contracted, Everybody wasn't Jumping (pun intended) for joy. Not only didn't they like the idea of Take Five, they certainly didn't like the idea of Time Out.
Let's see what we had here. We had an album with only original songs, so no famous standards, most of the songs were in strange time-signatures, the whole album was more of an experiment than anything else, and there was a painting on the cover. Not a picture of a lovely lady, not even a painting of a lovely lady. No, the cover art was an abstract painting by Neil Fujita. All these elements spelled just one thing for the Columbia people; a financial disaster. Still, it was released, just around 1960-1961, and lo, the album became the first million-selling jazz-record, and Take Five was the most important reason for this. The song became a hit, even in the pop-charts. Nobody was expecting this, but it propelled Brubeck and the others to superstar-status, and even now, more than 40 years later, the 82-year old Brubeck almost can't play a single concert without playing Take Five. So obviously, the song must have something going for it. What is it that made Take Five such a hit? I'll try to explain that.
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