From that opening snare and cymbal to the rising anticipation of that familiar piano riff, the jazz composition 'Take Five' by the Dave Brubeck Quartet is one of the most recognizable, enduring, and satisfying songs in the contemporary jazz catalog. Released on this day in 1959, 'Take Five' is a true classic, and it's a song even people who aren't jazz fans will find themselves tapping a foot or nodding a head along with the beat.
What is about this song that makes it so pleasing, so indelible, so timeless?
The composition of the song is a true masterpiece in its ease and complexity, and the story of how it came to be is equally satisfying.
Paul Desmond had written “Take Five” partly as a gesture to the quartet’s drummer, Joe Morello, who wanted to show off his newfound confidence playing in 5/4 time. Listening to “Time Out,” with Morello’s broad rolling beat propelling the band and his concise, dramatic solo serving as the track’s centerpiece, he is in the driver’s seat.But on June 25, the band tried nearly two-dozen times to get the song right, and still couldn’t. It was scrapped until a session the following week, when Morello apparently nailed it in just two takes. The “Time Outtakes” version is from June, and Morello’s part is far less developed; he taps out a sparse but somewhat obtrusive pattern on the ride cymbal, trying to perch on the end of beat one and the start of beat four. By July, he would figure out how do far more while sounding more efficient.
Desmond is credited with composing “Take Five,” but Brubeck says the tune was a group project with Desmond providing two main ideas. “Paul came in with two themes unrelated, and I put it together as a tune and made a form out of it,” Brubeck says. “He came in with two themes. He didn’t know which was the first or the second. He didn’t know they’d fit together. Dopa, depa, depa, dopa, lom, bom, bom, bom. That’s one theme. I’m the one that put them together and said, ‘We can make a tune out of this. . . . 3