As I walked, I counted each step: “1-2-3-4-5, 1-2-3-4-5” until it became as easy as 1-4 for me. I spent about a week walking around counting in odd meters, since I knew we were going to play some of Dave’s tunes in 5/4 and 7/4 time. I remember once when I was preparing to play a few concerts with Chris Brubeck, who is one of Dave’s sons. It’s still not easy at first, but nowadays we learn about these time signatures earlier in our development so we start learning them sooner.Īfter a while, it can become second nature to improvise in 5/4 and 7/4. So “Take Five” presented a huge challenge. They weren’t used to playing in anything other than ¾ or 4/4 time. But not many musicians in the 1960s could play “Take Five” when it first came out. Nowadays, most jazz players become fairly fluent in playing “odd” meters like 5/4 and 7/4. Every aspect of the tune, from the opening rhythmic vamp to the main melody to the bridge, is very catchy. And, not only is it in 5/4 time, but more importantly in terms of it’s popularity, the tune is catchy. The thing that made “Take Five” so extraordinary was that it was the first widely-heard jazz piece that was in an unusual time signature. Everybody heard “Take Five,” which was on Brubeck’s Time Out album. This was at a time when jazz instrumentals could be heard on Top 40 radio, side-by-side with pop music. Brubeck’s music had an enormous impact on not just the jazz scene but on the overall musical world of the time. “Take Five” was composed in 1960 by Paul Desmond, who was the longtime alto saxophonist in The Dave Brubeck Quartet. The video below is a live version of one of my DB Quartet’s favorite songs, Blue Rondo à la Turk:Īnd of course, the very famous, Take Five:Ĭlick HERE to see more Icons from Guide To Help You Play Better Jazz Piano ![]() “ Dave Brubeck Quartet, 1956 by Marvin Koner “We don’t know the power that’s within our own bodies. It’s supposed to be the voice of freedom: Get out there and improvise, and take chances, and don’t be a perfectionist – leave that to the classical musicians.” “ The Dave Brubeck Quarted in Los Angeles “Jazz stands for freedom. (AP Photo, file) “What I want to happen is to be really creative, and to play something new in the improvisations, every time. FILE – This 1956 file photo shows American composer, pianist and jazz musician Dave Brubeck. ![]() (such as the one below)īy Verhoeff, Bert / Anefo, via Wikimedia CommonsIn a quote that can be applied to pretty much any creative endeavor, he says: “There’s a way of playing safe, there’s a way of using tricks and there’s the way I like to play which is dangerously where you’re going to take a chance on making mistakes in order to create something you haven’t created before.” Dave Brubeckīrubeck, born in 1920, is considered to be one of the foremost exponents of cool jazz and was a very successful musician, with a career spanning over six decades (almost as long as his marriage to Iola Brubeck, which lasted 70 years!). Even if you’re not a jazz fan, you still must’ve heard the famous “Take Five” (written by Dave’s long time musical partner, Paul Desmond for the Dave Brubeck Quartet) – at least in a remix if not the original version.īrubeck did not originally intend to become a musician, but took lessons from his mother, who wanted to become a concert pianist and taught piano for extra cash.Īlthough not necessarily known as a sartorial inspiration, Dave Brubeck was definitely a man of style and you can see him sport some really cool outfits in photographs. Today’s icons is the great jazz pianist and composer, Dave Brubeck.
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