The Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out [COLUMBIA/LEGACY]

Why you'll love it

Time Out was the first jazz album to sell a million copies, and "Take Five" was the first jazz single to do the same. It's in the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry, and it went double platinum.

This edition

• Columbia / Legacy reissue
• Original seven-song album, including Paul Desmond's "Take Five"

About the album

Dave Brubeck took his quartet into Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York in 1959 with a crazy idea: make a whole jazz record in time signatures nobody danced to. 9/8, 6/4, 5/4. His label thought he'd lost it.

He hadn't. Time Out peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart, became the first jazz album to sell a million copies, and Paul Desmond's "Take Five" became the first jazz single to do the same. Inspired by the rhythms Brubeck heard touring abroad, "Blue Rondo à la Turk" and "Take Five" are now about as familiar as jazz gets, and Joe Morello's drumming is a masterclass in making the strange feel effortless. If you own one jazz record, it's probably this one. If you don't, start here.

Also at Kops: more Dave Brubeck on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Columbia / Legacy (cat# 19802803211), a reissue of the 1959 album.