Take Five

For other uses, see Take Five (disambiguation).

"Take Five"
Single by The Dave Brubeck Quartet
from the album Time Out
B-side	Blue Rondo à la Turk
Released	September 21, 1959 (1959-09-21); re-released May 22, 1961
Format	7" 45rpm
Recorded	July 1, 1959 CBS 30th Street Studio, New York
Genre	West Coast cool jazz
Length	2:55 (single version) 5:28 (album version)
Label	Columbia
Writer(s)	Paul Desmond (composer)
Producer(s)	Teo Macero
The Dave Brubeck Quartet singles chronology
"Jazz Impressions of Eurasia" (1958) "Take Five" (1959) "Camptown Races / Short'nin' Bread" (1959)

"Take Five" is a jazz piece composed by Paul Desmond and performed by The Dave Brubeck Quartet on their 1959 album Time Out. Recorded at Columbia Records' 30th Street Studio in New York City on July 1, 1959, fully two years later it became an unlikely hit and the biggest-selling jazz single ever. Included in numerous movie and television soundtracks, it still receives significant radio play. "Take Five" was for several years during the early 1960s the theme music for the NBC Today program, the opening bars being played half a dozen times or more each day.

Written in the key of E-flat minor, it is known for its distinctive two-chord piano vamp; catchy blues-scale saxophone melody; inventive, jolting drum solo; and use of the unusual quintuple (⁵
₄) time, from which its name is derived.

Brubeck drew inspiration for this style of music during a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour of Eurasia, where he observed a group of Turkish street musicians performing a traditional folk song with supposedly Bulgarian influences that was played in ⁹
₈ time (traditionally called "Bulgarian meter"), rarely used in Western music. After learning about the form from native symphony musicians, Brubeck was inspired to create an album that deviated from the usual ⁴
₄ time of jazz and experimented with the exotic styles he had experienced abroad.

Released as a single initially on September 21, 1959, the chart potential of "Take Five" was fulfilled only after its re-release in May 1961, reaching #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 9 that year and #5 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart three weeks later. The single is a different recording than the LP version and omits most of the drum solo.

"Take Five" was first played by The Dave Brubeck Quartet to a live audience at the Village Gate nightclub in New York City in 1959^{[exact date?]}. Over the next 50 years it was re-recorded many times, and was often used by the group to close concerts: each member would in turn, upon completing his solo, stop playing and leave the stage à la Haydn's Farewell Symphony until only the drummer remained (as "Take Five" had been written to feature Joe Morello's mastery of ⁵
₄ time). Some of the many cover versions feature lyrics co-written by Dave Brubeck and his wife Iola, including a 1961 live recording sung by Carmen McRae backed by the Quartet. Al Jarreau performed an unusual scat version of the song in Germany in 1976.

Desmond, upon his death in 1977, left the rights to royalties for performances of his compositions, including "Take Five", to the American Red Cross, which has since received combined royalties of approximately $100,000 per year.

Personnel

• Dave Brubeck – piano
• Paul Desmond – alto saxophone
• Eugene Wright – bass
• Joe Morello – drums

Cover versions

• 1961 – Carmen McRae (Take Five Live album)
• 1962 – Swedish singer Monica Zetterlund
• 1962 – French singer Richard Anthony ("Ne boude pas")
• 1963 – Antonio Diaz "Chocolate" Mena (Eso Es Latin Jazz ... Man!)
• 1963 – Davy Graham ("The Guitar Player")
• 1963 – Bill Justis ("Alley Cat/Green Onions; Bill Justis Plays 12 Big Instrumental Hits")
• 1965 – Marilyn Maye ("Meet Marvelous Marilyn Maye")
• 1966 - Persian musician & singer Farhad Mehrad
• 1967 – Trudy Pitts (Introducing The Fabulous Trudy Pitts)
• 1968 – Val Bennett (The Russians Are Coming) - reggae version of "Take Five"
• sometime before 1969 – Romanian singer Gigi Marga (retitled "Ritmuri noi" – "New rhythms", accompaniment by Cornel Popescu band)
• 1973 – Chet Atkins
• 1974 – Augustus Pablo ("Ital Dub") ("The Big Rip Off")
• 1977 – Al Jarreau (Look to the Rainbow)
• 1979 – George Benson (Take Five)
• 1983 – Quincy Jones (Take Five)
• 1985 – Tito Puente & George Shearing LP Mambo Diablo (Take Five) Grammy Winner
• 1986 – George Benson (Live from Montreux)
• 1987 – Lawndale ("Take Five" – medley with Whole Lotta Love). (Sasquatch Rock, SST Records)
• 1991 – Acoustic Alchemy (Reference Point)
• 1992 – Grover Washington, Jr. (Take Five (Take Another Five))
• 1994 – Jazz Jamaica All Stars (Take Five)
• 1996 – The Specials ("Take Five")
• 1996 – Moe Koffman ("Take Five") (Devil's Brew album)
• 1997 – Aziza Mustafa Zadeh ("Take Five") (Jazziza album)
• 1997 – Antonio Forcione & Sabina Sciubba ("Take Five") (Meet Me in London album)
• 1998 – Eric Singleton/'XL'
• 1999 – The String Cheese Incident (Carnival '99 album)
• 1999 – Electronica/New Age music group Dancing Fantasy (Dancing Fantasy)
• 2000  – King Tubby ("Take Five")
• 2002 – Rodrigo y Gabriela ("Take 5 (Foc-ing version 9)")
• 2002 – King Tubby ("Book of Numbers Dub"), a dub version released posthumously
• 2002 – Plankton, Swedish Instrumental Rock band (Plankton album)
• 2004 – Tahir Aydoğdu, Turkish Kanun Player (Hasret album)
• 2008 – Roger Kellaway (Live At The Jazz Standard)
• 2009 – Bugge Wesseltoft (Playing)
• 2010 – Stevie Wonder (at the North Sea Jazz Festival)
• 2011 – Eliane Elias, on the "Light My Fire" album
• 2011 – Sachal Studios Orchestra
• 2012 – Panzerballett (Tank Goodness)
• 2013 – Terry Disley "Brubeck vs. Guaraldi"
• 2013 – Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog (Your Turn)
• 2013 – Mark Winkler & Cheryl Bentyne ("Take Five"/"Drinks on the Patio") (West Coast Cool album)
• 2013 – Michel Camilo ("What's Up?")
• 2014 – Tak Matsumoto ("Take 5", New Horizon)