An Experiment in Time
The story begins not in a smoke-filled New York jazz club, but on the streets of Turkey. In 1958, the U.S. State Department sponsored a goodwill tour for the Dave Brubeck Quartet across Eurasia. Brubeck, a pianist and composer with an insatiable curiosity,
was fascinated by the complex, unfamiliar rhythms he heard. One day, he heard street musicians playing a rhythm so unusual he had to ask what it was. Their reply stuck with him: "This rhythm is to us what the blues is to you." That rhythm was in 9/8 time, a beat divided into an unusual pattern of 2+2+2+3. For a jazz world almost entirely built on a standard 4/4 beat, it was revolutionary. Brubeck returned to America with a radical idea: to record an entire album of original compositions using these "odd" time signatures. He called the project Time Out.
The Song That Wasn't His
Here's where the headline gets complicated. The quote about a twenty-minute creation is part of the Brubeck legend, but the song most people associate with him, "Take Five," wasn't his. It was composed by his alto saxophonist, the famously witty and lyrical Paul Desmond. The band's drummer, Joe Morello, had been pestering Desmond to write a tune in 5/4 time, a rhythm he loved to solo in. Desmond, feeling challenged, came back with two melodic themes. Brubeck helped structure them into the final song, but the iconic melody and the initial concept were Desmond's. The title itself was a pun, referring to the 5/4 time signature and the common expression for taking a break. However, Brubeck did have his own moment of rapid inspiration. The Turkish rhythm he'd discovered became the foundation for "Blue Rondo à la Turk," the album's opening track, which masterfully blended the 9/8 Aksak rhythm with a classic 12-bar blues.
Years of Defending 'It'
The "years of defending it" wasn't about a single song but the entire Time Out project. When Brubeck presented the album to Columbia Records, the executives were horrified. They believed the rhythms were too complex for the public and that the album would be a commercial disaster. They reportedly told him it was unreleasable and that dancers couldn't dance to it. Even the album's iconic abstract cover art by S. Neil Fujita was a point of contention. Beyond the label, many jazz purists were already skeptical of Brubeck. They criticized his piano style as heavy-handed and academic, arguing he didn't "swing" in the traditional sense. The album's experimental nature only gave critics more ammunition, with some dismissing it as a gimmick. Brubeck also faced intense pushback on another front: his insistence on having an integrated band with Black bassist Eugene Wright, which led to canceled shows and confrontations in the segregated South.
How Jukeboxes and College Kids Forged a Classic
Despite the record label's fears, Time Out was released in 1959. It didn't find its audience in the expected places. Instead, it exploded on college campuses, where students were eager for music that broke the mold. Disc jockeys started playing tracks from the album, and against all odds, "Take Five" became a breakout hit after it was released as a single for jukeboxes. It climbed the pop charts, an almost unheard-of feat for an instrumental jazz track in an odd time signature. The song’s massive success forced the establishment to take a second look. Time Out went on to become the first jazz album to sell over a million copies, and "Take Five" became the best-selling jazz single of all time.
