Take Five

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"Take Five" is a jazz standard composed by Paul Desmond and originally recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet for its 1959 album Time Out. Made at Columbia Records' 30th Street Studio in New York City on July 1, 1959, two years later it became an unlikely hit and the biggest-selling jazz single ever. Revived since in numerous movie and television soundtracks, it still receives significant radio airplay.

Video Take Five

Musical style

Written in the key of E? minor, the piece is known for its distinctive two-chord piano vamp; catchy blues-scale saxophone melody; inventive, jolting drum solo; and unusual quintuple (⁵
₄) time, from which its name is derived.

Brubeck drew inspiration for this style of music during a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour of Eurasia, where he observed a group of Turkish street musicians performing a traditional folk song with supposedly Bulgarian influences that was played in ⁹
₈ time (traditionally called "Bulgarian meter"), rarely used in Western music. After learning from native symphony musicians about the form, Brubeck was inspired to create an album that deviated from the usual ⁴
₄ time of jazz and experimented with the exotic styles he had experienced abroad.

Maps Take Five

Release

Although released as a single initially on September 21, 1959, "Take Five" fulfilled its chart potential only upon its reissue in May 1961, that year reaching No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 (October 9), No. 5 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart (October 23) and No. 6 on the UK Record Retailer chart (November 16). The single is a different recording than the LP version and omits most of the drum solo.

The piece was also chosen to promote Columbia's ill-fated attempt to introduce 33 ¹/₃ rpm stereo singles into the marketplace. Along with a unique stereo edit of "Blue Rondo à la Turk", it was pressed in small numbers as part of a promotional set of records sent to DJs in late 1959.

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Performances

The Dave Brubeck Quartet first played "Take Five" to a live audience at the Village Gate nightclub in New York City in 1959. Over the next 50 years the group re-recorded it many times, and often used it to close concerts: each member, upon completing his solo, would leave the stage as in Haydn's Farewell Symphony until only the drummer remained ("Take Five" having been written to feature Joe Morello's mastery of ⁵
₄ time). Some of the many cover versions include lyrics co-written by Dave Brubeck and his wife Iola, notably a 1961 live recording sung by Carmen McRae backed by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Al Jarreau performed an unusual scat singing version of the piece in Germany in 1976.

Desmond, upon his death in 1977, left the performance royalties for his compositions, including "Take Five", to the American Red Cross, which has since received combined royalties of approximately $100,000 a year.

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Personnel

• Dave Brubeck - piano
• Paul Desmond - alto saxophone
• Eugene Wright - bass
• Joe Morello - drums

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Structure

"Take Five" is played in E? minor in ⁵
₄ time (mainly 4 quarter notes and 2 sixteenth notes interrupted by rests). The piece can be decomposed into 10 distinct parts.

The highest note of a few motives is often accented (See "Section B" on the fifth and "Section solo 1").

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Cover versions

The piece has been a staple of jazz and pop music since it was first released. More than 40 cover versions have been recorded, as early as Carmen McRae's cover in 1961 on an album titled Take Five Live. Recordings have been released by artists known for playing jazz (Al Jarreau, George Benson), country (Chet Atkins), bluegrass (the String Cheese Incident) and pop (Stevie Wonder), as well as from artists in many different countries. In 1972, singer Don Partridge wrote lyrics to "Take Five" sung to the saxophone melody, and regularly performed the song in live stage performances and when street-busking throughout Europe. In 2011, a version by Pakistan's Sachal Studios Orchestra won widespread acclaim and charted highly on American and British jazz charts.

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In popular culture

• A version of the piece was the title theme in the video game Chessmaster for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
• The character John Constantine played a vinyl recording of the piece in the film Constantine.
• The song was used in 1998 film Pleasentville and the 1995 film Mighty Aphrodite
• The song is heavily sampled in "Don't Take Five (Take What You Want)" by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu.

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Notes

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References

Source of article : Wikipedia