Time Out

Still continuing with the theme started with 1959: The Year that Changed Jazz, we've passed a three part series about Kind of Blue, one of the game changing albums (and the all time best selling jazz album), to arrive at the all time second best selling jazz album: Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

What makes this album so important? Brubeck abandoned 4/4 time and made an album employing a number of different time signatures. Two highly recognizable tracks are Take Five in 5/4 time and Blue Rondo a la Turk in 9/8. Here those songs are for the five people on the planet who has not yet heard them:

Blue Rondo a la Turk is 2+2+2+3 if you are mentally trying to fit it into 3+3+3. Also, Paul Desmond's solo is in 4/4. Today we can figure this out, but I can assure you this was heady stuff in 1959. Among the reasons is it is one thing to compose something in 9/8 (or 5/4, or any of the non-standard time signatures on the album), then go into a studio and play it. A lot of jazz musicians had the chops to do that. However, try improvising on 9/8! That is where this album shook things up.

How about influence? It goes without saying that every jazz musician was influenced. But listen to Kathy's Waltz, then listen to the Beatle' All My Loving'. Hmmmmm, right? This 'gotcha' moment was spotted by Spencer Leigh and documented in his July 8, 2010 article in The Independent titled When it comes to songwriting, there's a fine line between inspiration and plagiarism.

Let's play Kathy's Waltz:

If you are wondering which track is my favorite, it's:

I discussed the Quartet, Joe Morello and Joe Dodge (Morello's predecessor) in this April 11, 2010 post. That is a good starting point for digging beyond this album. But for now I am going to continue on topic and provide this clip of Dave Brubeck discussing Time Out:

Here is one final link regarding Dave Brubeck and the album (from the Library of Congress): Time Out for Dave Brubeck. The closing two videos are the Quartet in action - playing and improvising in off time signatures. Enjoy:

If you do not own the album I recommend going first class and getting Time Out Legacy Edition, which includes two CDs and a DVD. My next post will discuss the third of the four albums: Ah Um by Charles Mingus.

Kind of Blue: Part 3

This is the final post in the three part-series on Kind of Blue. Wrapping up, I wanted to provide information about Miles himself. While Gil Evans and the unrelated pianist, Bill Evans, made significant contributions to the album, it is Miles' baby. For the truly diligent I suggest reading his Miles autobiography.

If your interest does not extend to digging into Miles at that level, this video may be a better choice:

Miles Davis Cool Jazz Sound

Since this blog is all about Music for Drummers, it is appropriate to shine a bright light on Jimmy Cobb. I think that had Miles' first and second choices - Philly Joe or Art Taylor - been in the drum chair the album would have been less magical. Both Jones and Taylor were highly regarded and influential drummers. In fact, they were probably the best drummers during that era. Both were also highly prolific. If you pick up jazz albums from the 50s and 60s and read the credits, chances are either Philly Joe or Art Taylor was the drummer.

The one thing that Cobb brought to the session that set him apart was his amazing cymbal work. In my opinion he had a touch that neither Philly Joe or Art had on cymbals. Moreover, I think Cobb's drumming was a perfect complement to Evans' piano. While Taylor could have connected to Evans at a very subtle level, I an not convinced that Philly Joe would have. Again, that is just my opinion and I could be completely wrong.

A great deal about Jimmy is revealed in this interview conducted by Marc Myers on JazzWax. If you've never been to Marc's site I recommend a visit (and bookmark it too!) The remaining parts of the interview are: Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

In my next post I'll discuss the second best selling album from 1959, the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out.

Kind of Blue: Part 2

In my last post I introduced Miles Davis' seminal album, Kind of Blue, and provided some back ground regarding how the album came to be made and why it was (and remains) so important. In this post I am going to provide material that will give a more in-depth analysis of the album.

A good starting place is Ashly Kahn's Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece. Kahn has methodically dissected not only the album, but the entire session. If the book piques your interest, but you want more information about it, this interview of the author by Jerry Jazz Musician may answer any questions you may have about the book. Another fascinating article giving some background on the book is Kahn's Jazz Times article, Kind of Blue Clues.

If you have no time or patience for reading the book, you can get a good sense of the session from this excellent radio interview:

Another perspective is given in this talk by bassist Marcus Miller, who thoroughly digs into parts of the album. Miller's [musical] relationship to Miles, as well as his blood relationship with Wynton Kelly (pianist on the Freddie Freeloader track) is also revealed in this presentation:

I'll wrap this up in my next post, which will provide background on Miles, plus additional information about Jimmy Cobb who was the drummer on the album.