Time Out (album) by The Dave Brubeck Quartet

I never thought I would enjoy an Jazz album for the same reason I do with Heavy Metal ones.
Excting, vibrant, sense of motion.

Awesome album.

Favorites: Blue Rondo A La Turk, Take Five.

The music is only part of the package.

"Theoretically it is as if Joe Morello's three beats had ceased to be the basic pulse, and had become triplets in a slow 4-beat blues -- though with Eugene Wright's 1-in-a-bar bass as the constant link between piano and drums. The listener who keeps abreast of the cross-rhythms here can congratulate themself on sharing with the Brubeck Quartet an enlightened rhythmic sense."

That's a quote from the original liner notes, that particular excerpt talking about the tune Kathy's Waltz. But it's the tone--intellectual, technical--that I want to point out. The experience of this album for the original listeners was inseparable from the liner notes, which taught listeners what they should be paying attention to--the time and meter within each song. Each track's metric approach was described, some more precisely than others but all of the descriptions talking about meter, eg for the first track it's "Blue Rondo à la Turk plunges straight into the most jazz-remote time signature, 9/8 - grouped not in the usual form (3-3-3) but in 2-2-2-3." It's inviting the listener to count along and participate in the intellectual side of music, the technical side.

In other words, it's not just saying "trust us, this is very technical, and you'd be impressed if you could understand." It's saying, "here's some technical information that you actually can understand and listen along with." And it promises the reward that you'll be able to "congratulate yourself" for your "enlightened" understanding.

Jazz liner notes were like this, verbose and intellectual, and sometimes they became hits along with the music on the vinyl. Like Kind Of Blue with its notes by Bill Evans, this album's liner notes were a huge part of the crossover appeal. It's no criticism of the music to point out the plain fact that for both albums, take away the liner notes, and they aren't crossover hits, no way. It's non-jazz listeners being instructed by the liner notes how to listen, and feeling clever and "enlightened" when they do so.

To get what this album was understood to be, you really do need to read the original liner notes (they're online) while listening, like 100% of the original listeners did.

From JoaoMoreira 05/27/2019 22:39

Innovation fighting conservatism. This is a transitional album.
Even though these are Brubeck's smart compositions, Paul Desmond on Sax Alto plays a major role.
Also this is a great recording with an overall great timbre.

A fusion of jazz and arithmetic.

From jdenny2018 05/17/2018 21:35

Peak cool jazz

This is THE jazz piano album. If you want to know more about this genre, I recommend starting here.

From JulianR 10/30/2017 20:34

Very pleasant jazz all the way through, though the drum solo on Take Five is both kinda bad and far too long

From patriciatoledo 08/01/2017 21:58

Abstract but solid, fast but accurate. Amazingly perfect in every aspect. It's everything you need from a jazz album.

Great jazz album, and this is coming from someone who doesnt listen to a lot of jazz. Miles and Coltrane mostly, but this is a jazz album that if introducing someone to it, would recommend. Very listenable the first time. Very nice album of the day surprise.