Day 173: The Dave Brubeck Quartet – Time Out
Today I wanted to kill two birds with one stone and continue my jazz education while I’m washing my hair, so I thought I’d go for a classic album with probably the most well-known jazz track of all time. Today’s album is Dave Brubeck’s Time Out.
Album cover courtesy of Columbia Records
Released in 1959, Time Out is one of the highest-selling jazz album, with the song “Take Five” being instantly recognisable even by people who aren’t typically into jazz. The album mixes West Coast jazz with cool jazz and features Brubeck’s pioneering unusual time signatures, which were inspired by Brubeck’s travels when he was in the army, hearing music in Turkey that had a time signature that was unusual to Western music at the time.
It was the first jazz album ever to sell a million copies, and you can really hear why it’s such a high seller. It’s definitely accessible, but I’d be a massive hypocrite if I even remotely thought that was a bad thing. I didn’t grow up in a jazz household, nor did I ever spend time studying jazz to seem smarter than I am at parties. I’m very much of the “art is for everyone”-school of thought, but somehow the intimidating reputation of jazz did manage to keep me away – until now, sort of.
When it comes to music, there aren’t too many circumstances where you’d feel like you can’t talk about anything related to a genre unless you’re educated in the technical side of things, but jazz is that rare occasion. Even the snobbier genres like classical or metal don’t have such a big barrier to entry. But imagine my surprise when I started listening and found out that jazz is actually just music, so I’m just going to talk about it. I am peasant, hear me roar.
But to be fair, roar is maybe a bit excessive when what I’m going to say is very base level and not very roary at all. I may not be knowledgeable about it, but I know what I like and I do like this. I noticed the similarities to classical music on the album, especially on “Three to Get Ready”, which makes sense as Brubeck was classically trained pianist. That and the use of the uncommon time signatures are probably the most defining elements of this album.
Maybe the thing that I like the most about jazz is that when it’s very out there, it quiets down my brain a bit. This was a bit too mellow to scratch that itch, but it’s great music to have on when you’re noodling around. I’ve been in the market for something good to listen to when doing tasks that are a bit less brain-intensive but doesn’t require too much focus, and this might be along the right lines. It’s a bit like a brain spa. I like listening to it, it’s an 8.5/10.