An Idea From Abroad
The story of Time Out begins not in a smoky New York jazz club, but on a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour of Eurasia. Brubeck was fascinated by the rhythms he encountered, particularly a group of Turkish street musicians playing a folk song in 9/8
time. For a Western musician steeped in the standard 4/4 time signature that dominated jazz and pop, it was a revelation. He returned to the States with a bold mission: to create a jazz album built entirely around these unconventional rhythms—what musicians call 'odd meters'. The goal was experimental, an attempt to push the boundaries of what jazz could be. It was a high-minded artistic endeavor, but it was also a commercial nightmare waiting to happen.
The Studio Says 'No'
When Brubeck and his quartet pitched the concept to Columbia Records, the executives were deeply skeptical. Their logic was simple: jazz was music for tapping your feet and, in some cases, dancing. Who could dance to songs in 5/4 or 9/8 time? They saw it as commercially toxic. The label's marketing team predicted a total flop. To make matters worse, Brubeck wanted to use a modern, abstract painting by S. Neil Fujita for the cover instead of a standard photo of the band, further bucking commercial wisdom. The project was seen as unmarketable from nearly every angle. For the business-minded executives, it was a creative folly with no audience.
A Strategic Compromise
Fortunately, Brubeck had a powerful ally in Columbia's president, Goddard Lieberson. Lieberson was more open to artistic risk, but he still had to answer to the bean counters. A deal was struck: Lieberson would greenlight the experimental album if Brubeck's quartet first recorded a more conventional record of tunes from the American South, which became the album Gone with the Wind. With the commercial obligation fulfilled, Brubeck got the green light for his passion project. The quartet—Brubeck on piano, Paul Desmond on alto saxophone, Eugene Wright on bass, and Joe Morello on drums—entered Columbia's 30th Street Studio in the summer of 1959 and got to work.
The Unlikely Hit Single
The sessions were challenging. The musicians, especially drummer Joe Morello, had to keep everyone locked into the strange new grooves. One tune in particular, written by saxophonist Paul Desmond, proved difficult. Based on a 5/4 rhythm, it was so tricky to nail down that the first attempt at recording it was abandoned after more than 20 failed takes. That song, playfully titled "Take Five"—a double entendre for the time signature and the slang for taking a break—was almost considered a throwaway by Desmond. Yet, when Columbia reluctantly released it as a single to promote the album, something astonishing happened. After a slow start, the song became a sleeper hit, climbing the pop charts in 1961. An instrumental jazz track in 5/4 time became a Top 40 sensation.
A Legacy in Odd Time
Time Out defied all commercial expectations. It became the first jazz album to sell over a million copies, eventually going double platinum. It peaked at number two on the Billboard album charts, an almost unheard-of achievement for a jazz record at the time. The album that was supposed to be a career misstep ended up being Brubeck’s defining statement. It proved that audiences were more adventurous than record labels believed and that artistic innovation could be commercially successful. More than that, it permanently expanded the rhythmic vocabulary of jazz and popular music, opening the door for generations of musicians to experiment and take risks of their own.
