Time Out (album)

Time Out is a studio album by the American jazz group the Dave Brubeck Quartet, released in 1959 by Columbia Records. Recorded at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio in New York City, the album is noted for its pioneering use of unconventional time signatures for jazz, including,, and. Musically, it represents a subtle fusion of cool and West Coast influences.
Time Out peaked at number two on the [Billboard 200|Billboard albums chart] and became the first jazz album to sell one million copies. Its standout single, "Take Five", was also the first jazz single to sell over one million copies. By 1963, the album had sold more than 500,000 units, and in 2011 it was certified double platinum by the Recording [Industry Association of America], recognizing sales of over two million copies.
The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009, and in 2005 it was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Background

The album was intended as an experiment using musical styles Brubeck discovered abroad while on a United [States Department of State] sponsored tour of Eurasia, such as when he observed in Turkey a group of street musicians performing a traditional Turkish folk song that was played in time with subdivisions of, a rare meter for Western music.
On the condition that Brubeck's group first record Gone with [the Wind (album)|Gone with the Wind], Columbia president Goddard Lieberson took a chance to underwrite and release Time Out. The album produced a Top 40 hit single in "Take Five", composed by Paul Desmond.

Music

Although the theme of Time Out is non-common-time signatures, things are not quite so simple. "Blue Rondo à la Turk" starts in, with a typically Balkan subdivision into short and long beats as opposed to the more typical way of subdividing as, but the saxophone and piano solos are in. The title is a play on Mozart's "Rondo alla Turca" from his Piano Sonata No. 11, and reflects the fact that the band heard the rhythm while traveling in Turkey.
"Strange Meadow Lark" begins with a piano solo that exhibits no clear time signature, but then settles into a fairly ordinary swing once the rest of the group joins. "Take Five" is in throughout. According to Desmond, "It was never supposed to be a hit. It was supposed to be a Joe Morello drum solo." "Three to Get Ready" begins in waltz-time, after which it begins to alternate between two measures of and two of. "Kathy's Waltz", named after Brubeck's daughter Cathy but misspelled, starts in, and only later switches to double-waltz time before merging the two. "Everybody's Jumpin'" is mainly in a very flexible, while "Pick Up Sticks" firms that up into a clear and steady.
In an article for The Independent, Spencer Leigh speculated that "Kathy's Waltz" later inspired the Beatles song "All My Loving". The two songs share similar rhythmic endings to the last phrases of their melodies.

Legacy

The Dave Brubeck Quartet followed up Time Out with three more similarly named albums that also made use of uncommon time signatures: Time Further Out, Countdown—Time in Outer Space and Time Changes. Another album, Time In, which featured the quartet but was credited only to Brubeck, echoed the title of Time Out, although it made use of more conventional time signatures.
In 2005, Time Out was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. It was also listed that year in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 2009 the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Reissues

In 1997, the album was remastered for compact disc by Legacy Recordings.
In 2009, Legacy Recordings released a special three-disc 50th Anniversary Edition of Time Out. This edition offers a much higher dynamic range than the 1997 remaster. In addition to the complete album, the Legacy Edition includes a bonus disc featuring previously unreleased concert recordings of the same Brubeck Quartet from the 1961, 1963, and 1964 gatherings of Newport Jazz Festival. The Legacy Edition's third disc is a DVD featuring a 30-minute interview with Brubeck in 2003, and an interactive "piano lesson" where the viewer can toggle through four different camera angles of Brubeck performing a solo version of "Three to Get Ready".
In 2020, the album Time OutTakes was released, which was overseen by Brubeck's children and released on their own record label, Brubeck Editions. The album features alternate takes of "Blue Rondo a la Turk", "Strange Meadowlark", "Take Five", "Three To Get Ready" and "Kathy's Waltz", as well as two songs from the same sessions that had not been included on the album: a cover of "I'm In a Dancing Mood" and "Watusi Jam". The release was chosen as a Critics Pick by The New York Times.

Personnel

The Dave Brubeck Quartet

Production

Teo Macero—producer
Pat Maher—engineer
Fred Plaut—engineer
S. Neil Fujita—cover artwork
Seth Rothstein—project director
Russell Gloyd—reissue producer
Mark Wilder—reissue remastering
Cozbi Sanchez-Cabrera—reissue art direction
Jeff Powell—2024 vinyl reissue lacquer cutter

Charts

Album
Billboard

Year	Chart	Position
1961	Pop Albums	2

Time Out peaked at No. 2 the week of November 27, 1961 on the Billboard Monaural LPs chart, behind only Judy at Carnegie Hall by Judy Garland.
Singles
Billboard

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1961	"Take Five"	Adult Contemporary	5
1961	"Take Five"	Pop Singles	25

Sales and certifications
Time Out was the first jazz album to sell more than a million copies. The album was certified platinum in 1997 and double platinum in 2011. The single, "Take Five", also sold over a million.

Country	Certification	Sales
United States	2× Platinum	2,000,000+