It is a metrical scheme which suits Dave Brubeck down to the ground his solo here is one of the high spots. But before long it begins to vacillate between 3- and 4- time, and the pattern become clear: two bars of 3, followed by two bars of 4. Three To Get Ready promises, at first hearing, to be a simple 'Haydn-esque' waltz theme in C major. And contrary to any normal expectation - perhaps even the composer's! - Take Five really swings. It is interesting to notice how Joe Morello gradually releases himself from the rigidity of the 5/4 pulse, creating intricate and often startling counter-patterns over the piano figure. Conscious of how easy the listener can lose their way in a quintuple rhythm, Dave Brubeck plays a constant vamp figure throughout, maintaining it even under Joe Morello's drum solo. Take Five is a Paul Desmond composition in 5/4, one of the most defiant time-signatures in all music, for performer and listener alike. Strange Meadow Lark closes with a contribution from the wistful, dream-like saxophone of Paul Desmond. Dave Brubeck's performance throughout is simple and expressive, with fine support from Eugene Wright and Joe Morello. Strange Meadow Lark opens with Dave Brubeck playing rubato, though there are overtones of 3's and 4's, and the phrase length is an unusual 10 bars. The whole piece is in classical rondo form. Later the tension is dropped deliberately for Paul Desmond's re-entry, and for the alternate double-bars of 9- and 4- time which herald the returning theme. Dave Brubeck follows, with a characteristically neat transition into the heavy block chords which are a familiar facet of his style, and before long "Rondo à la Turk" is a stamping, shouting blues. When the gusty opening section gives way to a more familiar jazz beat, the three eighth-notes have become equivalent to one quarter-note, and an alternating 9/8 - 4/4 time leads to a fine solo by Paul Desmond. Blue Rondo à la Turkīlue Rondo à la Turk plunges straight into the most jazz-remote time signature, 9/8 - grouped not in the usual from (3-3-3) but in 2-2-2-3. Brubeck even uses, in the first number, a Turkish folk rhythm. Basically it shows the blending of three cultures: the formalism of classical Western music, the freedom of jazz improvisation, and the often complex pulse of African folk music. The outcome of his experiments is this album. But Dave has gone further, finding still more exotic time signatures, and even laying one rhythm in counterpoint over another. True, some musicians before him experimented with jazz in waltz time, notably Benny Carter and Max Roach. Born within earshot of the street parade, and with the stirring songs of the Civil War still echoing through the South, jazz music was bounded by the left-right, left-right of marching feet.ĭave Brubeck, pioneer already in so many other fields, is really the first to explore the uncharted seas of compound time. Yet rhythmically, jazz has not progressed. Duke Ellington gave it structure, and a wide palette of colors. Bird, Diz and Monk broadened its harmonic horizon. Men like Coleman Hawkins brought a new chromaticism to jazz. The New Orleans pioneers soon broke free of the tyranny imposed by the easy brass key of B-flat. Should some cool-minded Martian come to earth and check on the state of our music, he might play through 10,000 jazz records before he found one that wasn't in common 4/4 time.Ĭonsidering the emancipation of jazz in other ways, this is a sobering thought. Steve Race's Original 1959 LP Liner Notes (Copyright Columbia Records)
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