There's a strong European tradition in jazz 'Tiger Rag' is a Belgian march with a syncopated beat and you'll find the form of the march in many early rags and street music.'īrubeck's experiments developed further when a record dealer played him a copy of Denis Roosevelt's field recordings from the Belgian Congo. 'After giving complete credit to African-Americans for jazz, many musicians now feel that the New Orleans tradition was very much a mixture of Africa and Europe. The preoccupation with complex time signatures began very early 'I have always thought in terms of poly-rhythms and poly-tonality.' Rather than seeking to take jazz closer to the classical tradition, Brubeck insists that he was trying to recapture some of its African heritage. 'It had to be absolutely his way, while with Milhaud you were absolutely free.' A brief encounter with Arnold Schoenberg, by contrast, disillusioned Brubeck with the contemporary classical world. Milhaud - who thought jazz was the authentic American music - encouraged Brubeck to do whatever he wished. Through jazz I listened to classical composers but I never played the classical repertoire.' After service in the Second World War, he studied composition with Darius Milhaud at Mills College. 'My classical experience was so minimal that I'd call it nothing. Though born into an intensely musical Californian family - his mother, a piano teacher, had studied in London with Myra Hess - Brubeck always gravitated towards jazz.
Even Brubeck and Desmond's horn- rimmed glasses seemed to signify their status as jazz intellectuals.īrubeck is often perceived as someone who came to jazz from a background in classical music but this, he says, is a misunderstanding.
The album it came from, Time Out, became a coffee-table accessory long before Sgt Pepper, the abstract painting on the cover hinting at all kinds of high-toned delights within. Released as a UK single in October 1961, it made it to No 6 in the pop charts (it had reached No 25 in the US) and appeared on jukeboxes everywhere. When Paul Desmond's mentholated alto sax eases in to tootle the melody, the effect is magical, so easy on the ear that the listener isn't aware of the awkward 5/4 time-signature that distinguishes the rhythm.Īt the time 'Take Five' seemed like the epitome of cool sophistication it also attracted the biggest audience jazz has ever had. Joe Morello's gently rolling drums and ticking cymbals lead into a Brubeck piano figure repeated so often that today it sounds like a sample. 'Take Five' by the Dave Brubeck Quartet is the one jazz tune that everyone knows and loves, even people who can't stand jazz.
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