It took two years for the album and single to make a dent, but “Time Out” would be a number 1 album and “Take Five” placed at #5 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. There was no doubt in my mind that “Take Five” would be my choice. I’ve listened to the whole thing twice through today as I was preparing to write this. The last two numbers, “Everybody’s Jumping” and “Pick-Up Sticks” are in 6/4 time. Similarly, “Kathy’s Waltz” starts in 3/4 and then alternates between 3/4 and 4/4. Side two opens with “Three to Get Ready” which starts in 3/4 time and uses eighth notes to quicken the pace all within the confines of 3/4, until the solo then its two measures of 3/4 followed by two measures of 4/4. Anyway, upon his death, Paul Desmond willed the royalties of “Take Five” to the American Heart Association and it is estimated that it generates 100 grand a year for this charity. The signature number of the album is saxophonist Paul Desmond’s composition, “Take Five.” Done in a syncopated 5/4 time – which normally would be a straight forward 1-2-3-4-5 or 1-2-3 1-2 however, the syncopation in this number makes it 1-and and-2 3-4-5 – which is more like 1-2 1-2-3. The second cut, “Strange Meadow Lark” starts in a very lyrical freeform style with no real time signature and ends in straight forward 4/4 time.

Add to the fact that the solo breaks are in 4/4 time and then the song jumps back into 9/8 ala Brubeck. It is the rather unusual count of 12-12-12-123. Brubeck et al’s treatment of 9/8 isn’t your typical sets of triples: 123-123-123. If you pick up an old hymnal from the 1940s, a number of odd time signatures are used for some of the songs such as 6/4, 9/8, and 12/8. The album begins with “Blue Rondo Ala Turk” in an unusual version of 9/8 time.Īs a time signature, 9/8 is not that uncommon. What I didn’t realize that that songs on all this album were out of character even for jazz at the time because they deviated from common time that is so – er – common in all types of music.

Take five time signature