Time Out

Why it matters

Time Out proved a jazz record could swing hard in 5/4 and 9/8 and still sell to people who never counted a bar in their lives.

"Take Five" is the famous case, but "Blue Rondo a la Turk" is where the gamble shows its teeth: nine beats grouped in a lurching 2-2-2-3 pattern that Brubeck learned from Turkish street musicians, then dropped into a straight-ahead blues without warning. Paul Desmond's alto floats over these odd meters like the math never happened, dry and unhurried, which is exactly why the whole thing goes down so easy. What sounds like a novelty stunt is really a working band absorbing rhythms most American players had never tried to swing. Decades of odd-time experiments trace back to this cool, deliberate proof that difficult counting could still make a listener tap a foot.

Listen

Tracklist

1. 01Blue Rondo a la Turk6:44
2. 02St. Louis Blues (Live)7:55
3. 03Strange Meadow Lark7:22
4. 04Waltz Limp (Live)4:57
5. 05Take Five5:25
6. 06Since Love Had Its Way (Live)6:19
7. 07Three to Get Ready5:23
8. 08Koto Song (Live)6:00
9. 09Kathy's Waltz4:49
10. 10Pennies from Heaven (Live)4:50
11. 11Everybody's Jumpin'4:22
12. 12You Go to My Head (Live)9:37
13. 13Pick Up Sticks4:17
14. 14Blue Rondo a la Turk (Live)7:22
15. 15Take Five (Live)7:18